#An Interview with Alex Hirsch

[hkthatgffan]

There isn't a Dipper and Mabel without them and without them, there isn't a Gravity Falls. A very happy 40th birthday to Alex and Ariel Hirsch. May it be another amazing one. 🎂

Fun fact: Alex was Twin B!

[hkthatgffan]

I think it's time we update this for the current wave of Gravity Falls content ;)

[socvincjpeg]

Okay so. Hirsch did an interview 4 months ago and a lot of stuff he said there REALLY puts into context things that happen in the book of bill—especially this one clip in particular. (Here’s the link if anyone who hasnt yet wants to watch the whole thing on their own)

TRANSCRIPT:

ALEX HIRSCH: —and also, he’s so, y’know, bill’s a trillion years old, so its like Ford disappearing for 30 years is like somebody saying they’re ghosting you and then texting you the next weekend.

INTERVIEWER: (laughing) got it.

AlEX HIRSCH: [slight Bill impression] "Ford’s gonna be back. Oh, oh, oh, we had such a big fight, Ford’s so mad at me, Oh,—" [normal voice] y’know, [continuing impression] "Our will-they-won’t-they-take-over-the-universe relationship— he’s gonna march off and huff, but he’ll be back." Because where is Ford gonna find anyone else in the multiverse who strokes his ego as well as Bill does? Is there anyone else who’s going to make Ford feel as important as Bill? No, of course not. Ford needs validation. And so Bill knows Ford is going to be back eventually.

[END TRANSCRIPT]

This is just like?? Insane?? Like holy shit, he directly quoted the relationship line that would end up being in the book but completely recontextualizes it from a perspective that isn’t Bills. It basically confirms almost every 2018 shipper’s headcanon, which is also really funny. This could also serve as potential setup for any future projects? Like, extremely extremely doubtful it will ever be a season 3, but the way Hirsch speaks about their dynamic is so interesting.

[videogamelover99]

Alex Hirsch going "I'd be interested in exploring Bill confronting all of his lies" during the Seattle book signing and him going "This is my child. Please be kind to him. He doesn't deserve it though." during the San Diego book signing...

It makes me incredibly happy that he's just as obsessed with this problem triangle as we are.

[gfanlocalcryptid]

IF ONLY ICARUS COULD SEE ME NOW

[monstrousmuse]

These are some of my favourite excerpts from the recent Alex Hirsch interview. They are…well…

“Whatever connection that Bill was able to create with Ford where he was able to ring him up at a moment’s notice - pop up in his dream, pop up in his thoughts, possess him, to take over his body to do work - whatever that connection was, was somehow severed or nullified by Ford’s falling into the Nightmare Realm and getting lost.”

…

“Ford disappearing for thirty years is like somebody saying they’re ghosting you and then texting you the next weekend.”

…

“‘Ford’s gonna be back. (…) Oh, we had such a big fight. Oh, Ford’s so mad at me, oohhh…’ (…) A will-they-won’t-they take over the universe relationship. He’s gonna-he’s gonna march off in a huff and he’ll be back, ‘cause we’re- is Ford gonna find anyone else in the Multiverse that strokes his ego as well as Bill does? Is there anybody else that’s gonna make Ford feel aa important as Bill- no, of course not. Ford needs validation, and so Bill knows Ford’s gonna be back eventually. (…) I don’t think that hunt was too aggressive, between Bill and Ford.”

-Alex Hirsch, 2023

…

part two

[stephreynaart]

THANK YOU to @hkthatgffan and @fordtato for including me in on this awesome project! It was lots of fun to doodle up the guy!

It has been my favorite thing!

P1 https://youtu.be/KwmqxAdxUKg?si=xlo9nFzuvgAP4DiZ

P2 https://youtu.be/Slg-lwF23hU?si=t5Iz9iZ8yis47pRB

[thebookofbill]

I can’t fucking believe this. “I have a very important relationship in my life with Bill” “Is Ford gonna find anyone else in the multiverse that strokes his ego as well as me?” “Our will-they-or-won’t-they-take-over-the-universe relationship” Bill and Ford I know what you are

[hkthatgffan]

This is why I am so happy to have had Hana with me on this project. They brought to the table those critical questions that I feel Alex is ready to be asked and give an answer to. We both are fans of the show and love Alex, but we also wanted to touch base on critical stuff; be it Grenda for Hana or for me the Mabel topic given that's something I've been deep into the fandom rabbit hole on.

Even if others may not have been fans of such questions being asked, I'll put it this way...

