INTERVIEW: The Cast Of Glee
Kurt: Can I pee first?
Find out what Jane Lynch, Lea Michele, Dianna Agron, Chris Colfer, Mark Salling and more had to say about being dropped from the show, the 3D Movie tour, and who they think is the best singer of the group.
Rex FeaturesIs there an issue Glee is yet to tackle that you would personally like to see it promote?
Jane Lynch: "I love how it’s all about inclusion and every once in a while Ryan [Murphy, the show’s creator] will grab something from the headlines like bullying and he’ll dramatise it in such a clever way. Ryan just has his finger on the pulse and he’s taken it upon himself to make kids feel good about themselves, and I think that’s just wonderful."
Rex FeaturesWhat’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Jane: "I just wrote a book called Happy Accidents and one of the things I write about in it is a teacher I had. She was a visiting teacher and I barely remember anything she said except when she grabbed me by the shoulders and said ‘You have to learn to let things roll off your back’. I was an uber control freak about things I had no business trying to control. I was filled with anxiety and it was standing in the way of the person I wanted to become as an actor. I didn’t change on the spot, that’s for sure, but I totally embraced that idea and took it on as an unconscious mission – to start shedding the notion that I had to control everything."
Rex FeaturesOn the DVD release of Season 2 you can watch Sue Sylvester getting turned into a waxwork at Madame Tussauds. What was that like?
Jane: "It was such a long ordeal. They basically put you on a human Lazy Susan and spin you around and photograph you from every angle, and they measure everything from around the eyes to the tip of your cheekbone and they even match up the whites of your eyes. It’s really amazing and so flattering that after just one season of the show I was committed to wax. It’s also the freakiest thing in the world to see yourself in wax."
Rex FeaturesWhat’s your earliest memory of music?
Jane: "It was through musical films. I saw The Sound Of Music and knew every note of the score. Also Funny Girl because my mum was a big fan of that one. She played soundtracks while she cleaned and would sing them around the house. Not just those shows but also Man Of La Mancha, My Fair Lady and The Music Man."
Rex FeaturesRyan Murphy recently announced that several members of the Glee club would be leaving after Season 3. Which student do you think Sue Sylvester would most like to see the back of?
Jane: "I don’t think she’d like to see the back of any of them. She loves terrorising all of them. If she ever went nose-to-nose with a student and felt they had more power over her – and who knows, that might be coming up in season three – that might be an issue for her, but right now she feels more powerful than all of them. As for rumours about people leaving the show, I have no idea if any of that is true. Those rumours change every day."
Rex FeaturesIf you could write your own episode of Glee what would the storyline be?
Jane: "One of my favourite scenes to play was when Coach Beiste arrived on the scene and she threatened Sue’s power because she’s taller and meaner but also has a gentler heart. She set out to destroy her and I liked it when they went toe-to-toe, so more storylines like that would be great. I’d also like Sue to fall in love, but I leave it all to the writers because they always come up with something interesting."
Rex FeaturesWho would you say your comedy idols were?
Jane: "Carol Burnett early on and still actually. She plays my mother on the show and she’s become a friend. Watching The Carol Burnett Show as a kid made me want to do ensemble comedy. I also admire Jennifer Saunders and I hear they’re doing another series of Absolutely Fabulous, which is so exciting. And I like watchamacallit. What’s her name? Jennifer’s comedy partner? [When told it’s Dawn French] Yes her, she’s wonderful. She’s fearless and she’ll do anything for the joke."
Rex FeaturesWho do you think is the best singer in the Glee club?
Jane: "I have no idea because I haven’t heard them sing live, but I bet it’s probably Lea Michelle. She’s pretty amazing."
PA PhotosWhat were your own school days like?
Jane: "They were somewhat tortuous what with me carrying around the gay secret and a lot of anxiety. I basically stayed under the radar in terms of teasing and contempt. I was pretty much ‘fellow well met’ and I had friends in many different groups. I sang in the choir and hung out with cheerleaders, sometimes I was with the popular kids and I got drunk with the party girls. I didn’t stick to one sub-culture. Was I an academic? God, not at all. I never brought a book home, ever, and I barely got into college."
