Lea Michele: I hate Jonathan Groff. I’m so excited that someone’s finally doing a story on how awful Jonathan Groff is.
Jonathan Groff: And I’m so sick of being in the same room as her, too.
Michele: I’m just really glad that somebody finally is ready to write about this. It needed to get out there.
Groff: Time to tell the truth.
Q.
Did your paths ever cross before you started working together on “Spring Awakening”?
A.
Groff: No, Lea was busy on Broadway and I was busy waiting tables.
Michele: When I saw Jonathan at the “Spring Awakening” audition, I had done, prior to the Off Broadway production, I think three workshops of the show. And I had worked with two prior Melchiors. They’d narrowed it down to a couple guys, and Jonathan was one of them. And I was like, this boy is so sweet – I was trying to help him out – but poor thing’s not going to get this job. I felt bad for him, and then he ended up obviously getting the part and just being incredible.
Groff: As each potential Melchior would walk into the room, she would shake our hands and tell us that she had played Wendla in the past three workshops. And I remember before we did the beating scene, which was our audition scene, she had a specific way in which you were to hit her on the wrist with your pencil.
Michele: Well, what I was trying to do, with the Melchiors that I liked, was give them little pointers so that Michael Mayer would like them. And Jonathan was one of them. I liked him, but a lot of it was also out of pity. He looked very different from how he looks right now. Jonathan used to wear pants that were like 10 sizes too small on him. But not in, like, a skinny way – in like a “these were my skinny pants that I wore in the fifth grade” way. They were short at the ankles, and sweaters that had been washed in the washing machine, and not dry-cleaned.
Groff: And the CVS gel in the hair.
Michele: I definitely helped Jonathan with that look over time.
Groff: Yes, every time there’s a birthday or an occasion, the gift I get from Lea is pretty much always clothes.
Q.
“Spring Awakening” required you to reveal yourselves to each other in many ways. Did that kind of intimacy come naturally or did you have to work at it?
A.
Michele: We definitely connected right away, but I never would have guessed in a million years that we would become as comfortable as we did with one another. Because we are so different, and we’d come from two completely different backgrounds. It’s not like one thing happened; it’s just been a progression, professionally, and friendship-wise, that’s just, I think, always continued to grow.
Groff: It’s like country mouse and city mouse, the two of us. Lea’s very Upper West Side, New York, and I’m from Pennsylvania. What was really interesting for me is after “Spring Awakening” was over, you do shows with people and you get close with them and then they’re over, and relationships remain or don’t remain. With Lea and I, our relationship had been completely defined by our working environment. But the amazing thing is after the show was over, we continued to remain close, which is the true testament of a friendship.
Q.
Who left the show first?
A.
Michele: We left on the same night. There would have been no way I could have ever done the show without Jonathan.
Groff: Likewise.
Michele: What we created was very personal – it wasn’t even an option.
Q.
When I saw “Spring Awakening” I had to cut out before the end. I assume everything worked out O.K. for Wendla and Melchior?
A.
Michele: Yeah. Totally. They’re all good. They’ve had more children. They waited a little while to have any more. But now they’re great, they’re awesome. They’re model parents. [laughs]
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4 comments:
*Like* times a million!!
i love lea and jon. they're so loveable and even through this interview you can see the connection between them. :D
Last night was a good night to be a fangirl/guy
When he appeared I said: "Melchior and Wendla back togetheeeeeer". And my friend who was watching Glee with me said: "WTF?". She doesn't know SA, lol.
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