The TV Chick

Happy Glee day! Tonight’s episode titled The Power of Madonna, which I reviewed here, tackles the music of a legend. It is truly epic, and pays homage to a deserving artist. But really, I’m just happy Glee is back on my TV. What started as a little show with some big talent has had incredible success. In the back 9, there are new love interests, new couples and tons of new music. I recently had the chance to chat with the wonderful and extremely talented Jonathan Groff, a Broadway star who is now the new resident heartthrob. We talked about what it has been like working with his best friend again (Lea Michele), what goes into making an episode of Glee and the differences between stage and screen.

How did you get the part of Jesse St. James?
Well I actually about two years ago did a television pilot called Pretty/Handsome for FX with Ryan Murphy, that Ryan Murphy created and directed that never got picked up. And so I met him — I was doing Spring Awakening on Broadway at the time — and I left the show to do the pilot and I met Ryan and worked with Ryan, and then a year and a half later, he created this television show called Glee. He had known my work from Spring Awakening and also from working with him, and he said if the show does well and we get picked up for more episodes, I’ll create a character for you. And then he created Jesse St. James.

So you didn’t have to audition at all?
It was just written for me, so I didn’t have to audition or anything.

You come from a Broadway background. How has it been making the transition to television?
It’s been really interesting. It’s a totally different thing and I’ve sort of been comparing it to long distance running maybe as opposed to short distance running because in the theater you’re doing eight shows a week, and you have to pace yourself in order to be able to fit them all in. So you have to know when to push and pull back and when to conserve your energy and when to give it and all of that. And in television, you do a scene once with no rehearsal, and you had a day or half of a day to do your work on it, so it’s very intense, it’s fast, it’s high focused, and it’s acting. It’s sort of the same thing, but the mediums are so different that you have to adjust the way that you work. It’s been a real education.

And do you find that you have a preference: Broadway vs. a television show?
For me, acting is acting. As long as the part is good and the director’s good and the cast is great, it’s sort of fun to do that in whatever medium as long as you really love what you’re working on. I loved working in the theater and the projects that I’ve gotten the chance to work on, and I’ve really, truly loved working on this show and getting to spending time with the people and the material there. So I don’t think I do have a preference.

Well, that’s a good thing.
Yeah, yeah. (laughs)

And you and Lea Michele are best friends. I actually saw both of you perform at Feinsteins in the winter.
Oh really??

Yeah, I loved it!
Oh cool! We had so much fun at that concert. That was so fun.

Yeah, it was sort of like both of you unplugged. I loved it.
Aw, awesome.

So, what has it been like to work with her again?
Words can’t properly describe it. It’s been a blast. You get to sing and dance with your best friend. And not only do you get to work with your best friend, with sort of all the fun and good times and ease that that involves, but I also get to work with a peer who is an artist that I completely respect and admire. When you are an actor, or a musician or an athlete or whatever, you want to be challenged and work with people that push you and that inspire you, and Lea happens to be one of those artists for me that I have always really admired and really been inspired by and I’ve always been sort of made better by. And so it’s sort of two fold, because I love her so much as an actress and a singer and a performer, and then I also love her so much as a human being and as a person, so it’s been really incredible to get to work with her again. And we have that history together, so there’s an ease in our working relationship that comes with years of knowing each other and know each other’s work.

Absolutely. Do you find that you both push each other to be better as actors and performers?
Completely. Totally. We were practicing a dance number together a couple of months ago with some lifts in it, some big crazy lifts in it. And we were both saying “I don’t know if I would be comfortable doing this with anyone else.” When you’re really comfortable with someone, you can really go outside of your comfort zone because you trust the other person so much. So yeah, we definitely push each other. For sure.

