Speaker 1: And that's what you really missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2: And Kevin An iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Welcome to and that's what you really miss podcasts. This
Speaker 1: is Darren Chris Part two. Boo boo boo, boo boo.
Speaker 2: He's the best storyteller. This episode could have been eight
Speaker 2: hours long and I wouldn't have been mad.
Speaker 3: We literally don't have to do anything. He just has
Speaker 3: to talk and didn't like the best way possible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just prompted a little bit and then he just
Speaker 2: goes so without further ado. Here's the rest of our
Speaker 2: conversation with Darren Chris.
Speaker 1: What was your favorite Warbler song to do? And speaking
Speaker 1: of music, I.
Speaker 4: Mean, gosh, I'm sure people ask you guys all the
Speaker 4: time what your favorite number was, and it's hard because
Speaker 4: there were so many, And so there's the differentiation between
Speaker 4: what was fun too a song I liked next to
Speaker 4: how much fun I had like shooting it right and
Speaker 4: like what the day was, you know?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we have a hard time seperating like seasons
Speaker 3: that way, because we were so attached to some seasons.
Speaker 1: And then it's the memory versus watching it.
Speaker 4: I remember the making far more than I remember the
Speaker 4: seeing it because I haven't watched many episodes of Glee,
Speaker 4: not by avoiding it just because I just I just
Speaker 4: never got around to I never got around to it.
Speaker 4: So or I would watch the premieres with you guys,
Speaker 4: which I've always loved. I loved, like I didn't ever
Speaker 4: want to watch it, not with people I made it with,
Speaker 4: Like if I missed, because we listeners should know that
Speaker 4: we would at lunchtime. I loved that. That's such a
Speaker 4: fun memory. Lunchtime we would go into one of the
Speaker 4: theaters and watch whatever we had just made and with
Speaker 4: the people we made it with, and everyone's rooting.
Speaker 1: For each other, the crew. It's so cool to watch it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and everyone's having to laugh and knowing what it
Speaker 4: was like to make. And so if I missed those
Speaker 4: for whatever reason, if I wasn't there that day, then
Speaker 4: I would just like never see the episode because I
Speaker 4: only wanted to experience it with the people that I
Speaker 4: made it with. Yeah, that was really really, really special.
Speaker 4: But having said that, my memories are more tied to
Speaker 4: the days, so uh, and I definitely want I watched
Speaker 4: all the musical numbers for sure, like you know, because
Speaker 4: they'd be on YouTube or whatever. So I would have
Speaker 4: an ability to see them much easier. Yeah than like
Speaker 4: if I missed it nine o'clock at fuck eight o'clock
Speaker 4: on Tuesday then But I don't know. I for Warbler stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's definitely a fan favorite.
Speaker 4: I think, what's a fan favorite somewhere only we know?
Speaker 4: M hmm, yeah, somewhere only we know. I cannot believe
Speaker 4: became a fan favorite because that didn't really emerge from
Speaker 4: my to my attention until like the Pandemic and TikTok.
Speaker 4: It was like when I was doing the show like
Speaker 4: Teenage Dream, that was like the moment for me and
Speaker 4: for everybody. And I love teenagers like I have no like,
Speaker 4: I'm happy to do it. I love playing it at concerts.
Speaker 4: It's my favorite. Like no complaints about about that song
Speaker 4: at all. There were so many funny things about Somewhere
Speaker 4: only we know, which is a the resurgence of it
Speaker 4: that happened. I think there was like a on TikTok
Speaker 4: it was like a slowed down version of it or something,
Speaker 4: and that got picked up and that was and then
Speaker 4: that shot up as at least on streaming O. That's
Speaker 4: the the marker of like well it is frankly, is
Speaker 4: it is the marker of if.
Speaker 2: On Spotify?
Speaker 4: I think, shut up, really, I think it might be. Yeah, oh,
Speaker 4: I thought it was the most streamed as one of
Speaker 4: my of mine. But if it is, that's because of TikTok,
Speaker 4: because there's a new audience. So, I guys, Keen was
Speaker 4: like one of my favorite bands in high school. I'm like,
Speaker 4: we've talked about our love for ang anglophilic shit, Kevin,
Speaker 4: you and I love we love Keen, we love we
Speaker 4: love McFly, We have like we obsessed with British pop charts.
Speaker 4: We talked a lot about this, Kevin and I for
Speaker 4: a British fans, you'll appreciate like we like two thousands
Speaker 4: British pop rock charts. Is like we love gold Standard.
Speaker 4: So I'm a senior in high school, which is like
Speaker 4: one of the most potent years of music conception of
Speaker 4: your life. I'm starting to drive, you know, the CDs
Speaker 4: that are in your car when you're starting to have
Speaker 4: agency of your destiny, like driving a car like that,
Speaker 4: those are the fucking you know yea.
Speaker 2: I remember the first CD when I got my license,
Speaker 2: like it yeah, imprinted.
Speaker 4: But that but that moment I was going to say,
Speaker 4: is like how driver's license is written. You know, it's
Speaker 4: those nineteen eighteen years old experiences and moments in your
Speaker 4: car feel like you're the king of the world and
Speaker 4: everything speaks to you in this really amazing way. It's
Speaker 4: it's a it's a really magical time. So Keen. I
Speaker 4: remember going on a trip, my first trip to London
Speaker 4: with my parents. I was like seventeen or eighteen, and
Speaker 4: I saw a music video and I always watched like
Speaker 4: foreign countries MTV because you know, it's it's not what
Speaker 4: would be playing here, and it's not that we like
Speaker 4: we were not in the global cultural economy that we
Speaker 4: are now where I can, like I have easy as
Speaker 4: much access to like the top one hundred.
Speaker 2: And even buy songs off of iTunes in another country right.