Rex FeaturesAre there any budding romances we should look out for in Season 3?
Jane: "Not so far. The first three episodes I’ve read are pretty much continuing the relationships that are already established and also looking at how several of the kids will be graduating and how they want to make their mark on life – the anxieties that provokes, leaving the safety of your high school."
PA PhotosAre you a sporty person in real life? How do you stay in shape?
Jane: "I was sporty growing up. I played baseball with the boys sun-up to sundown when I was 13 years old. Then I played tennis in high school but I don’t do sports now and I have to pull teeth to get myself to go to the gym but I do it anyway. My wife Lara is very physical – she’s a rower and works out and runs – and when she says ‘Let’s go for a hike’ I go with her."
PA PhotosWould you ever consider designing a range of tracksuits? Have you ever been approached to?
Jane: "[Laughs] I have no interest in designing clothes. I’ve had little feelers here and there from people wanting me to do it but I haven’t taken them up on it."
PA PhotosHow many tracksuits has Sue actually had so far?
Jane: "I honestly have no idea, although I seem to get eight new ones every six months or so. I bet I have about 30 of ’em, but a lot are retired in some storage room somewhere. I don’t lounge around in them at home."
Glee: The Complete Second Season on DVD and Blu-ray is out now!
PA PhotosHave you changed since you’ve played Mercedes?
Amber Riley: “We always say that our characters are like our superheroes. They say and do things that we wish that we could.”
PA PhotosRyan Murphy recently announced that he would be replacing the whole cast after the third season. What’s your reaction to that?
Jenna Ushkowitz: “I don’t know if he’s replacing us, but we’re graduating, so there’s a world of possibility when Ryan says something like that. I don’t know, I don’t think they’ll be college years, but he also wasn’t adverse to the thought of a spin off. I don’t know what that was but… You know, we can’t be in High School forever…”
Amber Riley: “No, I’m about to be 26. I’m ready to move on.”
PA PhotosIs there any one memory you’ll take away from the show forever?
Amber: “I think I’ll take away friends, for sure. My cast mates. They’ll always be a part of my life. They’re like my best friends.”
PA PhotosHow much of your own lives are reflected in the show? Do you suggest story lines based on what you have experienced?
Amber: “I think they kind of keep their ear to the ground. I think a lot of story lines have been inspired by people’s personal lives. Chris doing Defying Gravity, that actually happened to him in high school. The Born This Way episode is from a story Lea told about people telling her to get a nose job. So for a lot of people, yeah.”
Are there any songs that you really want to sing that you haven’t already?
Jenna: “We’re really big fans of Adele for instance. The two of us… Every time they ask we’re like “Please can we sing Adele?””
Amber: “Like we’ve been a fan since her first album. Not like everybody else. Since the beginning.”
PA PhotosHave you got any plans to release an album of your own at all?
Amber: “Yes I do. I’m working on my album right now. I’m working with Sony, Columbia, and it’s really exciting… It’s so corny, but I really want to do a song with everybody from the show, like a group number, and me and Naya [Rivera] have talked about doing a duet also… Right now we’re just really experimenting. I love soft rock, so that would be something I’m looking forward to.”
Has anyone had any on-set accidents yet?
Amber: “[Laughing] Yes!”
Jenna: “Amber fell in the Wheels episode, in a wheelchair off a ramp.”
Amber: “Like my wheels stopped, and I hit the ground, and it was so quiet, and I just started laughing hysterically and so did everyone else. We only had like a day to learn the Wheels dance, and it’s not easy… We have a bruise wall in the dance room. Our choreographer takes pictures of our bruises we get from dancing and puts them up on the wall.”
TM & copyright 20th Century Fox No MerchandisingIf you could play any other character, who would you play?
Amber: "Sue Sylvester."
Jenna: "Kurt."
Bigpicturesphoto.comHow long did it take you to learn your dance routines for the concert?
Kevin McHale: “We had three days rehearsal for the entire tour. It was tough.”
