Make sure that you always follow your heart and your gut, and let yourself be who you want to be, and who you know you are. And don't let anyone steal your joy.
Jonathan Groff
I'm not on Twitter. I'm not on Facebook. I'm not on Instagram.
Don't let the world define you. In the world of acting, and I think in any profession, really, people are really eager to put you in a box and categorize you as one particular thing.
I remember telling my mom, 'Mom, I'm gay, but I'm not going to march in a parade or anything.' That's what I was telling my parents and all my friends and everything. I'm gay, but I'm not going to be on a float or something. Cut to five years later, and I was the grand marshal of the gay pride parade.
The idea of faking empathy to take a step forward to understanding - it's a really powerful idea.
Just follow your joy. Always. I think that if you do that, life will take you on the course that it's meant to take you.
The hardest I've ever laughed was with Lea Michele.
I moved to New York on October 21, 2004, and it was the day that the Chelsea Grill, a restaurant in Hell's Kitchen on 9th Avenue between 46th and 47th Street, opened. I had never waited a table in my life, but I walked in and lied to the manager in a very J. Pierrepont Finch way.
I'd always done musicals, and so living in the world of straight plays and working with off-Broadway actors and living in that community was a completely life-changing experience.
Maybe someday I'll have a job where it haunts me or it's hard to move on.
Playing King George, for me, was a lesson in stillness and timing.
It's one thing to experience your Broadway debut alone, but to share it with an entire company was like summer camp or a college experience, where you were really growing up together.
Obviously, gay projects play a special role for me because I am gay, so I'm doubly proud of them.
I went to a local high school in Lancaster. Not much I can say about it; it was pretty much your typical public high school back in Pennsylvania.
There's kind of a gift in being gay because, if you come out, you're forced to express yourself.
I was definitely planning to go to college, but I deferred my admission to Carnegie Mellon to be in a non-equity tour of 'The Sound of Music.' But I made very little money in the tour, and college is really expensive, and I thought I'd never be able to pay off those loans.
When a piece of art gets really specific is usually when anybody can relate to it.
In the first year in New York, I went to this amazing teacher named Jen Waldman. She does lots of different classes, but one of her classes was where you went and worked on a song. And suddenly I felt like an artist again, and because I had worked the whole song, when I went into the audition room, I could connect to something in the 16 bars.
Even the first suitcase-off-the-train moment, it's easy to be discouraged, frustrated, annoyed, angry. Because you're waiting in freezing weather outside of an open call, and you're like, 'This moment of me right now is not the joy I felt when I was doing J. Pierrepont Finch in 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying' in high school.'
I think about 'Will & Grace,' and I think about 'Modern Family,' and the way that being gay has become sort of middle America... in the way that they show gay people in their specific way.
I bought the VHS of 'Into the Woods' at the Suncoast in the Park City Mall and watched it in the basement when I got home. And when it was over, I rewound it and immediately watched it again.
Trying to sound good at 10 A.M. is the worst.
I did 'Spring Awakening' on Broadway for about three years, and I did over 500 performances.
When I was doing 'Spring Awakening' the first couple of years I was living in New York, I was gay, and I was living with my 'roommate,' who was my boyfriend but was my roommate to everyone else.
I'd moved to New York to pursue a career in theatre, and it's very practical how you do it - I just went to every open call going.
I'm very selective about television because you sign away so much of your life to it.
I feel like loyalty is such a rare quality in this world, particularly the entertainment world.
I was playing this character, Melchior Gabor, who was a rebel and who was a person who didn't let the world define him, and who stood up to authority and was this kind of revolutionary... And when I left 'Spring Awakening,' I came out of that experience feeling like... I had cultivated this side of my personality that hadn't existed before.
If I've had roadblocks along the way for being gay, I'm not aware of them.
I don't hate dating people, but I'm not on social media or anything.
After 'Spring Awakening,' I wanted to do things that are really challenging and outside my comfort zone: things that scare me a little and make me grow.
People create from different places. Some love to create from a tortured place, some from a joyful place. And when I feel like I'm a 5-year-old kid in my backyard playing pretend, that's when I'm happiest.
The difference between being in the closet and out of the closet as a gay man is such a huge shift. I feel so connected still to that 22-year-old, but the idea that I was not open with that part of my life - which I am now so open about - is sort of surreal.
I got cast for 'Spring Awakening' when I was 20. Every dream I had came true in that moment.
There's something special about 'Looking.'
I never look at myself online, and I don't read gossip Web sites.
I was born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania - in Amish Country!
'Looking' is more than just a television show. It's contributing to the cultural conversation, and for me, those are the most exciting projects to be a part of.
I feel like certainly there are people expecting 'Looking' to be representative of everyone that's gay, the entire gay community. And it's a dangerous expectation to come in watching the show expecting that. Expecting that out of any show.
I did 'How to Succeed in Business... ,' 'Kiss Me Kate,' 'Godspell,' and 'You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown' in high school, all of which were fun.
I'd rather be a working actor and not hiding anything in my personal life.
I smile a lot in my real life.
When you get to really involve yourself with a piece and the other people, and you get to feel like it's a community and you're all building something together, it helps me to produce better work, I think.
I've never had trouble sleeping in my life.
I wanted to work with Michael Mayer because I'd seen 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' six times.
I did have AOL Instant Messenger when I was in middle school.
I love interacting with an audience. I love just being myself in front of a crowd.
I feel like, with a television show, you're always biting your nails hoping you're going to get that next season.
I beat 'Super Mario Bros 1,' '2,' and '3.'
It's daunting, taking on the task of representing the gay community, because there are so many different facets and different schools of thought and behavior.