And along those same lines, how has it been playing her love interest?
It’s been really fun. (laughs) You know, we’ve practiced falling in love with each other so many times, that it’s really fun to fall in love with each other as two different characters. We watched the show together. I went over to her apartment on Tuesday night to watch the premiere episode after we got done at work. And we were watching the first scene in the library together, which I had seen the episode before but I had not watched it with her. So we’d never watched it together. And we were just laughing so hard because we were just like “This is not us, at all.” So it’s so bizarre to watch these two characters go through the motions, because it just cracked us up.

That’s funny. Jesse St. James is a little bit of a mystery right now. He sort of seems legitimate on the surface, and he joins New Directions. But are his intentions genuine do you think?
I think his intentions are complicated. The first episode, he stands there at the end of the episode, on the stage with Lea and says “I’m the real deal. I really care about you,” saying this will be a secret between us. And then the kiss and looking at Idina while making out with her. So there is something bizarre there.

Yeah. And were you a fan of Glee before you started working on it? Had you watched the show before?
I did. Yes, because of my relationship with Ryan, because of my relationship with Lea. Because anyone I think in musical theater would love this television show, just because it sort of gives a new voice to that whole world. And so I’ve been rooting for this show because of Ryan, because of Lea, because of what the show says for young people, because of what the show’s doing for musicals and musical theater and all of that. So yeah, I’ve been watching it from the beginning and totally been waving my flag in support of them.

Oh good. And will there be any more showdowns between Finn and Jesse, vying for Rachel’s love perhaps?
(laughs) You’ll have to wait and see! I challenge him to a sing off in the parking lot in the next episode.

Right, right. I’ve seen the next two episodes so I know a little bit.
Oh okay, okay cool.

What do you want to see from Jesse going forward?
I think that I want to see him explain himself a little bit, you know what I mean? I want to find out what he’s really about, what’s really going on, what that look was with Idina. I want to find out if he’s really in love with Rachel, or if he’s playing her. I want to find out if he and Rachel can work together, which I think they can.

Right. And can you share if there might be any future duets with you and Lea or anyone else in the cast?
Yeah, I can tell you that there’s lots of singing coming up.

Will any other characters perhaps be vying for Jesse’s affection?
I don’t know! I don’t know! You’ll have to wait and see!

(laughs) Well I hope so. And Glee has had some amazing guest stars. And you’ve been working very closely with Idina. What has that been like for you?
I saw Idina in Wicked when I was in high school.

Me too! (laughs)
Really? Yeah, she was incredible. And I got her autograph at the stage door, on my program. So I am just a big fan of hers. And then when we did Spring Awakening, Lea and I would run into her at yoga class sometimes, and she came to see the show with Taye, it sort of became like a different thing. You go from a fan to then becoming a peer in a weird way once you start working professionally in New York. And now I’m actually getting the chance to actually do scenes with her and work with her. It’s been really great. She’s really awesome and really fun and really sweet and it’s been great. But surreal, a little bit. Surreal to get an autograph from someone at the stage door and then be working with them, it’s pretty cool.

Did you tell her that story, that you saw her in Wicked?
Actually, I don’t know if I have or not. I will now that you say that. I will definitely tell her next time I see her (laughs).

I feel like she’d appreciate it I’m sure.
Oh totally, she would love it. I don’t think I have told her.

I know you can’t spoil too much, but I want to know more about the process. How does it go from a song idea to a dance rehearsal to a recording studio to what we see on TV? What has the process been like you?
It’s a really big machine here at the show because it has to be. Because there’s so much that goes into one episode, more so than your normal show because of all the — like you said — the singing and dancing. So you get the script first, and then you see the songs you’re singing and Ryan and Brad and Ian write the scripts and take out the songs.And then, you’ll get an email with demo recordings of your songs. And you learn the song on your own with your computer, you download it and learn it. And then you go into the recording studio, and you record it. And then this all happens pretty much a week or a week and a half before we start shooting. And then, if there’s choreography, you spend two or three days with the choreographer and whoever’s in the number, learning the number, and then you shoot it. The shooting takes place in one day. So it’s a lot if you have more than one song in the episode. You’re recording a lot and dancing a lot and then performing a lot, and that’s also in addition to your costume fittings for the numbers and the scenes that get fit in there as well. And then also the shooting of the actual scenes that don’t have any music or singing in them. So, it’s a pretty tight schedule and it takes a lot of people to sort of coordinate. The music people are making the demos, and figuring out the arrangements. And then the choreographers, Zach and Brooke, are trying to figure out the movement and the cuts of the songs. And then there’s the people that call you to tell you when dance rehearsal is. It’s just a lot.

