Darren SAG Panel Q&A
After the episode [Never Been Kissed] was screened the mod made an announcement that Darren’s manager called and said he’d be fifteen minutes late because he was late leaving the rehearsals for the Glee tour.
Darren came onstage and sang a ditty apologizing for being late.
Darren: That’s an old Beatles tune, “Sorry That I’m Late”. It’s on the B-side of “Revolver”.
(he notices a group of girls in the front and points to them)
Darren: Starkid! (they were wearing Starkid tee-shirts, his theatre company)
Mod: Let’s start at the beginning. Tell us a little about how this journey started.
Darren: For the actors in the room, you know these things kinda happen very quickly as soon as you book something and “Glee”s turnover is very quick. I went out for it on a Monday and typically if you don’t hear anything within, like, a day or two, you kinda pre-occupy yourself or you’ll drive yourself insane. So I let it go; you audition and keep moving and I’d honestly forgot about it by Wednesday or Thursday and I got a call on Friday that said “We’re working next week.” And it was very exciting but also very disconcerting because I was like, “That’s an extreme amount of faith to have in somebody.” I didn’t meet Ryan Murphy until well after I started shooting. I’d never had any discussions with creative heads about (where the character was going. He says that he had his ideas about what was going on with the role). “I imagine this is a big storyline at some point. I’m sure it’s going to go somewhere interesting enough for a short period of time.” I even called the casting director , “Should I talk to Ryan Murphy or any of the guys?” (about the character”) And all I got was (imitating the dry mocking laugh of the casting director), “Oh, no honey.” It’s pretty great how quickly it went. It’s literally been just a firestorm of insanity. I guess I kinda just put my trust in the script and put faith in what they were doing . I was lucky, the work was cut out for me. I just kinda, “Just insert here”.
Mod: You could never expect the level of success you had when you got that call. Just overnight! The songs were a hit, you were a hit. The character was a fan favorite immediately.
Darren: I think…I don’t need to say that this is an understatement-I’ve been very lucky. I am very, very fortunate. I was literally about two seconds away from throwing in the towel as an actor. I was making more…not necessarily financially, but mentally, spiritually it was more lucrative to be pursuing music as a composer and working with my theater company. That was more fulfilling because you can be your own master and commander as a musician because you’re making things happen. As an actor you sorta have to be at the whimsy of many different higher authorities. For this, I guess I…
(as he’s talking someone from the staff takes the mic cord from around his feet)
Darren: Aww, that’s so sweet of you. Thank you. You did what my brain what wanted to do but didn’t have the gumption to pull off. Where was I? I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s work (writer about psychology and social sciences.) but (Gladwell’s) Tipping Point talks about what amounts to success. I think there was a lot of pieces in place where I was the lucky son of a gun that got to be that extra piece. You have a hit show that was already doing extremely well regardless of my little butt. It was doing fine. You have a great character people really love: Kurt Hummel and he’s (Blaine) his love interest, so you have that going for it. Then you’re in the second season and there’s an appetite for something new, something different, something fresh and so they introduce a new character that is just different enough to feed that appetite. Then you make songs for that personage; something different and unique. You got a bunch of guys in blazers and slicked back hair and accapella arrangements and you have a great song, whether you like it or not, can’t/won’t leave your head and they do their own arrangements for it. All these things that were stacking up and whoever got to be this character (couldn’t lose)…so I’m very, very, very fortunate. Like I said the work was already allotted out for me/to me. It’s not a role I feel I got to add a whole lot to. I think it’s a really great thing that I’ve been blessed with socially, politically…character-ly. On all fronts I think it’s much greater than the sum of its parts.
Mod: I assume you finally got the chance to talk to Ryan and Brad (Falchuk. Executive Producer) and discuss the character a
(Darren shakes his head)
Mod..little bit more.