Speaker 4: Off of like HM v UK oh nice, Yeah dude,
Speaker 4: I remember that shit, yeah, getting it on the well
Speaker 4: or or I would I would buy records when I
Speaker 4: was there, Like I would go to the record stores
Speaker 4: locally and see what was going on. So I saw
Speaker 4: a video for a song by Keene, which was the
Speaker 4: single they were pushing at the time, was a song
Speaker 4: called Everybody's Changing. That was I think the single off
Speaker 4: that album was not somewhere only we know. And I
Speaker 4: remember buying this record as ston as I could. Maybe
Speaker 4: I bought it in London or I bought it when
Speaker 4: I came back, But anyway, my senior year was sort
Speaker 4: of scored by their album Hopes and Fears, And uh,
Speaker 4: I can I remember so vividly all the drives, like
Speaker 4: with friends, like blasting the ship. You know, that feeling
Speaker 4: that's just goosebumps central, you know. So imagine my surprise
Speaker 4: when years later, I'm I'm reading a script it since
Speaker 4: Summer only, you know, by Keen, and I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 4: this isn't exactly like a popular song, Like this is
Speaker 4: a song that I like, I don't ever was it
Speaker 4: that popular? And maybe in the think did you know
Speaker 4: the song? In my mind, I didn't know it. Maybe
Speaker 4: in my mind I thought it was just this song
Speaker 4: that but certainly not as popular as the other ones
Speaker 4: that were knowing it was like this, this wouldn't have
Speaker 4: made the cut of songs that would be obviously done
Speaker 4: by by me. Uh, And so I was like, cool,
Speaker 4: I don't know who's calling these shots. But I happened
Speaker 4: to have a very personal connection with this song, and
Speaker 4: I remember doing this recond I record and I recorded
Speaker 4: it with the same guy in the same way. Did
Speaker 4: I go to near for this one. I think by
Speaker 4: this point we started doing it in La. It's getting expensive,
Speaker 4: I know, to make it right. So I was doing
Speaker 4: it in La and I remember just being really weirded
Speaker 4: out by it, because like, I love this record and
Speaker 4: I'm like hearing my voice on it. I kept going
Speaker 4: shut up, like like I want to hear I forget
Speaker 4: his name, but I want I want to the real
Speaker 4: singer like yet, So I didn't dislike it. I just
Speaker 4: kind of had this oh God, I don't know, like
Speaker 4: this is such a great record and I don't want
Speaker 4: to like tarnish this. Yeah, and uh, and that's how
Speaker 4: I felt. I was like, this is not the best
Speaker 4: representation of this song that I love so much. And
Speaker 4: then on the day we were at that school Burstein
Speaker 4: YEP with Bernstein High and Uh. I have really sensitive eyes.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's a light eye thing, but
Speaker 4: like Courty was so bright. It was really bright, and
Speaker 4: it was a day where they had like those giant mirrors.
Speaker 4: It was like a comedy routine where I was already
Speaker 4: like the fuck what's going on? And then they go
Speaker 4: like it was melting. My eyes are getting fucking melted
Speaker 4: out of my sockets, and I remember I have to
Speaker 4: like sing to Chris and every angle they went, this
Speaker 4: was the day that I learned this one trick that
Speaker 4: I'm sure optometerist would tell me it's a terrible idea,
Speaker 4: but apparently it's a trick where if you, if it's
Speaker 4: too bright for your eyes, close your eyes and look
Speaker 4: right at the sun. I remember, yeah, and so just
Speaker 4: to get your eyes as used to a bright So
Speaker 4: I'm sure this is a horrible idea, but I would
Speaker 4: do it and then open I'm like, you have three
Speaker 4: seconds because if you're filming this and using this this
Speaker 4: becomes the internet, it would be like and action. So yeah,
Speaker 4: like it was so hard, So I have to watch
Speaker 4: it again because I forget. I just remember the entire
Speaker 4: time shooting it, going like god damn it, it's so
Speaker 4: bright out. The song is not as good as the
Speaker 4: original record, and I have to like act and all
Speaker 4: I can do is this. I'm like tearing up, and
Speaker 4: I remember asking can I wear sunglasses? Like at the time,
Speaker 4: like there was a pink sunglasses thing that was like
Speaker 4: my trade berk before I got in the show, and
Speaker 4: so they wanted to put in there. It's the whole thing.
Speaker 4: But I just remember doing that. I just it was
Speaker 4: so hard. I was squinty McGee doing this. Maybe they
Speaker 4: thought I was like really emoting. I was just barely
Speaker 4: trying to keep my fucking eyes.
Speaker 1: I don't think I noticed it, But that's really funny.
Speaker 2: It's also such a good I forgot how bright that
Speaker 2: would be, like filming there at a certain time of day,
Speaker 2: if it was sunny reflecting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's like, really that was hard, but that's what
Speaker 4: I remember the most, and so now people have this.
Speaker 4: But the lesson that I take away from this is
Speaker 4: a reinforcement something I wheartily believe in, which is once
Speaker 4: you make something in like if you make a piece
Speaker 4: of art and it's released to the world, it does
Speaker 4: not belong to you anymore, and it never did in
Speaker 4: the first place. Like whatever experience people have with something
Speaker 4: that you made, it belongs to them and their experience
Speaker 4: and how they experienced it. Like I'm never gonna sit
Speaker 4: here and like pooh pooh. People's like positive response to that,
Speaker 4: like what a beautiful thing, Like they're supremely unaware of
Speaker 4: my like kind of funny relationship with it. I'm not
Speaker 4: saying I dislike it. I just had like a flimsy
Speaker 4: kind of you know, connection to it, you know, as
Speaker 4: shooting it and recording it. But people really love it,
Speaker 4: and like that's all that matters. Like they don't they
Speaker 4: don't give Yeah, well I love that people love it,
Speaker 4: So that's, you know, something that I owe them to,
Speaker 4: you know, be like, well, if you love it, then
Speaker 4: like let's love it together, you know, like that's all
Speaker 4: that matters. There was a girl that I did, Kadiza,
Speaker 4: I'll shout out Kadijah, who was one of our urchins
Speaker 4: in Little Shop who she she joined the show when
Speaker 4: she was eighteen and she turned twenty one during our run.
