The TV Chick

Glee is back in just one day! My countdown clock will soon become obsolete. I am so thrilled that it is returning, and I jumped at the chance to chat again with Jessalyn Gilsig, who plays Terri Schuester. I know there are huge Will and Emma fans out there (Wemma as they have become affectionately known), but I love Terri because I think Jessalyn plays her with such magnificence. She adds a little crazy to the mix but she also shows that nothing is ever perfect. If we got what we wanted right away on any TV show, it would be the easy way out, and if there is one thing about Ryan Murphy and his creative team I know for sure, it is that they are never ones to do this. There is a great Terri moment in the mid-season premiere (“Hell-O”) but as Jessalyn explains, it really heats up later. We talked about the amazing fashion on the show, interesting fan reactions, and her song.

Congratulations on all the success of the show. It has been an amazing season. What has awards season been like for you?
I think it just ended, or it just ended for me. I never understood when people said it’s a season that it’s really a season. I mean, it goes on. There are a lot of award shows (laughs) that I never knew about. It was amazing. The Golden Globes were amazing because we just — we couldn’t believe we were there. We sort of felt like we snuck in. And then when I got to the table and the whole cast was sitting there. And Chris was there and Mark’s there and Dianna, and we just looked at each other like what are we doing here? We’ve only shot 13 episodes (laughs). And then, a really fun one that I went to — this was the kind of thing I never knew about — was the Costume Design Awards. Lou Eyrich is our designer who also designs for Nip/Tuck, she was nominated, and she actually won that night. And Jayma and I went there in support of her and it was just really fun to see. We get so much attention from the show but we know that the show is such a collaborative experience and Lou is such a good example. She helps us find our characters, and she really sort of creates such a visual experience, so to see her get recognized and kind of put the spotlight on her…Jayma and I both agreed it was our best experience out of all the award shows.

Yeah, she does some incredible work on the show.
Doesn’t she? And she takes such big risks and I just feel like because there’s so many times that our characters are present but not necessarily speaking. I mean, especially for a lot of the kids. You know, they might have an episode where — I just saw one where Dianna, she doesn’t have much to say but just whenever she’s on screen, there’s still a story being told, and so much of that is also through what she’s wearing and her posture. So it’s just really interesting how everybody kind of tracks the evolution of our characters. And there are so many of them.

There are actually websites out there dedicated to the fashion on Glee.
Are you kidding? (laughs)

There’s a site called What Would Emma Pillsbury Wear?
What? Are you kidding me?

No you have to go check it out!
I mean, Emma’s wardrobe…that’s a perfect example. It’s ingenious. And of course, I selfishly, from Terri’s point of view, think Emma’s a genius because she dresses like a saint but she’s actually a husband stealer.

Oh she totally is…
But the way she dresses…it makes her look like a good person.

And I wanted to know what it was like filming that scene that last time we spoke, you referred to it as the reckoning between Will and Terri. It was so incredibly intense.
Was I right?

You were right, absolutely!
It was intense. This is why it is so much fun to work on Ryan Murphy’s show because it’s really fun to watch an audience get frustrated with the show. You know, a woman came up to me in the store the other day (laughs), it was so hysterical. I’m standing in a store with my daughter, and this older woman — I mean, she was probably in her 60s — she comes over and she says “You know what I don’t understand? How can he be so stupid?” (laughs)

(laughs)
(laughs) It’s like seriously, calm down. It was so amazing how invested she was. (laughs) But what was so fun about that scene for Matthew and myself, was that the characters had sort of put all the stones in place to get us to that moment, and there was so much history and it was so sad. There had been so much hope in their relationship and so much they had neglected. And they both spoke the truth. You know, she said you’re pulling away from me, and he was. And he said well what’s so wrong with me feeling good about myself and she said because our whole foundation of our relationship was that you thought that I was better than you. It’s not healthy, but it was honest. It was sad, it was really sad, because they’re just — there was nothing we could grab onto anymore, except maybe love but there’s no more trust. And, what can you do? But it was really fun, and it felt like the writers really wrote the truth. You know, nobody was manipulating anybody at that moment, they were just speaking from their hearts.

Yeah, I think it was an incredible moment for the show and your character.
Yeah (laughs), since America was hating me so much. I was like, “Okay! She is complex. You’ll see, there are more layers!”

You’re like “Don’t hate me so much!”
I know…a little less!

And you are singing in the back 9! I’m so happy! (laughs)
Thank you!

And I just want to take a little bit of credit for that (laughs)…
I do need to wash your car for that.

(laughs) I know that you can’t tell us too much. But what can you tell us about the song…maybe the context of the song, or anything small?
At least the first one, I don’t know what’s coming. But we’re going to shoot this next week. What I love is that the genre is something that we haven’t done that much. It’s kind of alternative, and pretty contemporary, but it’s not pop. And that’s really fun. I can tell you that I’m singing with other people, some of whom you wouldn’t think I’d be singing with.