Darren: Um…no. It sounds weird, you’re like “You must have had a meeting…” But no, “Glee” moves really fast you have to figure things out on your own. The writing’s good. I try to add my own personal sorry excuse for panache and make it individual. TV’s quick. “Glee” is not like anything else. It is an anomaly compared to the vast majority of television on how it functions. It’s a beauracratic nightmare because there’s so many pieces involved that to sit down with one actor and really kinda grow something…it’s not like theater. You can’t (take something) from the ground up and organically grow something. So no. I kinda have intermittent conversations every now and then backstage where I’ll ask question and they’re very mysterious about answers and I don’t know if it’s because they know the answers (and just not telling me) or they have no idea and they’re pulling a “Lost” on me or something, where they don’t have the answers and act like they do.
Mod: How much are you able to put yourself in the role? Are the producers receptive to that since they don’t give you much information.”
Darren: I want to be careful with what I’m saying. To say I haven’t had conversations--I haven’t had in-depth conversations, it’s not to say that we haven’t talked at all. (he clarifies that the objectives and ideas are there for the character, so he can elaborate on his own without having to talk it out with the writers) I don’t want to misconstrue that. As for me doing my own thing…inherently actors will always do their own thing. As much as I would love to say my actors training can always take me out of whatever vessels the fates has given me (dawnybee: he says this tongue-in-cheek). I’m 5’8, Caucasian male (so getting in character makes it easy) with certain quirks that are inescapable, so some of those are are in Blaine. For a lot of the performances; I’m a believer that performances to just have a fucking blast! Pardon my French. When you see your favorite musician and they have a great song you like and you see them live and it’s a bit droll and hum-drum it’s like (sighs), “Oh, man!” It just kills it. Part of the live experience is you want to be as excited as when you first heard it. I try to put that in my peformances. People tell me it looks like I’m having fun. It’s because (laughing) I am! It’s a blast. I’m having a great time. I guess that’s why that’s part of the reason I’ve always been a fan of performances. I like that (form of ) expression. Just knowing that there is a shared catharsis and music..I don’t know. There’s not point in what I’m saying. You sorta have to put me on a path, I rant quite a bit.
Mod:Do you feel responsible or a spokesman for a relevant issue for young people. Did you anticipate that type of responsibility to come with this role.
Darren: Yes and no. It’s a funny story. Michael Ausiello (of EW) got the breakdown for the part. He was named Blair at the time. He got this scoop, “It’s going to be Kurt’s boyfriend” and there were all these names thrown out (to play the role) Nick Jonas, Zac Efron, all these other people. My friend sent me that email with the article and said, “Check the comment toward the end” and someone wrote “Darren Criss from a ‘Harry Potter Musical’ and I thought that was so sweet. And days later I got a call for the audition. I bring that up because when I saw it (the article) and quite objectively, I thought, “This is going to be so awesome. Whoever gets to play this part I’m so happy for. I’m glad “Glee”s doing this.” “Glee” has inadvertently become this incredible soap box for a lot of positive ideals. I don’t want to make it exclusively to necessarily the gay youth thing, but inclusiveness in general and the grand scheme of acceptance and the celebration of that. So when I saw this character I was like, “Oh, man, this is going to be so awesome!” I feel like I’ve been given Superman’s outfit. I’ve don this thing that is so much bigger than me. Once again to go back to Malcolm Gladwell. There are things about me being in this role that I can’t believe I had been prepared for. First of all, I was raised in San Francisco in the musical community, (dawnybee: Holla!), I was raised by the gay community so it’s always been a topic. Just general conflict, especially with young people, that I’ve experienced ..even though I identify as a straight male ..there was a struggle between many of my peers or people in my close circle so it’s something (acceptance in the LBGT community) I’ve always been passionate about and wanted to be involved in something like this. Being a younger actor I was ready to struggle for like ten years, man. I didn’t know I’d be sent something so wonderful. We all seek these parts that let you pray have some kind of significance. Parts that (afford you the opportunity) to give back to this and that; things you believe in and this one fell in my lap and it’s just mind-numbing. That’s my long winded way of saying it’s awesome. It’s one thing if I was given a cause to speak to that I wasn’t as passionate about and I would have to educate myself about and really step up to the plate to be a speaker of, I’d have to work to step up to that plate. But this is something I believe in extremely and it’s really very, very special to me. Not just for young people but for the grander community of this very interesting time we’re in. The fact that “Glee” is popular is indicative of where we are as a society. It’s not just successful in major metropolitan areas, but the world all over.