Speaker 4: I mean, she's grown up doing this show and she is,
Speaker 4: you know, a young gleek. She loves glee and hearing.
Speaker 4: She she really loves that song, and I love this girl.
Speaker 4: So I'm just like fuck yeah, dude, Like that's so special,
Speaker 4: Like what an amazing thing. It is so cool, like
Speaker 4: getting the.
Speaker 2: Twenty one year old knows su Quinez or like a
Speaker 2: song like yes exactly, because ultimately it's promoting the band
Speaker 2: that you love exactly, they get the check, you get
Speaker 2: to hear their music great.
Speaker 4: Exactly, And and it's just like that show was such
Speaker 4: a gateway for so many other people, Like I'm not
Speaker 4: gonna lie like the first like I didn't hear about
Speaker 4: I don't know led Zeppelin because of like growing up
Speaker 4: in the seventies. It's because they were on a soundtrack
Speaker 4: for a movie that I loved growing up in the nineties.
Speaker 4: So it's like there's there's gotta be some gateway, Like
Speaker 4: it's not all gonna be because you were there in
Speaker 4: that moment. Like there's like she really got into musical
Speaker 4: theater and it is now doing a musical theater show
Speaker 4: with me because of Glee, And I'm like, that's fucking amazing. Also,
Speaker 4: you're saying a twenty one year old that knows Keen.
Speaker 4: I'm like a twenty one year old that knows Glee.
Speaker 4: There's still I mean, you guys must be experienced this
Speaker 4: all the time. Like it's amazing that there's this new
Speaker 4: there's there's still seems to be this interest that I
Speaker 4: thought would be outdated, but it still seems to.
Speaker 2: I know a lot of New York, like New York
Speaker 2: when I go, because people are just out more. You're
Speaker 2: in the streets and things. Yeah, yeah, LA don't really
Speaker 2: feel it. But if I go to New York, I'm like, damn,
Speaker 2: why are you guys still watching this?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's well. Also, you know, there are some things
Speaker 4: there you go like that's definitely specific to that time.
Speaker 4: So I don't know if I would necessarily do that now,
Speaker 4: but but yeah, people seem to not give a shit.
Speaker 4: They stick to the the thing that is the most fun,
Speaker 4: which is like the the vibrancy and the youthfulness and
Speaker 4: the and the fun and and and for lack of
Speaker 4: a better fucking word, the glee of it all. Yeah,
Speaker 4: literally and figures in the music. So yeah, it's going
Speaker 4: twenty one. Yeah, crazy, she loves that shit, I'll take it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. It is nice that I feel like
Speaker 2: that generation that has had that has found it the
Speaker 2: past couple of years inherently understands that it was of
Speaker 2: a different era, a different time. Yeah, because obviously there
Speaker 2: are things that have not aged well, but like, you
Speaker 2: can't go back and redo it, but it is, but it.
Speaker 4: Is well because it's that's not the main that's not
Speaker 4: what the show's now just in the way that there
Speaker 4: are things in Friends that I go it doesn't really
Speaker 4: work now, but it's such a nominal part of what
Speaker 4: makes Friends great and sort of like everlasting, that it's
Speaker 4: not gonna, like, you know, delete it from its like potency.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to hear about when you first started
Speaker 2: working with Chris, because obviously, I mean Chris and Darren,
Speaker 2: Blaine and Kurt became a worldwide cultural sensation, and as
Speaker 2: a closet gay kid growing up, I would I was
Speaker 2: desperate for any you're gay. Sometimes what shocking is is
Speaker 2: is Darren's not. And I walked up on Darren once.
Speaker 2: I felt like I caught him watching porn.
Speaker 4: Go on, Where's where's this going?
Speaker 2: He's sitting in the auditorium and I go up and
Speaker 2: I'm looking at it, see over his shoulder, like what
Speaker 2: he's watching. And I sit next to him and he
Speaker 2: looks at me like dad just walked in and caught me.
Speaker 2: He was watching a Judy Garland video on YouTube, the
Speaker 2: Judy Garden Christ Special, and all he says is, I
Speaker 2: know I'm like gay, but without allay all the gay stuff.
Speaker 4: Thank you. I feel seen. I feel like I'm aspirationally gay.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 2: It was the perfect summation. I was like, thank you, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was great.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm I'm a season ticket holder, like lifetime subscriber
Speaker 4: of gay culture, like like the huge majority of the
Speaker 4: things that I admire aspire to be try and like copy,
Speaker 4: Like it's it's all from queer culture. So it's like
Speaker 4: I make no I'm no pretense about my absolute love
Speaker 4: of what we can affectually call gay shit. Gay shit
Speaker 4: is my shit ndred percent.
Speaker 2: So how did you feel coming into the show to
Speaker 2: that storyline?
Speaker 4: Like how well, you know we were talking about earlier
Speaker 4: about me having this background in you know, in like
Speaker 4: in create creating stuff and music, and in many regards,
Speaker 4: it's this sort of slum dog millionaire moment where like
Speaker 4: the questions asked for were the answers that I'd kind
Speaker 4: of come in knowing just by sheer coincidence and serendipity.
