If Fox’s new high-school show-choir comedy, Glee (which airs its much-anticipated second episode tomorrow night) has a breakout star, it’s New York City’s own Lea Michele. The plucky, petite Broadway vet — she got her start in Les Misérables at age 8 and more recently originated the role of Wendla in Spring Awakening — plays the show’s Tracy Flick character, Rachel Berry, a socially-ostracized firecracker with a killer voice. Michele won the role after berating the producers — including co-creator Ryan Murphy of Nip/Tuck fame — for laughing during her first audition, and showing up to her second one on time despite having totaled her car outside the studio and being covered in broken glass. Recently, Michele popped back home for a few days, where we caught up with her as she got a haircut, took a stroll along the High Line, and a enjoyed a very unnecessary cup of iced coffee.
How would you describe your character, Rachel Barry, to people who’ve never seen Glee?
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This month: Experiencing “Glee” with two of its stars, Broadway’s Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison.
Expectations are “as high as an elephant’s eye” for “Glee,” the new one-hour FOX musical series that starts its weekly run Sept. 9 (Wednesdays, 9 PM ET), and features a mix of Broadway, Top 40, R&B and country music.
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A ruthless brunette with a killer set of pipes who bulldozes through high school with starry ambitions? Takes one to play one. Lea Michele, who launched her Broadway career at age 8, seems to feel nothing but warm kinship for Rachel Berry, the alter ego she plays on “Glee” — Fox’s new show about, you guessed it, a high school glee club. A singing, dancing club member with a pair of stage dads and an eye on stardom, Rachel at one point announces, “There is nothing ironic about show choir.”
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There’s nothing like a little Glee to completely change your life.
Just ask Cory Monteith, the Calgary-born, Victoria-raised cast member of one of the most promising network shows this fall.
The series, about a misfit group of high school students and teachers involved in a singing, dancing, glee-club band, officially launches next Wednesday on Fox and Global after a sneak preview in May, which was rebroadcast earlier this week.
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HitFix: So how was high school for you?
Lea Michele: I had a really great high school experience. I liked it a lot. I mean, I was happy to be out of high school when it was done, but now I get to spend every day in high school hallways, so it’s nice.
HitFix: How do you think this version of high school is different from the ones we ordinarily see?
LM: I think that as opposed to other high school shows, it just shows the life of the misfits, the not-cool kids and that’s who we are, so it shows high school from that aspect.
HitFix: Since your background is in theater, how are you adapting to working in TV?
LM: It’s hard getting new material, so much so fast. But I love the idea. I love the process of television. I love the challenge of focusing on one thing really, really hard and then letting go of it.
HitFix: And give me the pitch to get people to watch the show…
LM: Please f***ing… [she breaks into giggles] I’m so sorry! Anyway, it’s amazing. I just can’t say anything other than that. It’s so funny and it’s so fantastic. I’m a huge fan.
Glee premieres on Tuesday, May 19 on FOX and will return to FOX in the fall.
Source: HitFix.com
With FOX getting set to unveil Glee following the penultimate episode of American Idol next Tuesday, actress Lea Michele is on the brink of becoming Hollywood’s next big thing … trust us. With that in mind, we’d like to take this opportunity to share five things you probably don’t know about the girl everyone’s going to be talking about come Wednesday morning.
1) The beauty once was told she wasn’t pretty enough for TV.
Yes, if you can believe it, some foolish casting director once dubbed Michele “too ethnic looking and not pretty enough for television” when asked to evaluate her chances of making it in Hollywood. Fortunately, she didn’t listen… and Glee’s casting director has much better vision! “I know I’m a theater girl but I fell in love with the script so much, fought for it and now here I am!” she told us during a recent visit to the Glee set. “It’s kind of ridiculous. I still have moments at least twice a day when I’m like, ‘This is amazing, I can’t believe this. I’m so happy!’”
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