A question like this has more value to many than any question about a ship ever would have! And for those who wanted an answer for a question such as Grenda, the value of being able to have Alex give an answer to that is greater than anything that could've been if we instead asked Alex questions more mainstream fans may wanna know, like x ship or y Bill is alive theory.

If I was to do an interview with Alex or another GF crew member again and needed a co-host, without a second thought I'd ask Hana!!

No other fan I know would've brought such a question to the table and I am happy they did.

I've seen comments from a few people bothered by me asking Alex Hirsch about transphobia in Grenda's writing during the interview, and I'm not really sure how to feel about it. I never claimed to speak for 100% of trans people (in fact I stated the exact opposite in the video) but we can't deny that there are parts of Grenda's writing (the "then my voice changed" joke comes to mind, among others) that are messy.

Even if there are many trans people who love Grenda (and who wouldn't change a thing), there are still many who were hurt about her characteristics often being the butt of the joke. Conversations about Grenda have been happening within the fandom for years. My aim was not to give Alex a Gotcha, but rather a chance to respond to those conversations, and allowing Alex (who is someone who publicly speaks out against transphobia) a chance to address it in a non-judgmental space.

The job of an interviewer is not to be a fan - Alex knows we are fans already, and has spent 10+ years answering fandom questions at panels and cons, being told by people (including myself) how much his work means to them. He knows we love the show. He knows it's great. The millionaire is okay.

The job of an interviewer is to balance asking difficult questions that give a voice to the community (and particularly to marginalized people in the community) and giving the subject (in this case, Alex) a chance to voice a response. That is a difficult balance, and I won't claim I did a perfect job at achieving it. But surely the better option wouldn't be to just not mention that a not-small fraction of the audience was hurt by something, right?

Grenda is a wonderful character, and I love her, but I wouldn't feel right not saying anything.

[fuckyeahgravityfalls]

The Worst Character in Fiction: A Guest Post by Alex Hirsch

⚠️ Alex Hirsch gives a final warning to those with The Book of Bill!

[hkthatgffan]

My part of "An Interview with Alex Hirsch" just surpassed 100K views! I'm still really thankful to all of you for watching it and continuing to share it. Crazy it's been over a year since it came out and nearly 2 years since the interview itself. Even now I still can't believe it happened. I used to always imagine what it would be like to have even a moment to ask Alex Hirsch anything about Gravity Falls and to have gotten the chance to do that was beyond belief. I'm also grateful to have done it with someone as amazing as @fordtato.

And speaking of Hana, their part of the interview is nearing 75K views. If you have not yet seen their part of it for some reason, WATCH IT (and sub to Hana)!! Couldn't have done it without them (literally...I didn't even know Zoom had a 40 minute call limit on free accounts so had they not been part of it, the interview would've ended after 40 minutes, lmao).

Wishing you all the best with your surgery, Hana. Get well soon <3

[kiodiiya]

This is both the dumbest AND one of my favorite things I've ever made lmao

The Mystery Shack Lookback Podcast interviewed *the* Bill Cipher (and also Alex Hirsch) in their last episode (54), I heard this exchange and IMMEDIATELY opened Photoshop.

[divorcedfiddleford]

You made a post saying “it has been zero days since our last alex hirsch hates ford so much bullshit” and i know it was mostly hyperbole, but you have some really good takes that I would love to be elaborated on in terms of how ford is written

it really wasn't hyperbolic. over the years he's just really shown a lot of hatred towards this one character.

content warning: discussion of abuse

i want to start with this clip from the commentary which i think of as a microcosm for how the writers and especially alex think about ford.

transcript:

rob renzetti: i mean he [mcgucket] should've basically knocked ford out, and... and destroyed the... you know, tied him up, and, destroyed... and... alex hirsch, speaking over him: yeah he should've beat ford with a wrench and taken this thing apart piece by piece! he's the one who understood how to built [sic] it, but...