Speaker 4: I talked about this to great length when we were
Speaker 4: kind of going around the press circuit of like my
Speaker 4: time on Glee when I really came in. But d
Speaker 4: I grew up in San Francisco in the nineties, like
Speaker 4: I have not that that makes me some fucking like
Speaker 4: hyper authority on the gay experience. I wasn't about to,
Speaker 4: like straight splain gayness in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 4: And I think anytime I talk about this, people who
Speaker 4: are maybe perhaps a less less attuned to the grace
Speaker 4: of allowing people to have their experience in relativity to
Speaker 4: others might kind of misconstrue this. This what I'm trying
Speaker 4: to say. But I came in with luckily, I think
Speaker 4: the tools to kind of really appreciate what I was
Speaker 4: doing in some way. And again that doesn't make me
Speaker 4: some fucking saint or anything. I just so happened to
Speaker 4: have had a very strong and comfortable relationship with queerness itself.
Speaker 4: It wasn't a thing that was like, oh, like, it's
Speaker 4: just like so much of my like I live a
Speaker 4: very culturally queer life, like the people around me and
Speaker 4: like the thing that I like, it's just it's just
Speaker 4: such a part of the way that I experience life
Speaker 4: that getting to be the guy that got to represent
Speaker 4: that I felt was a huge responsibility. But also I
Speaker 4: was like, man, I am glad that it's me because
Speaker 4: I don't mind doing like talking about this or like
Speaker 4: I don't get skittish about like oh I gotta talk.
Speaker 4: It's like, no, I love this is this is a
Speaker 4: community of men and women that I love dearly and
Speaker 4: feel so connected to, like on so many levels that
Speaker 4: I go few Like it'd be just like if you know,
Speaker 4: if I'm playing like a fucking like pro baseball player,
Speaker 4: i'd be like anything of like like I know basic
Speaker 4: sort of like surface level shit about baseball, but like like, yeah,
Speaker 4: I saw moneyball, like I like, I like the giants,
Speaker 4: like I know, I know the players that I grew
Speaker 4: up loving, but I don't I can't, like I can't
Speaker 4: talk literally inside baseball. But like there like there is
Speaker 4: the the the the gay struggle, the gay narrative that
Speaker 4: I grew up around. I had enough understanding of and
Speaker 4: comfort with that it wasn't foreign. And again I'm not
Speaker 4: saying I was an expert or that like I was
Speaker 4: the only person for the job. By no fucking means,
Speaker 4: I just go well, and compared to a lot of
Speaker 4: other people, like I perhaps was well suited to be
Speaker 4: put in this position. Obviously there's still a lot to learn,
Speaker 4: is still a lot to kind of navigate, but like,
Speaker 4: it didn't scare me. It was wildly exciting, Like it
Speaker 4: was a very fun thing to be a part of. Now,
Speaker 4: speaking of gay shit, this is one of my favorite
Speaker 4: stories with meeting Chris Colfer. So, Chris and we used
Speaker 4: to joke on paper, and I think Chris would corroborate
Speaker 4: this that on paper, like I'm like culturally way gayer
Speaker 4: than Chris. Wonderful thing that Chris said. I think I
Speaker 4: was talking about like old movies or some like you know,
Speaker 4: broad stereotype about like you know, like gay men, about
Speaker 4: like knowing like old Hollywood musicals or stuff like this,
Speaker 4: that is the stereotypes. And I was like going off
Speaker 4: on like some movie or some musical and I was like,
Speaker 4: you don't know, blah blah blah. And then Chris Fantasy
Speaker 4: said to me, He's like, can I just be gay
Speaker 4: without the whole like gay thing? And he is right
Speaker 4: like that, you know, there's a spectrum of all experiences.
Speaker 4: Like it's unfair that there are certain things that you're
Speaker 4: you're expected to be familiar with, Like that's just ridiculous,
Speaker 4: you know, So I happen to know a certain amount
Speaker 4: of things just because it interested me. But why I
Speaker 4: bring that up? So oh so gay shit. So when
Speaker 4: I meet Chris and you know, I've watched him on TV,
Speaker 4: like I know how much people love him, Like I'm
Speaker 4: supremely aware of like this relationship. Anytime spent with him
Speaker 4: will be near impossible outside of Glee once the episode
Speaker 4: is on. So, guys, and I give fo's a very
Speaker 4: sweet story, which is why I will forever have such
Speaker 4: affection for Chris Colfer. I met him the first day.
Speaker 4: It was a scene where we were at Burns back
Speaker 4: to Bernstein Bernstein, Bernstein, Tomato Tomato, and we go Karowski.
Speaker 4: Max Adler, who's the first person I ever met from Glee,
Speaker 4: by the way, who was Who's why He's always such
Speaker 4: a sweetheart in my book? He was so nice to me.
Speaker 4: The first is he like pins him up against the
Speaker 4: fucking like wall. And you know this are the three
Speaker 4: guys that I meet is Max Adler and Chris Colfer.
Speaker 4: And uh, for anybody listening, going like, where's he going
Speaker 4: with this with this gay shit thing? Oh Buffalo seat belts.
Speaker 4: So I U I had tickets to go see Sonton
Speaker 4: Foster do her concert, her cabaret concert. Bro that I
Speaker 4: am to go see her at your c LA And
Speaker 4: this is.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying, ship.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, I love I love that I can say
Speaker 4: this now. I think that like the like the culture
Speaker 4: around has more of like a tongue in cheap relationship
Speaker 4: with getting to talk what we're talking about. If I
Speaker 4: said this years ago, people would be so We've get
Speaker 4: so many things in a twist about what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: It's like, dude, like, come on, we're all having fun here,
Speaker 4: like we we all love each other, we all like
Speaker 4: respect each other's like experience. Yeah, thank you very much.
Speaker 4: So I so I have tickets to go see some
Speaker 4: fucking Fosters you do across town. I think like the
Speaker 4: next day or that night if it's that If it's
Speaker 4: that night, then I really like, oh, Chris even more credit.