Mod As an actor has there been one scene that stand out to you or was memorable?
Darren: You know, when you’re shooting stuff you don’t really get what it’s going to be like because you’re trying to memorize your line, hit your mark, you’re sweating, you’re tired. All kinds of stuff. You’re hungry. All these things blind you from what the bigger picture will be. Especially editing and all that. Something that got me stoked.. I get emotional thinking about this-but “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”. When I saw that….Fifty years ago, man (as in it wouldn’t be possible to see two guys being romantic onscreen), are you kidding me? I sing along with the music and sometimes I get the song wrong so I’m making sure I don’t look like a fool and that trying to impress the director who I really liked at the time. I’m just trying to make everything work so when I saw it. I was like, “OMG”. First of all this is a song I grew up on. I’m a big Frank Loesser nerd. It’s a song that I love. (dawnybee: He asks the audience if we remembered what Red Skelton film it was featured in) This is a song that had meaning to me; value so the fact that it was being recontexualized . And the cool thing about it-it wasn’t about the gay thing; it wasn’t about, “Oooh, two boys!” shock factor it was just a Nice. Song. It was just about these two characters that cared about it each other and it was playful and genuinely sweet and not in your face. It was just right and really special. I have really big separation from Blaine. I’m sorta this dude, bum. I don’t shave or slick my hair back so when I see this I’m able to look at it very objectively. (he recounts how an older man had come up to him and said if he had seen that when he was in high school it would’ve changed so much for hm.) Clearly, I care about this. I don’t’ know if I’ve advertised that enough.
Mod: You seem really blessed to be doing what you were already doing. Can you tell us about your theatre work.
Darren: This will come up many times because I quote this guy, but back to Malcolm Gladwell and he talks about the “1,000 Hour Rule” and it’s a whole concept where… (a person claps) Was that a clap in here? There’s some nerds in the house. Is it 1,000 or 10,000?
(people shout out 10,000)
Darren: The 10,000 rule basically he uses how the Beatles as an example that they spent X amount of time playing strip clubs in Hamburg and they were really tight as a band doing what they did eventually for nothing. And Bill Gates, the same thing. Right place and right time but just used all these things he used a lot as practice. For me, I played cafés, bars and restaurants for fun, to make pocket change for I could buy my friends dinner. My schtick was playing Disney songs. It was my favorite thing to do. People were so amused that this kid was saying, “I can play any Disney song” and they’d be saying movie (songs) as if I wouldn’t know it. Like, of course I know it. So that was my schitck. I’d recontextualize them. I’d do a Britney Spears song as a Bossa Nova tune. Frank Sinatra with a pontoon. I’d mix and match. It was fun for me. Who knew I’d end up on a show kinda doing the same thing and utilizing my passion for acting as well. None of us grew up with “Glee” so none of us grew up with the idea of , “One day…I’ll do that.” My joke is that even if I didn’t end up on the show I’d be playing “Teenage Dream” at Maggiano’s at the Grove (an Italian restaurant he used to sing at, which funny enough was just a few blocks from where the Q&A was held.) for $30 bucks and some Fenney Wenney (whatever that is). That’s a Wednesday.
Mod: She reads off a question about themes and characters in Harry Potter books that inspired him to write “A Harry Potter Musical” and its sequel.
Darren: For those of you who aren’t familiar, I’ll be really brief and feel free to peruse the internet because there’s a lot of crazy stuff on that we’ve done. In college I wrote music for these shits and giggles musicals that we’d do and we put it on Youtube just to show our friends who were in the musicals and to much to our surprise and dismay we garnered this wonderful fanbase and that was like two years ago. We just did our fourth musical. So themes from that…all great…and I’ll use this in the novelic sense and not the literal sense, but in all romantic stories there are very basic themes of love, acceptance and good versus evil and all that stuff. And this is not a cop-out. Are they here (the ones who asked the questions)?
