Interview With Noel Gugliemi For ‘Time Of Death’

Will Wernick’s new film, Time of Death, is a mystery wrapped in a ghost story, and it’s creepy as hell. Set in a crumbling prison, it’s sometimes hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t.

When a prisoner vanishes without a trace, Detective Frank Morley is sent to a decaying prison on the verge of shutdown. What begins as a routine investigation quickly spirals into a dangerous search for answers.

To celebrate the film’s release, I chatted with star Noel Gugliemi (Fast & Furious) about playing a prison guard, playing a character named Hector in almost every movie, his work in motivational speaking, and more!

PopHorror: I’m excited to talk about Time of Death with you today.

Noel Gugliemi: Cool, cool.

PopHorror: What intrigued you about the script and made you want to be a part of the project?

Noel Gugliemi: I like doing out of the box stuff. I was locked up before, did some time, so a lot of things related also as well, but to be on the other side as a prison guard? I was like, alright, let’s give it a go! Now this time I’m not playing the prisoner, I get to be the prison guard that actually watches the prisoners so everyone’s hooked up now! Everyone’s free! Everyone’s innocent! I’m just letting them all out! No, I’m playing. Long story short, I just love doing out of the box stuff and different scripts that are unusual from other movies that I usually typically do, so that’s one of the things that grabbed me. And just the story, the thrill of the suspense, the mystery of it, and just being a part of it too with a lot of great people that were involved. It was just an awesome experience. I just love doing out of the box stuff. When you’re in a quote unquote acting career, you want to be like Baskin Robbins. You want to be 31 flavors. I was like, you know what? I read it, I liked it, let’s do it! I was glad to be a part of it.

PopHorror: What an amazing cast you got to work with too. 

Noel Gugliemi: Yeah, it’s always a blessing when you get to work with different people that you’ve never worked with before from so many different projects and just see all the personalities of everyone and how they bring the characters to life. That’s what I love about my job. It’s never the same thing. It’s always in a different place with different people. It’s really like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get, you never know what you’re walking into. You just walk into it, prepare yourself, get ready and let’s go.

PopHorror: In researching for our chat today, I came across the “Hector Cinematic Universe,” which fans love that you are playing another character named Hector. It seems to follow you around quite a bit. Did the director, Will Wernick, intentionally write the character of Hector Ramos as an Easter egg to your career, or did you pitch the name yourself?

Noel Gugliemi: I pitched the name myself. I asked them if I could be Hector in this movie because the “Hector Universe,” and I’ll give you the short story on that, “Hollyhood” only knows two names for Mexican people, Hector and Carlos, because every time I’ve ever got a script, I kid you not, 90% of the time – I can’t even make this stuff up – it was always Hector or Carlos. It got so bad so my manager would call me up and be like, “You’re not going to believe this. Another script for Hector.” I’m like, “Oh my god, are you kidding me?” So, long story short, it started off as a coincidence thing but I just made it a thing. I said, “You know what? Let’s just ride this roller coaster out.” You know how Arnold Schwarzenegger has this “I’ll be back” and that’s his little stamp? in every movie he does, he says “I’ll be back.” Well, my little stamp is Hector in every movie. I’ve been the first actor to break that chain, I’ve been the first actor to do that. There hasn’t been any other actor out there who’s been Hector in almost every project, or the same name in every project. I just kept it going. I asked Will if I could be Hector in this movie and now, anytime I get a part in a movie, television show, commercial, whatever it is, I say, “Hey, can I be Hector in this upcoming project?” and 95% of the time they say yes.

PopHorror: What was the name he originally had on it?

Noel Gugliemi: I don’t even remember now to be honest with you. I couldn’t even tell you because it was so long ago. I think we shot this two, three years ago, somewhere in that neighborhood. I don’t even remember. I just know that every script I get now my manager knows, she doesn’t even run it by me anymore because she already knows that that’s what we’re going to do, ask and hope for. Before I even got the script, she said, “Hey, can he be Hector in this film?” They said yes, and then I think they changed the name to Hector on the script and sent it over and I read it as Hector.

PopHorror: That’s awesome! 

Noel Gugliemi: I’m starting to think it’s my real name. I’m about to go to the DMV and change it, make it my middle name or something.

PopHorror: There are whole Reddit threads on this.

Noel Gugliemi: I was on TMZ for it. It’s been all over the place. It’s on Complex, Reddit it’s been on already four times. It’s pretty wild. I like it because no other actor’s ever, ever done that in their life so that’s kind of my global… Now they’ve got to make a section for awards for that and I’d definitely win that one.

PopHorror: You’ve mentioned that you’d be dead or in jail if acting hadn’t saved you. How does that reality check influence your current work in motivational speaking?

