Jonathan Groff makes the OUT 100 – talks about his new HBO series “Looking”

Lots of cool and talented people in the Out Magazine OUT 100 – 61 of which have been revealed so far.

One of them is the gifted and gorgeous Jonathan Groff who, I think, is about to reach a whole new level of stardom with the HBO series Looking set to debut in January.

Here’s an excerpt from his Out interview:

Out: Tell us about Looking.

Jonathan Groff: It’s about a group of gay guys living in San Francisco. It was created by Michael Lannan and our director and showrunner Andrew Haigh directed a movie called Weekend. I had a pretty incredible experience watching that, and our show feels like a comedic take on it. It’s about modern gay life, all the ins and outs of it—and relationships.

Weekend was very British—and this takes place in San Francisco. Had you lived there, or spent much time there?

No, I’ve been to visit a couple of times but this is my first time living here, and I love it, I love it so much. It’s a beautiful city. We’re shooting on location pretty much entirely in San Francisco. The city is a whole other character in the piece and has been a beautiful backdrop for the story.

My character is a video game designer—so that’s the reason that he moved to San Francsico. I don’t want to give too much away, but they’re all different ages and in different places in their lives and their careers and their romantic lives, so it follows these different paths.

Yep, that sounds about right. The show is on HBO. Do you have sex scenes?

I have shot some sex scenes. The sex scenes in Weekend were beautiful and sexy—in addition to, and most importantly, feeling really authentic and real. So I hope that our sex scenes are sexy—and I think that they are—but I think even more than that what we’re trying to display is a reality of gay sex as opposed to the salaciousness of gay sex. We’re trying just to keep it real—which means humor. Some of our sex scenes are very emotional and very beautiful. Some of our sex scenes are awkward. We’re trying to get as close to reality as we possibly can. Hopefully, when people watch it, you’ll think, Oh, I’ve had that exact experience. I know what it feels like to be intimate with someone in that way.

As far as the acting is concerned, I feel connected to it, because it’s coming from a sense of intimacy and a sense of character. Sometimes sex scenes in TV shows feel like they’re thrown in there, and I think ours are pretty character connected and character-driven.

The show’s been getting a lot of buzz already.

They just announced the air dates [in January], and it felt so exciting and so crazy. What we’re making is going to be on TV! It’s felt like summer camp, being here in San Francisco, and it’s totally surreal that it’s going to be out in the world.

Go to OUT.com to read the rest!