Speaker 4: I've just met this person, okay, and he's like a
Speaker 4: big deal, right, He's like a very recognizable like cultural
Speaker 4: figure at this point. Yeah, And I say like, hey, man,
Speaker 4: like and this is just how I operate, Like, Hey,
Speaker 4: if we're gonna be doing this thing together, it'd be
Speaker 4: nice to get dinner sometime and like maybe talk about
Speaker 4: what we're gonna do and get to know each other
Speaker 4: a little better. If we're gonna spend time with each other,
Speaker 4: And I remember saying that. I was like, dude, you know,
Speaker 4: it'd be nice to kind of talk about this stuff.
Speaker 4: And I remember thinking, like, as soon as the episode
Speaker 4: comes out, we can never be seen together in public
Speaker 4: because I just be weird or or would make this
Speaker 4: person feel uncomfortable. So I said, hey, man, I have
Speaker 4: an extra ticket to see Sutton Foster tonight, Like, do
Speaker 4: you want to go like my treat, Like, let's get
Speaker 4: some dinner to get to know each other a little
Speaker 4: bit because we have all these scenes coming up, and
Speaker 4: be nice to you know, just to start this relationship
Speaker 4: in a more personal way than what we're doing on set.
Speaker 4: And bless his fucking heart, he said yes, Chris, Chris Colfer,
Speaker 4: who doesn't leave his house, like I said yes to me,
Speaker 4: and certainly at this time, and it was really sweet.
Speaker 4: We went to uh we went to uc I forget
Speaker 4: the concert space in the UCLA. I don't know if
Speaker 4: they still do it, but whatever concert serious they had.
Speaker 4: We went to go see her, and I remember being
Speaker 4: around people like everyone's bum rushing him taking pictures and
Speaker 4: I feel kind of bad, and he was. He was
Speaker 4: already pretty good at like, you know, like balancing that
Speaker 4: act of being gracious, but you know, not trying to
Speaker 4: start a thing. And we went to go see Sutton
Speaker 4: Foster and it was awesome because Sutton Foster rules. And
Speaker 4: then we and then we got we got sushi afterwards,
Speaker 4: and I was just asking about the I forget my questions,
Speaker 4: but I was asking about the part. I was asking
Speaker 4: about the process and just trying to do as much
Speaker 4: as I could. And I think that is the last
Speaker 4: and only time we ever went out just the two
Speaker 4: of us in like a public space. And I'm so
Speaker 4: glad we'll always have Sutton Foster, me and my story.
Speaker 4: I love telling that story. Yeah, but also that's s
Speaker 4: gay as fuck. I had in the best way possible.
Speaker 1: I'm actually great.
Speaker 4: So yeah, that's how it all started. Was that was
Speaker 4: my first like day with another because I had done stuff.
Speaker 4: I don't know if I've even shot with the Warblers
Speaker 4: at this point, but either way, I had never met
Speaker 4: anybody from your guys as set. We were two different
Speaker 4: planets a long time. I was on my own show,
Speaker 4: different building.
Speaker 2: By the time we ever interacting with you guys, you
Speaker 2: guys were your own like click family.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, and I mean I even remember like tour
Speaker 4: was really the first time I ever got to spend
Speaker 4: time with you guys. Like personally, I'll never forget like
Speaker 4: walking around Toronto by myself and you know me, Jenna,
Speaker 4: I'm always the last one of the party, but I'll
Speaker 4: be there, always last one in so many ways, literally
Speaker 4: and figuratively, I'm the last one to know everything because
Speaker 4: I never know what's going on. But I'll get there eventually.
Speaker 4: If you guys are throwing a party, I'll be there.
Speaker 4: I'll just be there like two in the morning, ready
Speaker 4: to go.
Speaker 1: Literally.
Speaker 2: I will say this in your defense. I was just
Speaker 2: having this conversation with somebody yesterday about people who are really,
Speaker 2: really present, and like John Graff is up there, Matt
Speaker 2: Boehmer is up there at your brother, and of course, yeah,
Speaker 2: you're up there, because I think when you are really
Speaker 2: present and whenever you're doing you might be the last
Speaker 2: one to get somewhere or find out something because you
Speaker 2: were just like you're face to face whatever's in front
Speaker 2: of you. You are really there and engaged in it.
Speaker 2: And I think it's.
Speaker 4: That well, I I, well, this is why I was
Speaker 4: bugging out about not being here. Like if I'm I'm
Speaker 4: really I always say I'm LA's worst nightmare with making
Speaker 4: plans because if I say I'm gonna be there, I'll
Speaker 4: fucking be there like im. And if I'm not, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna explain why and what happened. If you're the kind
Speaker 4: of person that meets me to party, you let's drink
Speaker 4: some time, I go okay, and I fucking remember it,
Speaker 4: and I make time and plans because you said let's
Speaker 4: get drinks, so I go okay. Like there's no casualness
Speaker 4: if you have a thing, like I'll fucking be there, Like,
Speaker 4: don't say come through. I don't want me to come through,
Speaker 4: because I'll come through. But having said that, this is
Speaker 4: the setup to being in Toronto and just kind of
Speaker 4: like walking around on my own. You can just do
Speaker 4: my thing and I'm just getting drinks with the Warblers.
Speaker 4: We had a really fun day whatever it was. I
Speaker 4: was just walking around and I remember walking into a
Speaker 4: bar and uh Nya and Diana were just like having
Speaker 4: drinks in the back. And at this point I don't
Speaker 4: really know them. There's just these two like beautiful, like
Speaker 4: all angelic ladies that I've been somewhat in proximity of,
Speaker 4: and I remember it was like, oh, hey, what's going on?
Speaker 4: They're like, yeah, come sit down. We like kind of
Speaker 4: tied one on and having a good time. And I
Speaker 4: just remember there was like at the end of that,
Speaker 4: it was like, still gonna meet you guys. You guys
Speaker 4: are a lot of fun. This is great. I had
Speaker 4: never spent time with them, you know, I ran into
Speaker 4: them in a bar because I again, we were in
Speaker 4: separate spaces. But that was like the first time I
Speaker 4: ever got to hang out and talk with them a
Speaker 4: little bit. So yeah, in many ways, that was how
Speaker 4: did they come up? Kevin was talking about just.