Noel Gugliemi: I was homeless at the time, before acting kicked off. I was living the street life and I was out there doing some dirt because when you’re homeless and you’ve got no money, you do what you’ve got to do to live and so I did it. I was involved in a crime life and just doing things to try and survive so I could eat and have a roof over my head, and then acting kicked off and I never in my life made my first, biggest, fattest check legitimately ever in my life. That’s when I did Fast & Furious. When I did Fast & Furious, I made my first biggest, fattest check and I was like, I don’t need to do crime life anymore and literally the crime life in one area stopped. It was funny, before Fast & Furious, I used to be the biggest thief ever. I was the thief from hell. I robbed houses, I would steal from liquor stores, I would steal a candy bar to eat, whatever. A pack of gum that was 25 cents. I was the biggest thief ever, but it was crazy. I did Fast & Furious, I never stole again in my life because now I have so much money I was able to afford things. I couldn’t even steal a 25-cent pack of gum because I had the money to pay for it and that’s one example of how quick my crime life stopped overnight. It’s funny, I’ll give you a quick true story of when I knew now my life is going to change and this is how different things work. Before acting I worked a bunch of 9-5 jobs. I worked at Toys “R” Us, KB Toy Store, Olive Garden, Denny’s, Walmart, Kmart. I worked at a place called Pizza Mania and used to deliver pizza. I did it all; I was a busboy. I had so many 9-5 jobs and I used to go to the same bank for eight years. Same bank for eight years. All of a sudden, I do Fast & Furious, I’m going in to deposit my check, and I’ll never forget this like it was yesterday. The girl at the counter goes, “Do you have a financial advisor?” I said no, she goes, “You should go in the back and talk to a financial advisor.” Alright, so I go back there, manager of the bank comes over and says, “Hey, I want to introduce myself. I’m the manager of the bank. I’m the head person here; I just want to give you some options. By the way, this is the assistant manager,” and they introduced me to two people and they did this whole spiel for like 15 minutes. And I go, “All you guys are funny. You know I’ve been coming to this bank for eight years and not once ever have any of you come around the back and say what’s up, say hello, say how you doing, talk to me. You’ve never offered me this before but all of a sudden, I’m depositing a fat check and now you all want to come out of the woodwork and say what’s up?” I said, “F all you fake mothereffers!” I told them all to their face, “You guys couldn’t be more faker than a three dollar bill.” I was like, “Just deposit my check and I’m out of here. You guys are all sad.” I told them off. I went off. I got upset because of how fake they were and acting how they were so wholesome and nice was just pathetic. Then I left the bank and I was like, so that’s how the world works. Acting saved my life in a sense. It took me out of the street life. I’m very thankful for acting for how it changed my life and what it took me out of and what it helped me be capable of doing some things that I wasn’t really able to do before, so yeah, acting helped me in a lot of different ways. It also corrupted me in a lot of different ways, but that was in my younger years when I was a little more immature and wilder. I know you’re looking at me thinking I’m 28 or 29, but I’m 52 so I’m old now. I’m a boring old guy. Netflix and chill.

PopHorror: I’m also old and boring so I get it. Your experience at the bank should have been your first indication that your life was changing, it was never going to be the same, and you’re in the big leagues now.

Noel Gugliemi: That’s what it did, that’s exactly what I’m saying. It was just funny to see how people really are, and it was a big wake up call. The bottom line truthfully is that you don’t know things until you know things and that’s just life experience. I always say no one is stupid. People can be ignorant, but no one is stupid. Once you know right from wrong and you still do wrong, now you’re stupid. I didn’t know until I knew.

PopHorror: That’s really inspirational and I can see why you do motivational speaking. You’ve got a story to tell.

Noel Gugliemi: To get into that, acting turned my life around in a lot of different ways and that’s why I do motivational speaking because I just want to help people in life and let them know that there’s a different path you could be on than maybe the one you’re on right now. If my life and mistakes can help someone move forward better, then I’m all for it. I get more satisfaction now, honestly, out of helping people than doing a movie. The movie creates the platform but what I understand, and I’m talking individually, is that my platform is not for me, it’s for Him, for God, Jesus Christ. I use my platform for Him, so that’s why I love to motivate, encourage, and inspire people that there’s some paths in your life that you don’t need to take. There’s always a way out when someone thinks there’s not a way out.

PopHorror: I have just one last question for you. What’s your favorite scary movie?

Noel Gugliemi: You know what’s funny? I started off as a Freddy Krueger fan. I was so diehard Nightmare on Elm Street but once Freddy Krueger started getting comical and too funny, he got kind of wack for me, so I switched over to Michael Myers, so Michael Myers is my favorite. Not the later Michael Myers stuff because it kind of corny and wack in my opinion, but Michael Myers is my dude. I’m a hardcore horror fan but no movie has ever, ever scared me except one. There’s only one horror movie, I kid you not, The Exorcist was like a comedy to me, I watch all these movies and I just don’t get scared. I’m not that guy. I’m not really scared easily, but there’s only one movie ever that scared me and that was Poltergeist II. The old man who’s like, “Let me in!” That guy freaked me out.

Thank you so much to Noel for taking the time to chat with us. Time of Death is on VOD now!