Is there any one particular person that you get on with in the cast better than anyone else?
Dianna Agron: “In any group, no matter how big, usually there are positions reserved. Like there’s the mum, there’s the person you go to if you’re sick, there’s your shopping buddy… There’s definitely that bond that makes us feel like we’re brothers and sisters, and then there are those particular hats that people [wear]… I would never ask Mark Salling to come shopping with me, just as he would be so frustrated with me because I can’t play frisbee golf. Him and Cory have been Frisbee golfing lately. So I think that that’s the best way for me to describe how our friendship groups have been broken up in the group.”
Which are your favourite episodes of the show?
Dianna: "I think it is definitely Safety Dance."
Kevin: "You know it was really fun for me to do, not because I was singing it, but when we did Lean On Me, and we did it for Cory and Dianna, they didn’t let them hear the song or see our rehearsals before just so they could film their reactions immediately, so it was super emotional."
Who would you say is the best singer in the cast?
Kevin: "Oh… You’re going to do that to us?"Dianna: "I would say April [played by Kristen Chenoweth]…"
Kevin: "April is great…"
Rex FeaturesYou’ve been shortlisted as one of GLAMOUR’s Sexiest Men of 2011. Why should our readers vote for you?
Darren Criss: “Well first of all there’s been a terrible mistake. If you only knew… Well, I would encourage voters to vote for people with genuine sex appeal, and I would lobby against me immediately. That’s a bad idea – you don’t want to put that out in the world. Because I’ll meet people and they’ll think that I’m really sexy and I’m kind of a nerd, so I wouldn’t be able to live up to their expectations.”
PA PhotosWhat do you think it is about Blaine as a character that makes him so desirable to both sexes?
Darren: “Erm… The blazer, probably.”
PA PhotosWhat’s been the best thing about the tour so far?
Darren: “The tour’s been special for me because my character on the show goes to a different school, and it’s like its own separate show, so I don’t spend a whole lot of time – other than with Chris [Colfer] – with the rest of the cast, so I was looking forward to get to be able to know everybody.”
PA PhotosRyan Murphy recently announced that he’d be replacing the entire cast after the third season. What was your reaction to that?
Darren: [Long pause] “That’s cool… I mean, well, it’s not cool. But I mean, it’s his party…”
PA PhotosWho do you think would play a great future Glee character?
Darren: “Blaine has had his time in the sun, I’ve been very lucky, I had a storyline that was wonderful and beautiful, and a wonderful relationship… It was just lovely. I think it’s time to focus on people that haven’t had their chance to shine. Including other Warblers, who are extremely talented and extremely humble. And more main people in the cast who haven’t had more storylines. I want to see more from Tina and Mike Chang and their dynamic... I don’t think we need to bring any new people on board. We’ve got enough to play, a lot to explore. As a fan of the show, I would love to see that.”
PA PhotosWho would you say is the best singer in the cast?
Darren: “Wow, that’s a tough one. I think, bar one, it’s Amber, but that’s really obvious and not even up for debate. As a musician, there’s a difference between having a great voice and being a singer. I think the greatest singers in the world don’t necessarily have a good voice but know how to use it… That’s me saying that everyone in the cast has their own way of putting things… But I am biased towards Naya Rivera’s voice.”
TM & copyright 20th Century Fox No MerchandisingWho would be your dream guest star to work alongside?
Heather Morris: “I just can’t stop pushing Kristen Wiig, that’s all. I just keep pushing her and it’s not happening.”
TM & copyright 20th Century Fox No MerchandisingIf you could go back to school is there anything you would have done differently?
Naya Rivera: “I mean I would want to say yes, but then no, because I would be a completely different person. If I wasn’t that nerdy girl with crazy curly hair…”
Heather Morris: “I maybe would have done choir so I would have kept up singing…”
Naya: “I probably would have went to class. That would have been easier.”
PA PhotosIs there a song you really want to sing in the new series?
Naya: “I like that she’s in the whole jazzy, sultry vain… I think that she [Santana] should probably stay there, but then again I loved doing Landslide, and that’s a country song. But probably something by Adele… Old school Adele… Or like Steven Wonder or Billie Holiday…”
PA PhotosWhat’s your funniest memory of Matthew Morrison?