Of course. And when you go into the recording studio, are you with other cast members or by yourself? What is that process like?
Well, it’s funny because when we recorded the Spring Awakening album — normally, when a Broadway album records, you do it in like 20 hours or something crazy, where everybody shows up together with the orchestra and you just sing through the whole show.

Oh wow.
Yeah, you do it in one day. With Spring Awakening, it was different, because Duncan has or had a recording studio in his apartment. And he wanted to record the album like a pop record. So we never were in the same room as one another. Everyone went in totally separately for five or six hours and laid down their tracks, and then he cut and pasted them together. Which is how I guess you record in the pop world. So that’s how we do it for Glee. The orchestra records on a separate day. And then we each come in individually for several hours and record whatever we have to record on our own, and get coached by Adam and Ryan, the two guys in the music department walk us through the song and coach us on it and give us direction and all of that.

Interesting. When you sang a duet, did you record the song separately?
Yes, when Lea and I recorded Hello, I think I laid my tracks down first, and then she came in a couple hours later and recorded after me.

I never would have thought that just from watching the show.
It’s amazing. Pretty much everything that’s ever recorded, that’s how they do it. Whenever a duet is recorded, people do it separately. No one ever really sings together in a recording studio.

And was lip syncing hard for you to adjust to?
Yes and no. There’s another coach on the set that helps you to make sure that you are matching your breath and all of that stuff as you are recording. Everyone still sings out when you’re lip syncing, because they want to see the veins in your neck and they want to see when you take a breath. So you can’t just mouth the words, you really have to sing when you do it. So that part isn’t as hard as I thought it would be, just because you’re actually singing so it’s just every now and then you miss a breath or you’ll breathe someplace where you didn’t when you recorded it and then it looks bad on the TV because it doesn’t match up with the recording, so it’s little things like that and little cut offs. Those are the really challenging parts of the lip syncing.

And I know you can’t spoil too much. But from what’s been filmed, do you think Jesse will be returning for season 2?
I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. I really honestly don’t know that.

You’re not hiding it, you just don’t know. (laughs)
We don’t start recording season 2 until July, so it’s a little far off.

And can you give us a little teaser of what’s coming up in the back 9 for your character?
I can say that Jesse and Rachel being together creates more and more of a wedge in the Glee club and more and more drama as time goes along. (laughs)

(laughs)
Expectedly and unexpectedly.

Got it. And were you involved at all in the Lady Gaga episode? Will we see you in a crazy costume?
Yes, I was in a crazy Lady Gaga costume a few days ago (laughs).

Well I’m excited to see that! And do you have any other projects coming up during the hiatus?
No, not yet. Just looking for the next gig. Oh I’m doing a concert at Joe’s Pub in June.

Right, I saw that. I hope to be there.
Awesome, awesome.

Will you be appearing at all in the concert tour? Do you know yet?
I don’t think so. I’m not positive, but I don’t think so.

And will you and Lea be singing again in New York City anytime soon?
Oh my gosh, yeah I hope so. I hope so. Maybe on the hiatus we’ll do something, but she’s so busy though with all of her press and stuff.

Absolutely. And after your first appearance on Glee, did you get any interesting fan reactions to your character?
I was just inundated with phone calls and emails and text messages and everyone from my life has come out and said “I can’t believe I saw you on TV.” It’s been really fun, it’s been really funny to hear everyone’s reaction.

Be sure to tune in tonight for an all new episode of Glee at 9 pm on Fox!