Jonathan Groff: The OUT interview

Jonathan Groff, a sensation on Broadway in Spring Awakenings and a memorable villain during Glee’s first season, has joined the cast of the Starz drama Boss as the ambitious assistant of Kelsey Grammer who plays the mayor of Chicago.

Groff is profiled in the current issue of OUT Magazine.

Here are some excerpts:

On being out: He came out early in his career at a march for gay rights in Washington, D.C., when a reporter asked him why he was there. “I just told her,” he says. “I sort of always knew, in the back of my mind, that when the moment arrived for me to come out, I would. I wasn’t yanked out of the closet.” Groff was singled out, along with Sean Hayes, in a much criticized 2010 Newsweek article questioning the merits of gay actors playing straight, but his nonchalance on the subject points to a grounded, what-of-it mentality.

“When I came out, people said it may have a negative effect on my career, and that’s definitely something I thought about before I did it,” he admits. “But I don’t hold that belief. I just go on my auditions and plug away as I normally would. At the end of my career, I can look back and ask, ‘Well, did it, or didn’t it?’ But at the moment, I just have to move forward and hope that people will follow my actions.”

On his Boss character: “He’s this young, super-ambitious, smart guy, and he’ll do whatever it takes to get ahead,” Groff says of his character, before adding that he’s harboring “a gigantic secret.” He likens Ian to Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello, a confidant whose intentions are far from pure, or even clear. Groff won’t divulge any spoilers but admits that Todd would “sleep with anyone — men or women — to advance in the political world. His sexuality comes from a place of power.”