Heather: “He is so funny. He’ll come and take you in his arms and give you a kiss on the cheek and just make you so happy, like in the mornings. That’s like my favourite memory. You come to work and everybody’s tired… That’s how to start the day.”
PA PhotosWho would you say your best friends were in the cast?
Harry Shum: “We [him and Chord] hang out a lot… Watch a lot of bromantic comedies together…”
Chord Overstreet: “I came onto the show kind of like a new kid in high school, not really knowing anybody, and this guy [Harry] is like the first person who welcomed me with open arms, so I have to be nice to him now. No, he’s one of my really good friends so we get along great.”
PA PhotosYou’ve been nominated for GLAMOUR’s Sexiest Men 2011 award. Why should our readers vote for you?
Chord: “Honestly, I you think I’m sexy, then you think I’m sexy. I don’t think of myself in that way but… That’s great… I can’t really answer that or I’m going to come off looking conceited.”
PA PhotosWhat’s the strangest thing you’ve ever been sent by a fan?
Chord: “I haven’t had loads of stuff, but I have had a few crazy things. Somebody wrote a book, and they sent it to my agent’s office, and it’s like 100 different letters to me in this book… It’s 100 reasons why they love me, and each page is a different reason. They obviously don’t know me…”
TM & copyright 20th Century Fox No MerchandisingWhat do you do five minutes before you go on stage on the tour?
Chord: “Pull ups… We make jokes in the headsets to everybody before the show. We talk about Amber, we goof about…”
Harry: “We talk about each other because everyone can hear each other so we pretend to have private conversations. The funniest is when we’re working out. If you peek through you can see Mark lifting, we’re doing pull ups, we’re doing push ups… But that’s the only time we have to work out, so…
Chord: “But it’s great because you’re already burning calories, you’re already got everything going and your cardio, and when you come off the stage you just do more cardio and start burning more calories.”
Have you pulled any high school pranks on each other during tour?
Chord: “Yeah, I did one to Mark [Salling – Puck]. I went into his hotel bathroom and I put [cling film] over his toilet seat.”
Harry: “Chord did one on me. I bought one of his flights or something to somewhere and I was like 'You owe me $4500'…”
Chord: “We took a guy’s trip to an unnamed location and he paid for my air fare and it had been months before hand, and he was like “When are you going to pay me back? When are you going to pay me back?” So on his birthday, I got $450 in ones. I called the hotel desk, I got his room key, and when he was gone, I literally stuck ones in his shoes, in the lamp shade, until the room was covered…”
Harry: “And I came in and the whole place was cover in one dollar bills… So I picked ten dollars worth off the floor and walked out.”
PA PhotosWhich of you guys take longest to get ready?
Chord: “Definitely Mark. He does his own glam. He does his own make-up.”
PAThe other guys said that you take longest out of the boys to get ready, Mark. Is that true?
Mark Salling: “What? Who said that?”
We couldn’t possibly say…
Ashley Fink: “I would say for calling boys out, Chris [Colfer] took longer to get ready than I did yesterday…”
Mark: “Chord takes the longest…”
Ashley: “Chord takes a long time with his hair…”
Mark: “I’m like five minutes, literally. Somebody hatin’…”
Rex FeaturesRyan Murphy recently announced that he’d be replacing the entire cast after the third season. What was your reaction to that?
Mark: “We hear things and we don’t know if it’s true… We don’t know…”
Ashley: “Yeah, we make Glee, we go on tour and we sing… A lot of these interviews have been telling us things that we haven’t heard, that we don’t know are true. We’re not very involved with the media outlet just because we can’t be. We’re doing two shows a day, so I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s true…”
PA PhotosWhich song would you really like to sing in the next series?
Mark: “Every time I listen to the song I want to perform it on the show, so it’s more down to artists. I love a lot of 90s rock, Alice In Chains, Radiohead…”
PA PhotosIf you could have anyone guest star, who would you choose?
