Transcription
So, I figure if by now you're watching this video, it's because you know what happened. I interviewed the creator of Gravity Falls himself, Alex Hirsch. It was, without a doubt, one of the greatest and most fun experiences I've ever been able to accomplish in my time as a Gravity Falls fan. Having the chance to do this alone was insane, and even now, almost a year after it actually happened, it still feels unreal that it did.
This video is going to be a behind-the-scenes look at how this interview even ended up happening. I'll be going over how Alex and I got in touch, how the interview was planned, how me and Hana both worked together in getting it done, the ups and downs that happened leading to it and after, the interview experience itself, why it took so long to release it, and just overall go over the comments and receptions we've gotten for it, both good and bad, and a little retrospective overall.
Plus, I have a very special guest who will be helping me out in this video: The Legend themselves, Hana.
For those who don't know me, my name is Huna. I run the YouTube channel Huna Hyper Fixates.
So, let's start from the very beginning. How the heck did Alex H and I get in [Music] touch?
Well, the story begins back in February of 2023. Yes, that long ago. But in truth, it started way back when I joined the fandom. Ever since I began my journey in the GF fandom, the idea of meeting Alex Hirsch was always a dream, and I was not the only one. I'm sure every GF fan who's been around long enough at some point has had that wish to meet Alex Hirsch. I mean, I remember back in my GF Amino days talking about how cool it would be and seeing people, other people, share their dreams of it. But for the longest time, the most interaction I ever had from Alex was something probably a lot of other fans can relate to: him liking a tweet or replying to something on Twitter, and that was about it.
I watched other fans interview Alex, from old interviews like the GF Gossiper podcast to my friends at the Mystery Shack Look Back podcast interview him about Cipher Hunt. So many amazing interviews! And while it was always a dream, I knew I probably never had my shot of that, right?
Well, the day was February 1st, 2023, and I remember it like yesterday. I was at work. I think I was working on organizing catering for a major corporate event that my boss was hosting. That was actually pretty fun, given everyone loved what I managed to organize for that. But anyways, I think I was waiting to hear back in regards to that and just dead scrolling Twitter. I made a couple of tweets and then got called to a meeting. After I got back, it was lunchtime, so I decided to quickly check my socials before going to lunch, 'cause I didn't want to spend my time replying to tweets. I noticed I had a DM, which wasn't a surprise, as I'd often get at least two or three per day. I naturally checked those last, so I eventually got to it.
And to say my heart skipped a beat when I saw who it was would be an understatement. It was Alex Hirsch, the creator of Gravity Falls, the show I'd been a huge fan of for years now, had just DMed me. And I knew it was him 'cause this is before Elon stupidly removed the old verified check marks, so I could see that it still had it. It was him; it was not fake.
Now, I cannot actually tell you exactly what Alex messaged me, as he asked it remain between us. But all I will say is that Alex gave me an open invitation to touch base with him again at any point. I thanked him and everything, and then went about my day. But I was now in this weird situation where I had just spoken to Alex Hirsch and couldn't tell anyone.
As February turned into March and then April, I began thinking about getting in touch with Alex again, as I wanted to cash in that open invitation he left, so to speak. I also figured that this might be my one and only chance to interview him. I had a very small chance to fulfill my big dream. This is that dream that you'd never expect to fulfill, but when given the chance, you do anything to make sure you can at least say you tried to get it done.
So, come May, I messaged Alex and asked if he would be down to talk. A few days later, he got back, and we had a pretty in-depth conversation. Again, I cannot share exactly what we talked about, as it's pretty top secret, but I can show you this. Alex mentioned he knew a bit about my work in the fandom and responded with this about it.
Now, I've been sent many thank yous and wholesome messages by so many fans and people, and they mean the world. They're a huge part about why I keep going with making these videos, as that kindness makes my day and all of this worth it. But to have gotten this from the creator of Gravity Falls himself, the man whose show made all of this possible in the first place, yeah, that, that meant a lot. That meant so, so much.
I am truly grateful for all of this and to have the chance to do what I do, and to not only know fellow fans but Alex Hirsch himself is grateful for it. It, it, it really meant a lot, and something at the time I, I'd really needed to hear after the mental health scape I've been through over the past year and over overall so far this decade. The 2020s haven't been the Roaring '20s, as I'm sure you all know.
But anyways, um, we kept talking, and in the midst of it all, I decided it was now or never. I asked Alex if he would be down to do an interview. Be it a yes or a no, I'd be able to at least say I tried. And of course, as we all know how the story ends, because here we are right now talking about it, he said yes. Specifically, he said he'd reach back in a month, and we'd get, be able to set it all up.