Speaker 3: The tour, talking about tour, like the tour, Yeah, finally
Speaker 3: being able to hang out with you exactly.
Speaker 2: Those tour moments were so special, like when we know
Speaker 2: we would pair off for like group up in different
Speaker 2: groupings and like go around a city and do things.
Speaker 2: I loved those moments.
Speaker 4: Did you guys know that what we were doing was extraordinary?
Speaker 4: Because I fucking did, Like I I definitely knew. Not
Speaker 4: saying we were extraordinary, I'm saying the circumstance to the
Speaker 4: arena tour. I was supremely aware in the moment. I
Speaker 4: was like, this is not how people do things in
Speaker 4: any situation in less.
Speaker 1: Yours, then I think you have a different person.
Speaker 4: I knew sad, yeah, because you would tour it around
Speaker 4: a little bit. Yeah, I knew that. Like yeah, I
Speaker 4: was like we were the only ones maybe yeah, because well,
Speaker 4: to be fair, like nobody really there signed up that
Speaker 4: they were going to be like you know, pseudo pop stars.
Speaker 2: No, it's exactly what you were saying, because I remember
Speaker 2: when we got to London and the girls were having
Speaker 2: a tough go of it the first day, and I
Speaker 2: remember walking to the stage and you know, people were
Speaker 2: like I just want to go home and see my family,
Speaker 2: and I was like, we have seven sold out shows
Speaker 2: at the O two two. That is never happening again
Speaker 2: for any of us. That is bonkers. People work their
Speaker 2: entire lives to hope the statistically not and it's just
Speaker 2: like absolutely insane. But in that moment, I also had
Speaker 2: the realization that I'm with a lot of people who
Speaker 2: have been on Broadway, and if someone said to me,
Speaker 2: you have to go do X amount of shows on
Speaker 2: Broadway and that's all you're doing, I'd be like, fuck,
Speaker 2: I don't want to do that because that is not
Speaker 2: my dream. That is like at that age I had
Speaker 2: zero relationship to musical theater, That's right, and so me
Speaker 2: getting to go two or whatever arena that we were
Speaker 2: at was my dream realized. And so I understood that, Okay,
Speaker 2: these people don't have the perspective because this is this
Speaker 2: was never their dream to do this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're right, like nobody and why would we have.
Speaker 4: I mean even I like, I'm not going to sit
Speaker 4: here and pretend that I had like massive touring experience.
Speaker 4: I just had. I don't know, it just kind of
Speaker 4: objectively nowhere went what was happening and like getting you know,
Speaker 4: our own plane in our own bus. I was like
Speaker 4: Jesus Christ, like.
Speaker 1: That was insane. I think there were just different price
Speaker 1: alreadies people had at that time.
Speaker 3: People A lot of the girls like wanted to see
Speaker 3: their family, they wanted to rest, they wanted to go home.
Speaker 4: Which understand for you guys for sure, yes you had
Speaker 4: you had a tough I have to give you guys credit.
Speaker 4: And I always talk about this when people ask the
Speaker 4: they talk ask about like the sort of boot camp
Speaker 4: that was Glee. Again, my time on that show, I
Speaker 4: I completely acknowledge was so charmed. Like again, I had
Speaker 4: I had the the Golden ticket of like coming in
Speaker 4: you know, after you guys had built it, like the
Speaker 4: machine was built again, turnkey apartment, all the amenities, furnished everything,
Speaker 4: Like everything was kind of handed to me in a
Speaker 4: way that I count my lucky stars every day. I
Speaker 4: cannot believe the extraordinary circumstances which was on which I
Speaker 4: got to just ride the magic carpet on top of this.
Speaker 4: By the time I had joined it, I've done the
Speaker 4: I've done the reverse engineering and kind of like added
Speaker 4: it up. You guys shot your pilot. You did the
Speaker 4: Australia thing, right. You did this promo in Australia like
Speaker 4: a trail Wow. No, then you then you shot shot
Speaker 4: more a back nine right, and then you correct me wrong.
Speaker 4: And then you did like a mini tour like a
Speaker 4: radio city thing it was for then you and then
Speaker 4: you went and then you went right back into shooting
Speaker 4: season two. And then right after season two you went
Speaker 4: on this tour. You had like a good two to
Speaker 4: three years maybe two years of just like fucking every NonStop.
Speaker 4: I come in at like the eleventh hour, like, hey, guys,
Speaker 4: like he has this guy's way from energy. Yeah we
Speaker 4: were tired. Yeah, but I'm not shooting every day. I'm
Speaker 4: shooting like maybe a day or two. And when I do,
Speaker 4: it's just my shit as opposed to like you guys
Speaker 4: are in the cruise. So it's like those long days
Speaker 4: where it's someone else's thing and it's exhausting, right because
Speaker 4: you're like, I'll show up if I'm doing my thing.
Speaker 4: But you know, the giving everybody representation on the pie
Speaker 4: was hard, right, So for me, like it was all
Speaker 4: if I was there, then I was doing something. Even
Speaker 4: on the tour, guys, if you remember, you did eighty
Speaker 4: five percent of the show, I park my fucking blazered
Speaker 4: ass on stage for like ten minutes, do three songs
Speaker 4: and Bob's your uncle, Yeah, and I was out.
Speaker 2: We'd be heading to stage and I'd see Darren backstage
Speaker 2: like not dressed. It was like, oh yeah, he's got
Speaker 2: another hour.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like like on a skateboard, just cruising around a
Speaker 4: fucking arena, gotting travel, traveling around the world, like.