Interesting. Have you recorded the song yet?
Yeah, we recorded the song already.

So since I know you can’t spoil too much, I’m really curious to know about the process: recording the song, learning the choreography — what that was like for you?
We have our first rehearsal tomorrow, for the choreography. But we’ve already done the song. The song — it’s interesting, it was actually amazing how relaxed they are about it, which is why I think the show is working, because it’s not a very produced experience for the singer, which is to say it’s not like they gave me the song, and then they gave me a bunch of instructions, and then they had to do a rehearsal. It was really here’s the song, here’s your guide track, and we’ll see you on Tuesday at 9 or whenever it was that I went it. And you just kind of keep working it in the room, and try to find it there. But I think, what I took away from it, was that they really wanted our interpretations and to make it sound like it was really our characters. There’s not so much going for result, that is necessarily polished, but rather for an experience that fits with your character. And that really was refreshing to me. I like that.

And were there musical directors in the room? Who was helping you and guiding you through the process?
There was a musical director there and a producer. I don’t know actually how it usually works, but for myself, even though it was a group song, I sang by myself. And then they mix everybody together.

Interesting. So it will be interesting to see how it’s filmed when you are lip syncing?
I know, right (laughs). I’ve never lip sunc before? I have with my friends. (laughs through this next sentence) But it will be interesting.

I was going to say, maybe in the car or the shower, but not in a studio…
Well I was just thinking of that show, “Ru Paul’s Drag Race.”

Yeah, yeah…
Have you seen them lip sync at the end?

Oh my God, it’s insane!
Literally, I am so blown away by their lip syncing. So maybe I’ll just do a little study today and see if I can learn a little. I love that show.

It’s so ridiculous but amazing at the same time!
(In Ru Paul Drag Race style) Lip sync for your life! (laughs)

(laughs) So the song has already been recorded. I wanted to know if that is your biggest challenge, or if there is something else that has been your biggest challenge you have encountered filming the show so far?
I mean, the singing and the idea of dancing are kind of outside of my — I guess so, I’m trying to think. I mean, for a while, for me, it was finding Terri, I would think, just sort of finding the character. But yeah, I mean the idea is sort of what scares me, but also I feel really lucky I guess it would be the musical side of the show because I certainly could have gone my whole life and never found myself in a musical, so it’s the kind of thing that’s like wow you never know what life’s going to throw at you, and sort of the new things you’re going to get to try. I guess it’s sort of like, I never thought I’d go skydiving — but this is kind of like the unknown. But you know, I’m sure this is the same in your profession, there’s a little part of you that always wants to be tested. You know? So in that sense, I’m really grateful for it, because it’s kind of fun to be out of comfort zone.

Yeah, absolutely. I agree. And you were talking before about the older lady who came up to you in the store. Now that the show has gotten so big, have you had any memorable experiences of fans coming up to you? Do you people yell at you or anything like that?
That one was hysterical, because she didn’t even say she recognized me or anything. We just knew each other. And people have been very direct. I’ve been really amazed by how many people have come up– mostly women I think — and said that they think that he’s getting off too easy.

Interesting.
And that they’ll say he was cheating on you emotionally, and you knew it and you were panicked and you didn’t know what to do. And I think that was — especially now with everything that’s going on with all these terrible, horrible affairs that are coming out — you know, in the gossip columns and stuff. The whole idea of men and fidelity, I think it’s kind of interesting, you know these presumably solid relationships, I just think that whole sort of question of fidelity is kind of freaking me out this week.

Yeah!
There’s still a lot of women who were really threatened by his–who thought that his emotional attachment to Emma was a betrayal of our relationship on par with my lie about the pregnancy.

Huh.
You know? I think that’s really interesting.

Same here. Definitely.
Well I know, but you’ve always been…

I’ve always loved Terri! (laughs)
(laughs)

And you obviously know I really think she adds something great to the show…a little comedy, a little crazy. But what do you want to see from your character going forward?
I’m really excited, I think that Terri’s stuff is honestly — to be perfectly candid — I think it’s going to heat up. It’s just starting to heat up now and I think it’s going to really kind of get realized in the second season. We’re really going to kind of see — I guess a rebirth. It’s almost like Terri kind of just gets to shed a lot of that anxiety and a lot of that tension. And it’s really exciting because she realizes that she doesn’t have to live at this level of crazy like you suggest. I mean, I think she’s always going to be crazy. I think the way that she sees the world is completely — I think for her, it’s so clear, it’s like Terri logic. And I don’t think it’s a manipulation of facts, I think it’s just really how she experiences things. But I think her need to control, I think will really be — she’s going to release that. And that’s going to be really nice for me, I think. Because she won’t always be sort of the harpy in the room.

Right. The desperate one, kind of.
Yeah, exactly.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2 of this interview. And as if I have to tell you, the mid-season premiere of Glee is tomorrow night at 9:28 pm on FOX.

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