... so that seems like a pretty violent course of action. shall we unpack that?

ford is a character who's pretty explicitly written as a victim of abuse, and who now has c-ptsd as a direct result of the abuse he experienced. alex hirsch believes that ford deserved everything bad that happened to him, that it's ford's own fault, and that he also deserved worse things to happen to him. this is why, given every narrative chance, alex hirsch has piled more suffering onto ford's plate. the biggest example of this i can think of is in the journal, when he wrote that fiddleford was actively erasing ford's memory (despite this being a massive timeline contradiction which i still refuse to accept). because god forbid ford even have one remotely healthy relationship with somebody. that would be too good for him. ford was manipulated and lied to by bill, but alex repeatedly compares him to icarus, a teenager whose demise was the result of his own ignorance. this comparison is still so fucking offensive to me. the sun did not lie to icarus, did not guarantee icarus all of the happiness and success and sense of belonging which he had been denied all his life, did not actively shut out the voices of those around him who would try to help him.

alex in general has a very strange relationship with abuse. he seems to get really upset when people read his characters as victims of abuse. the strongest instance of this is actually not with ford, it's with pacifica - especially in the nwmm episode commentary. the episode says "pacifica's parents have conditioned her to respond to a bell" and alex says people got "the wrong idea" about it. like. dude. what the fuck. you wrote abuse. even if you didn't mean to, that's what you wrote. you can't say people got "the wrong idea" just because you didn't think about the subtext of what you were writing. anyway, back to ford: i believe this extends to him as well. alex wanted to write a character who's a foil to stan and who was a selfish unlikable victim of his own arrogance. however that's not what he wrote. he somehow seemingly accidentally wrote a really compelling and relatable awesome autistic guy who had to fight for every good thing he he ever had in his life only for it to be taken from him every single time. but alex can't let go of seeing ford as just "the opposite of stan". when he talks about "how someone as smart as ford could fall for bill's tricks", he refuses to realize he wrote a situation in which a man was being psychologically manipulated and tortured.

it goes back further, too. people repeatedly theorized that filbrick was... not a very good father, to say the least. on top of the very explicit and canon fact that he threw one of his children out on the street (seriously, there is no defense for this), people pointed out that stan would flinch at filbrick, that ford seemed upset by things filbrick said but dared not talk back, that filbrick was mad at stan not for hurting his brother, but for "costing the family potential millions". but alex can't have people seeing ford as sympathetic. ford can't have it bad like stan did. ford had to have everything and he lost it all because he sucks so much. so he wrote the graphic novel story where ford is filbrick's favorite child and filbrick also is not even a bad parent you guys he's just stoic. ignore the whole thing in dreamscaperers where stan perpetuates the abuse that filbrick did to him. ignore the fact that ford was shouting at stan and then completely shut up as soon as filbrick entered the room and did not say another word for the rest of the night. ignore all that because i just made up this story where he cries at a present from stan. filbrick loved his boys for sure you guys!!!

i'm not even touching on how alex repeatedly villainizes traits commonly associated with mental illness and neurodivergence. ford's hypervigilance becomes arrogance. his passion for knowledge means he's a know-it-all. his difficulty socializing and making friends means he's a misanthrope. his lingering resentment for the way he was raised means he hates his brother and is the worst human being to ever have lived. i could go on, go even further into how the finale reaffirms this, but i feel weird talking about this too much.

[annoyangle]

 I wasn’t sure if audiences would “get” this guy, let alone be tattooing him permanently on their bodies a decade after he entered the collective unconscious. My best guess at his enduring all-ages appeal might be that he combines the things little kids love (bright shapes) with the things adults love (terrible choices.) - Alex Hirsch

[fannishstuff]

My favorite thing about that interview is that, well, imagine Stanley Pines's face if he realized that Stanford was literally hand-designed by God himself to annoy him in particular as much as possible.

[grunklejam]

Broadcast LIVE on the R/GravityFalls discord server in front of 195 viewers at peak!

On the 2nd of February, 2024, Grunkle Jam (that's me!) and Beni from the R/GravityFalls discord server sat down for an exclusive, live interview with Jason Ritter ("Dipper Pines") - coming to us all the way from Los Angeles.

From over 150 questions submitted to us by our wonderful community, we picked 35 of our favourites (and some very silly ones) to ask Dipper Pines and got some incredible insight into working on Gravity Falls. Some of these stories have never been heard before!

Find out or relive the incredible answers to these long-considered, complex questions:

How did he first learn about Gravity Falls?

What's his favourite episode?

What was the Cipher Hunt like?

What does he think of Dipcifica?

Does he eat mac 'n' cheese with a spoon or a fork?!?!

And many more! After a ton of work creating a ridiculously sleek video by beni2am and with sincere thanks to Pidgewynn and Oblox for assisting in assembling footage. Jason appeared courtesy of the Burstein Company, to whom we're eternally grateful.

While Pidgewynn and Oblox's footage was all we required, we'd still heartily like to thank: Din Elib, Mr. Popcorn Little, Orblington, Muddy Lives, Tragic Comedian, RyanZ Who all contributed their own recordings to help in assembling this video.