Speaker 2: Walking in with food the crowd. I was in there,
Speaker 2: the show was starting in minutes, and he just like
Speaker 2: walked in like, hey, guys, have a good shit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm telling you, like I know how Like I
Speaker 4: would have punched me in the fucking day. I was
Speaker 4: fuck this guy, Like I totally understood what was going on,
Speaker 4: and like, I'm playing video games with the fucking Wards
Speaker 4: in the back because you guys are working your asses
Speaker 4: off upstairs and all the stuff. And I came on
Speaker 4: for the last few numbers with you guys, but yeah,
Speaker 4: the War Wars came up for like just a couple
Speaker 4: of songs and like, and that was it. So it
Speaker 4: was again so charmed for me. But when I was
Speaker 4: realizing what was happening, I was like, these guys are
Speaker 4: so like like they've been run ragged and uh. And
Speaker 4: this did cause cause very understandable contention. I know, there
Speaker 4: was a lot of stuff with I think we got
Speaker 4: watches out of it.
Speaker 2: Oh god, it's hilarious.
Speaker 1: Watching.
Speaker 4: There was a bit of a wow, you guys been
Speaker 4: working really hard, so here's your rolexes. I mean, I'm
Speaker 4: a like, listen, my grandkids are gonna get that fucking watch.
Speaker 4: Like I I got it.
Speaker 2: I I mean I ensured mine and then it got stolen.
Speaker 4: So all the time quarters with me. Just a couple
Speaker 4: of days ago, I came to see little Shop and
Speaker 4: we went out afterwards about the same way.
Speaker 2: I was like, you had your brother Matt Bomer come
Speaker 2: visit you.
Speaker 4: How was that I did? He didn't tell me. I
Speaker 4: I like it. I like knowing when people come to shows,
Speaker 4: you'll you know this once you guys do Little Shop
Speaker 4: or whatever Broadway show or whatever theater show you do
Speaker 4: one day. Some people are very like I don't like knowing.
Speaker 4: I'd get too nervous. I love knowing he's in the
Speaker 4: audience because it makes me work harder where I'm like,
Speaker 4: oh this was yeah, or if like I'm tired. It's
Speaker 4: like a matinee and a Saturday Jenna, and like if
Speaker 4: you and I were sitting there going like do you
Speaker 4: know anybody? And you say no, and I say I
Speaker 4: don't know anybody out there, we go, okay, let's just
Speaker 4: like just want phone it in. But let's just like
Speaker 4: kind of we can put a lid on it. We
Speaker 4: won't go plus yeah exactly, c plus passing grade performance
Speaker 4: just to savor energy for the Saturday night performance. But
Speaker 4: if you told me fucking Sam Rockwell's in the house,
Speaker 4: I go, oh shit, yeah, let's yeah, let's go coffee bang,
Speaker 4: Like let's do it for Sam, you know him, because
Speaker 4: i'd be like, I know, but I get excited about that,
Speaker 4: and not to disrespect any of the people who are
Speaker 4: there to see you and your audience. You know, you
Speaker 4: do every day and you're tired. You need some juice.
Speaker 4: So uh yeah. I remember he didn't tell me, and
Speaker 4: I was like, man, how come we didn't tell me
Speaker 4: you were here? But I saw him afterwards and he
Speaker 4: looked like a fucking god.
Speaker 1: He always looks like a guy.
Speaker 3: God.
Speaker 4: He is so gorgeous, painfully handsome.
Speaker 1: It's like piercing eyes.
Speaker 4: I know. Yeah. I say this about Evan rachel Wood too,
Speaker 4: especially the hair, but they look like American war propaganda.
Speaker 4: Like if I saw a poster of Matt Bomer pointing
Speaker 4: at me with that jawline in those eyes and a
Speaker 4: nice suit being like, join us, I'll be like, okay,
Speaker 4: I'll jump on a fucking mind for you. You seem
Speaker 4: like a sensible, handsome gentleman. Yeah. It's it's painful, and
Speaker 4: it's worse in person.
Speaker 2: Because that it's not as good as he.
Speaker 4: Is a gorgeous man. Holy ship. When I heard that
Speaker 4: he was playing my brother, I was like, that's I'm
Speaker 4: very flattered, but like.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love it.
Speaker 3: Are my favorite episodes of this season, and it is.
Speaker 3: It is the funniest performance. He gives the funny his
Speaker 3: fucking performance. It was totally underrated in my book until
Speaker 3: I rewatched it and was like, what how did I
Speaker 3: miss it?
Speaker 4: I got it?
Speaker 1: I got to watch that so good. I love that episode.
Speaker 4: My relationship with Matt would evolve because he ended up
Speaker 4: directing me on uh and was he directed on the episode?
Speaker 4: He was so great, it was so fun. Oh my god,
Speaker 4: what a dear lovely man. He should be his his
Speaker 4: his likeness should be like protected by the US government,
Speaker 4: likes like he's one of our finest specimens as human. Yeah,
Speaker 4: he's actually nicer than he is hot, because actually it's not.
Speaker 4: I don't think he can be anything more than he
Speaker 4: is hot. So he's Yes, he's probably just slightly nicer,
Speaker 4: less nicer than he is hot, because anymore than.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he came to which is annoying.
Speaker 4: You know what this is gonna find Matt Bohmer. So
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna and say, you know what, fuck you,
Speaker 4: Matt Bohmer, fuck you and your beautiful family whole thing.
Speaker 4: Just take that much goodness, much good no more of you, please, copy,
Speaker 4: copy paste paste paste paste paste.
Speaker 1: Please, No, we love Matt Bomer. Okay, I have a
Speaker 1: rabid fire for you, Darren.
Speaker 4: You know this isn't gonna go well. You know you're
Speaker 4: gonna ask me a quick thing. I'm gonna give you
Speaker 4: twenty minute answer.
Speaker 2: So I have a.
Speaker 3: Question for you and then you can tell your story.
Speaker 3: So I have a line up there.
Speaker 4: Okay, Okay, okay, a plan.
Speaker 1: Okay, So what is your favorite song from Glee?