Mod: Yes.
Darren: (calls out) Where are you? (He does the shield eyes against the light to see move) Oh, hi guys! Hi, Mark, I didn’t see you! Those are good friends of mine. You could’ve called me and asked that. All the great tales that we have in our lexicon of storytelling always have good triumphing over evil unless you’re really depressing, dark stuff it’s good over evil. Friendship and love and positive energy overcoming all that is bad. And all that sugary stuff that has a lot of merit. All the good stuff you can actually buy if it’s in a song, but in real life you’d be like, “No way”. But in a song, “of course, love overcomes! I can do anything!” I would say those things: friendship and companionship. All the good stuff you used to watch in cartoons.
Mod: How are you finding the time to do theater, writing and acting?
Darren: Well, I’m late to a lot of things, that’s for sure. Wink. I’m sort of a masochist. I’m a glutton for punishment. I like being occupied. Artistic people always keep ourselves occupied all the time. That’s how I work and function and unfortunately that is how I create although it could be very stressful. Literally when I wasn’t shooting (“Glee”) I was in my trailer finishing the score for my show. I was like this in college. I was the guy who ever-extended himself way too much. Probably flaked out more than he needed to. I got a lot done, but also let a lot of people down. It was tough. I’ve always been interested in so many things that it takes a toll eventually. I’m always sick. I don’t get enough sleep. But I just love it. I talk to my friends, “Yeah, so you’re saying you’re sick all the time, you’re late and you’re working on too many things. It sounds like nothing’s changed, man.. It’s like nothing has changed except you’re making money instead of getting Cs and Ds.” You spend a lot of time in your car in L.A so I take calls in the car, I’m always writing. I write on my hands as well. Always creating. Always writing. Always talking as well.
Mod: Typical shooting day for “Glee”.
Darren:It’s tough because you’re basically on call. It’s a show where you never know when you’ll be back. I never know where it’s going. I don’t even know what happens in the final episode. I really can’t tell you. People ask, “Do you know what happens in the final episode?” I don’t know. Do you know? Can you tell me? I never know anything until the last minute. A lot of my scenes I get the day of. I don’t know what songs I’m singing until I hit the studio. Things just happens just so darn fast. So “Glee” is an anamoly so if I were to give you a model for what comes (with working) on an hour-long TV show, this is not a good example of a glimpse into that world.
For instance, I live between New York and L.A; I’m back and forth quite a bit. It was pretty cool because all my recording for The Warblers stuff all of it was done in New York. The guys who sings the Warblers parts….Anyone from Tufts University? (no response) Okay then. Tufts University, they’re a sorta typical East Coast collegiate accappella group- the Beezelebubs; they did all the tracks on that. It’s easier to fly one guy from California to New York than fly 14 guys from the East coast here. I fly to New York every week to record something. I guess this was one crazy day…this is not from this episode, I wish it was. I don’t know if you’re fans of the show but there’s this scene where I had to sing this great Robin Thicke song so I got a call, “Darren, you have to go to New York in a couple of hours” Alright. That’s fine. Not a problem at all. What are we doing? “I know we sent you “Silly Love Songs” but I think we’re going to do two different songs and you’re going to have to record by tonight. Is that a okay?” Uh, yeah, that’s fine. I hope they’re songs I know. “I don’t know if you know these songs. One is “When I Get You Alone”” Are you kidding me? I happen to know that song extremely well. That was my favorite albums when it came out. “And the other is “Bills, Bills, Bills by Destiny’s Child” Yeah, man!!! And they’ve been very lucky too because they throw me in there last minute, and they pray that I know these songs and I know them very well. There will come a day when they’ll need a song in a half-hour and I won’t know the song and we’ll be totally screwed. I’m jinxing myself now. I shouldn’t say that. We recorded it…it was late. I probably left the studio at three or four in the morning. Went straight to the car to go to JFK to LAX. From LAX to the GAP to shoot the scene the next morning for a song I recorded less than 24 hours before in New York (people groan sympathetically) Yeah. And we shot it. But that was a crazy day. That’s not everyday. You have to record a song. Sometimes you get an hour or a half-hour. I’m from the studio world. “An hour to record a song?! Are you crazy? No way. You need at least a day or at least a six pack or something, like c’mon!” It’s really quick. I will say this: the cast and crew of “Glee” is--and I have talked to a ton of friends working on other shows-I have learned is infamously really nice (dawnybee: He was trying to say he has friends on other sets that are unhappy compared to theirs) and that’s not me being diplomatic. Truly. This is Ryan Murphy’s third show now: “Popular”, “Nip/Tuck” and now “Glee” so all of his camera guys, his crew guys followed him from those shows and everyone’s close knit and it’s a very tight machine; everyone’s very sweet. And it does help…there’s two things about the show that makes a difference: We’re not moving cadavers and killing people. It’s “Glee”! Everyone’s very happy. And secondly: the show’s doing well and people aren’t on edge about losing their jobs and that does wonders for an atmosphere.