But I now had it. I now had a month to plan out an interview with Alex H, come up with questions, and figure out how I'd even do this to begin with. Now, I had been secretly making posts hinting about this by asking fans what they'd ask Alex if they had the chance to interview him, mainly to try and find questions to ask. I obviously couldn't tell exactly what I was doing for two reasons.
First, I didn't want to because I knew people would start begging me to ask Alex one thing or another, and then I'd hate for it if I didn't, or beg me to send him a link to their Dipcifica or one Dip fanfic or something, and I was not in the mood to be the messenger of that. And secondly, because this interview was not yet confirmed to happen, I did not want to give people false hopes only to not deliver on it. I mean, I didn't want to pull the Alex Hirsch interview equivalent of DashCon or Fyre Festival, am I right?
So I began to write questions, many based on stuff about GF that I was personally curious about and had been long wanting to know the answer to, as well as long-standing fandom questions I knew were pretty popular. Two rules I did set for myself were no shipping questions and no Bill Cipher questions. My reasoning was that those questions are ones that Alex probably is tired of hearing and being asked about, and the last thing I wanted was to ask him that in the precious time I had with him. I also didn't want my interview to be remembered for just the one Bill or Dipcifica question I asked Alex and what he said about it. I wanted this interview to have my own unique mark on it, so to speak.
Anyways, as I got my questions planned, I received a message for a collab offer from a fellow Gravity Falls fan and YouTuber, and one whose videos I was really starting to enjoy at the time. You might know them. They are, of course, my friend and fellow co-host on this project, Hana. And I think I'll let them tell you the story of how that all went down.
"So, I believe that you, that GFN, um, I believe that that GFN and I both got in contact in the Mystery Shack Look Back server. Uh, I think we were both keeping up with that project. It was really cool, just really awesome to see this podcast that eventually got an interview with Alex Hirsch, and, you know, we were with the rest of the fandom, uh, really excited to see what came out of that.
We eventually started chatting in DMs just about various projects we were working on, both being Gravity Falls YouTubers. Uh, I think we, like, you know, exchanged, um, notes and ideas. Um, we talked about maybe one day doing a collab or something. I think that GFan voiced a line in one of my video essays. But essentially, that GFan at some point let it slip to me, um, that he was going to be interviewing Alex Hirsch and asked me what kinds of questions I would want to ask. And I then promptly wrote up a list of about 42 questions, many of which were questions that that GFan wouldn't have thought of himself because we just run in completely different fandom circles.
And upon seeing this huge list of questions, GFan just went, 'Actually, do you want to just like do the interview with me?' And of course, I agreed, uh, because it was the opportunity of a lifetime, uh, and I could not thank HK enough. Honestly, that was such a cool opportunity, such a cool experience. Um, every step of it was great."
So yeah, Hana became my co-host in this project because I was just blown away by the questions they had. They were a mix of critical questions, in-depth, and overall unique. And like I said above, that was the thing I was hoping for with this project: uniqueness. Every question I'd been sent was unlike any I'd seen from the fandom in my time, and it's pretty clear that too, due to the fact that we both hail from different sides of the fandom. Hana is a more Tumblr GF fan and a longtime member of the fandom, while I'm more of a newer XGF Amino, Reddit, Twitter GFN, and Twitter. And those both sides of the fandom are very different, to say the least.
"The side of a fandom that I tend to run in is very Tumblr-centric. Uh, I never really found my footing in the Twitter side, in the Reddit side. I never really touched the Gravity Falls Amino side of the fandom. Uh, but circles I run in tend to be very focused on Stan and Ford, um, their life experiences and how that impacted their behavior as they got older, a lot of psychoanalyzing these characters, um, but especially really relating to them. Uh, I think the fandom, um, that I tend to run with tends to be a bit older. I think also because we're on Tumblr, not only because of that, but it's essentially my side of the fandom tends to skew very LGBTQ+ and while there is a lot of LGBTQ+ headcanons going on there, it's a lot of relating to the characters and particularly Stanford Pines in that sense.
So yeah, that's the kind of fandom I run in. We're older, we're more focused on the Stans, focused on their childhood, focused on their shared trauma and their exclusive trauma, and, um, obviously, you know, we just really love them. Uh, not to say that we don't love Dipper and Mabel, though. Uh, I am on the Mabel Pines Defense Squad until the day I die."
I knew I couldn't do Hana's questions justice on my own, so I decided, why not share the