Mark: “Amy Winehouse.”
Ashley: “Adele would be incredible. It would be great to have Adele on the show. You know, we’ve had a lot of actors on the show, but we haven’t had tonnes of musicians. An Elton John would be incredible or a Chaka Khan. Some legendary singer would be great.”
PA PhotosWhat makes Mark Salling sexy?
Mark: “I think the key to anyone being sexy is to embrace what they have and what they don’t have… And try to stay in the gym and eat right…”
Ashley: “There’s nothing sexy about trying to be sexy, and I think that what’s sexy about Mark is he just is himself and he’s unapologetic about it and that’s sexy.”
Mark: “Just be yourself and embrace what makes you different.”
Ashley: “Your face is pretty good too…”
WennWhat do you do after the show? Do you go straight to the hotel or party?
Ashley: “We eat, usually for the first time…”
Mark: “I play Xbox in my underwear.”
Ashley: “We usually eat food and go to sleep. No rock star shenanigans, we’ve got a matinee performance the next day.”
PA PhotosIf you could Slushy anyone in the cast, who would it be?
Mark: "Chord [Overstreet], for that remark he told you earlier."
Ashley: “Let’s double team Chord, I think we could both get Chord at once. That would be fun. Chord’s like the little brother. We’ve all got roles we play in the family.”
WennWho would you say is the best singer out of all of you?
Mark: “Amber.”
Ashley: “Really? You think? I mean I think she’s incredible… I’m not picking a favourite, I told you, I’m mum! I love all my kids… I think everyone has strengths.”
PA PhotosYou’re with each other 24/7. Do you ever argue behind the scenes?
Chris Colfer: “Oh, we are siblings, we’re such siblings. We’re around each other so much that we are family, we just can’t help it. We have like our tiffs, like - “You put your sock on my chair…”, but we’ve never had an altercation that is anything worth talking about or anything dramatic.”
PA PhotosIf you were to launch a career as a singer, what kind of music would you sing?
Lea Michele: “That’s always been a tough question. I think that’s why I haven’t made an album yet, because on the one hand, I would make an album that was more themed towards Broadway or like a Barbara Streisand album, or Celine Dion, but then there’s another side of me that would want to make an album that was a little more Kelly Clarkson… I think that’s the route I would probably go in… Female pop rock. But right now, we still have our show, we have a movie coming out, I have two other movies coming out, so I want to focus on those things and then definitely make an album at some point down the road.”
TM & copyright 20th Century Fox No MerchandisingWhat’s the biggest difference between your character Kurt and you in real life?
Chris: “Kurt is very...”
Lea: “I definitely think that you wouldn’t wear any of those restricting clothes…”
Chris: “Oh, God no. Skinny jeans… I would never wear skinny jeans in real life… But I’m definitely not into fashion and things like that. I didn’t even know who Marc Jacobs was before we started the show. We’re very different. I’m a big nerd, and Kurt is fashionable and Vogue.”
PA PhotosGlee’s broken so many boundaries with the subject matters it covers, but are there any more issues close to you personally that you’d like to see promoted by the show?
Chris: “I’ve got one for you, Lea! Animal rights…”
Lea: “That would be great… But I think that for me, we haven’t met Rachel’s dad yet, and I would be interested to focus on what it’s like being in Ohio and being raised by two gay men, what that was like for her growing up, what she feels like now… I think that would be something interesting to see her deal with.”
Rachel and Finn – What’s in store? What would you like to see happen?
Lea: “I think I would like them to make up their minds. I’m very confused. One night she’s making out with this person, and then she’s making out with that person… I’m very happy that they’re together. I love not only Rachel and Finn, but I love working with Cory [Monteith], so much so that I’d like them to stay together if they’re going to stay together. I don’t know what’s going to happen though… But I think the decision maker is going to be whether or not he, when she graduates from high school, follows her or doesn’t follow her.”
SEE GLEE THE 3D CONCERT MOVIE IN CINEMAS NATIONWIDE FROM THE 19TH AUGUST!
Plus, get Glee Season 2 on DVD from the 19th September.