Mod: It doesn’t sound like it, but were you worried about joining a show that was already established.
Darren: Again, I lucked out. You would think it would be a problem that I’m going into a show and they are very much the McKinley kids (the core cast) It was like going to high school. I was the Freshman in high school and they were the popular kids. They’re celebrities. It wasn’t weird because it was like I was starting my own show. Because I never shot…I didn’t meet some of the other cast until months after the fact. Literally from “Never Been Kissed” all my scenes were with either Chris or Max or at this beautiful home in Pasadena or at Dalton; everyone (guys who play the Warblers) …no one knew what was going to happen (the popularity of his character and The Warblers) and so a lot of the Warbler guys and I’m close with now so we started our own thing now. There’s still kinda this Dalton/McKinley separation. I’ve tried to organize a Dalton/McKinley basketball game but nobody wanted to do it because we would’ve destroyed McKinley. (laughs) I actually don’t know that for a fact. I don’t know how to play basketball. I had to start from a very organic place. I hadn’t actually watched the show very much before I got in the show. I don’t watch television (dawnybee: or doesn’t have a television), but you’d have to live under a rock, to not recognize “Oh, it’s that the guy from “Glee”. You’d see it everywhere so I was familiar with some of the guys. But what’s cool was because I hadn’t watched the whole first season on Youtube yet (dawnybee: Dude, how?) I got to meet them as an equal, I got to meet them as colleagues. As I watched the first season I’d go into work the next day, “Oh, man that song-I know it was a year and a half ago-but it was amazing! You’re great!” It hasn’t been hard at all. They’ve been very sweet and welcoming. I think it could’ve been a much more nightmarish situation and it really wasn’t. It’s been a dream.
Mod: Is there anything you’d love to play; any character that’s so far off that we’ve gotten to know you from playing.
Darren: We’re mercenaries, man. As actors you take whatever you are given. People say to me, “Are you going to do a film this summer? You should do a film. What are you going to do?” I don’t know, can I do a film?!! Will someone give me something? G*ddamn. As if I have a smorgasbord of roles (to choose from). I’d like to do anything really. For anybody who has had actors training it’s always…you hope to not be pigeon-holed unless you are like your specific funny man, straight man, what have you. I’d like to think I could do a little bit of everything. I’m sort of a goofball. I kinda lucked out that (Blaine) is a very austere, very sweet, kinda gentlemanly kid which is very different from my general demeanor. Maybe I’d get pigeon-holed playing guys like that. I hope to play a jerk asshole mean guy. I’d really like to do that. That was one of my favorite thing to do in high school. I always played the bad guys in plays. Everyone knows…especially guys…everyone knows playing the bad guy is the funnest (sic). That’s a no-brainer. That would be really cool. At this point I’m just happy. Beggars can’t be choosers. I feel like I’ve been invited to this amazing ball. This beautiful ball. Beautiful, incredibly hot, talented, philanthropists, amazing, incredible human beings--and I knew somebody who had an extra ticket, basically. I’m at the table sitting there doing my damndest to look nice, to be nice to everybody and to just enjoy every single second because once the ball is over I don’t know if there’s an afterparty. So I just want to enjoy it and if they decide to let me play afterwards and if that means (playing) a bad guy or Blaine for the rest of my life I should be so lucky.
Mod: I know you want to sing for us, so this is my last question.. I believe there’ll be an afterparty..
Darren: You can all come with me.
Mod: Up to now you’ve been able to do everything that you wanted to do on the show..
Darren: Which is terrifying because it’s gotta all down hill from here.
Mod: What’s the goal for you? Is there a project you’d like to do that is totally different?
Darren: My passion before this was Starkid Productions and writing for that. I think everybody hopes to work with something they’re passionate about with people they care about and I was able to do that first. I was able to work on things I care dearly about, projects and material that I think is great. It was challenging and invigorated me. I hope to continue with that. I hope to bring Starkid to Broadway in the next two years. I’d like to continue writing music whether for myself or other artists. If I had not gotten the performance/acting bug I definitely would’ve been like a manager or agent. I get my rocks off on seeing other people do well. I like as a composer meeting somebody, hearing someone else’s voice and saying, “I want to make you sound awesome” and really giving them the spotlight. That’s cool. Writing songs is like having children. It doesn’t necessarily match what you thought it would be, but it surprises you and surpasses the expectations you could’ve never had before. As long as I keep doing that, I’d be very, very happy. I say this completely separated from the fact that I’m on “Glee” but “Glee” is so much bigger than any of us could have anticipated and it’s hard to imagine me trying to recreate “Glee”. Which is why I think I’m going to continue doing things that are very personal to me which is music. And I try to keep on partying whenever I can.
(Darren and the mod go back and forth over questions. She thinks she should end it to let him sing, Darren explains he only brought the guitar to “save face for being a jerk and coming in late” and didn’t want to cut anyone off -the mod showed him the question cards from the audience--just to “sing a tune”)
Darren: I don’t how this works. Let’s keep going!
Question: Do you get residuals from the songs you perform on the show?
Darren: Performance royalties? That stuff is really, really convoluted and I’ll probably give you false information so I’ll say yes, but it’s pennies. Like I said it’s a beauracratic nightmare. There is so many things happening and there are so many different pockets those things go into, so I’ll say yes, but it’s not paying my rent that’s for sure. Maybe In & Out (dawnybee: An overrated fast food joint with skimpy, meager fries) which is just as valuable.
Question: Being an actor and a musician, how do you find the crossover? What skills do you bring to both and what challenges you differently?
Darren: That’s a good question. I think they’re exactly the same. I think they’re facilities (the mediums)…, specific wirings where the output is different but it comes from the same place. Incredible teachers and lawyers are basically incredible actors, incredible performers. A song is basically a monologue. It is a monologue except when you sing there are different frequencies to it. You’re telling a story, you have an objective, you have an emotion you’re trying to convey. It’s basically the same thing. You really do have to think of everything as (being about) telling a story and giving someone a reason to give a crap about what you are doing and why it’s important. Whether you’re an actor or singer, it’s about connection. Your goal is to connect as closely as you can. You’re using the same stuff (motivation).
The moderator ends the Q&A saying that Darren has to do more rehearsals the next day but Darren stayed to sing. People shouted out for him to Beatles songs or something original. He said he was going to sing a song from the Harry Potter musical for the girls in front wearing Starkid shirts. He performed “Coolest Girl” which he described as his idea of a song for Hermoine being fashioned after “On My Own” or “I Am Telling You”…a powerful song that you’d get sick of. He followed that with a very John Mayer-esque version of “Teenage Dream” (he forgot the second part of the song but quickly recovered). Then he called up his friend who plays Ron in the Harry Potter Musical and they performed “Grainger Danger” in which Ron and Draco sing about crushing on Hermoine.
That ended the Q&A and he had to rush off to get some sleep.
Can be found here too: http://dawnybee.livejournal.com/543508.html