Speaker 3: And it could be performance, it could be song, it
Speaker 3: could be experienced.
Speaker 1: You pick you, just pick one. You don't have to,
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be.
Speaker 4: I'll say Jacob Artists was one of the most talented
Speaker 4: parts of that show, and had he joined the first season,
Speaker 4: he would be justin Timberlake. I think he would be
Speaker 4: at a place where he'd be if that's what he
Speaker 4: wanted to do, because that that being that level requires
Speaker 4: the drive to want to do that. So I'm not
Speaker 4: saying if he wanted it, I think that could have
Speaker 4: been in his in his future. So he did many
Speaker 4: songs that I just remember going like this kid is amazing.
Speaker 4: Remember what he's rhythm nation?
Speaker 2: Yes, without like without You.
Speaker 4: I was gonna say, was one of my favorites. He
Speaker 4: was one of my favorite things to watch.
Speaker 2: But what.
Speaker 4: His He just sounded so beautiful. He looks great, he
Speaker 4: dances great, he sings great. Like I just was so obsessed.
Speaker 4: He was like, it's it's all about timing. Like I
Speaker 4: think at that point, you know, the sort of the
Speaker 4: white hot flame of Glee had started to wane a
Speaker 4: little bit in the in the in the public sort
Speaker 4: of like appetite and uh by no fault of his own.
Speaker 4: I just like I I'm always shocked when people say
Speaker 4: we're just Fay Party Glee and I say Jacob Artists
Speaker 4: and like, and they don't know who I'm talking about,
Speaker 4: Like you mean the kid that fucking came in and
Speaker 4: like rocked the fucking ship out of it. Like, yeah,
Speaker 4: I don't remember his I don't remember his character name Jake.
Speaker 4: Was it Jake? Maybe that's what I don't remember because
Speaker 4: it's just his name, Jake. God. I also love reminding
Speaker 4: people that Phineas was on our show. That's always a fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I actually don't think I ever met him.
Speaker 2: Really, he was there on I Lived.
Speaker 4: I had an a conversation. You know what's crazy is
Speaker 4: Phineas performs even though you didn't record it. He's like
Speaker 4: lip syncing. I have Phineas on camera performing a song
Speaker 4: that I wrote and produced because I wrote a song.
Speaker 4: I wrote a song called Rise that was on an
Speaker 4: episode where the kids sang it. Yeah, and it's just
Speaker 4: weird now that I go, like what I wouldn't do
Speaker 4: for Phineas cut? But boy has a Darren Chris cut.
Speaker 4: He doesn't really because he's just lip syncing and he
Speaker 4: didn't actually do anything on But yeah, Phineas. Oh, just
Speaker 4: as far as the kids that came in the latter
Speaker 4: hours of Glee, even though Jake came much earlier than Phineas.
Speaker 4: I remember talking to Phineas at I think I told
Speaker 4: him the story recently because he's like about town, Like
Speaker 4: holy shit, Actually it's not sure he's not about town,
Speaker 4: but boy, I ran into him and me getting excited
Speaker 4: wanting to talk to him and like wondering if I'd
Speaker 4: get the opportunity because he's, you know, basically like the
Speaker 4: he is the A team at the moment. M hmm.
Speaker 4: So oh, I was gonna say, uh, I got to
Speaker 4: I was at this event with him and I was
Speaker 4: reminding him, oh, because this is what happened is the story?
Speaker 4: Remember when he was because he was seventeen.
Speaker 2: Isn't that crazy? Because my sister told me a story
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago about how because she was
Speaker 2: there that day and talked with him for a long time,
Speaker 2: she's like, yeah, he said like, oh yeah, my sister
Speaker 2: and I just like starting to make some music.
Speaker 4: Yes, So this is what I remember, and maybe my
Speaker 4: memory is augmenting it because obviously we now know what
Speaker 4: kind of became of them. But we talked a lot
Speaker 4: about music, and even then I remember being very taken
Speaker 4: with him, and you know, you meet people with her
Speaker 4: energy where they're so eloquent about a thing that I'm like,
Speaker 4: you're probably I'm just gonna go ahead and bet the
Speaker 4: fucking farm on you're probably very good.
Speaker 2: He talked like he was exactly.
Speaker 4: He was an old soul exactly. He was like we
Speaker 4: were talking about production and music writing and guitar playing,
Speaker 4: and I was like, oh, like, this is a teenager,
Speaker 4: and like in my mind the dog years between like
Speaker 4: seventeen and what, I'm twenty six or something like almost
Speaker 4: ten years older than this guy. And I was like,
Speaker 4: you're so young, and he's talking about producing music and
Speaker 4: writing music. And I was really impressed, and I remember
Speaker 4: he invited me. He's like, he's like, I have a
Speaker 4: thing with my sister, and I don't know what their
Speaker 4: age gap is. What is it, like five years?
Speaker 2: I don't know something like that.
Speaker 4: I think, let's say it's five years, so Billie's twelve.
Speaker 1: Okay, oh my god.
Speaker 4: Maybe getting the math wrong. I just but just for
Speaker 4: the purpose of the story, like if it's a five years,
Speaker 4: she's very, very very young. So I'm sitting we're talking
Speaker 4: about this, and he's like, yeah, Like I was like,
Speaker 4: and I asked this anytime my musicians. I was, oh,
Speaker 4: he just gigging or anything. And then he's yeah, actually
Speaker 4: we're paying like a like a little fair. Me and
Speaker 4: my sister. We're doing this thing. It's like in our neighborhood.
Speaker 4: We're playing. It was maybe like a street fair or
Speaker 4: something and or some small thing. Maybe I've gotten it wrong. Athhenius.
Speaker 4: Ever hears this, it'll be like, dude, it was the
Speaker 4: fucking Troubadour, Like who knows, but whatever it was, it
Speaker 4: was some small thing with his sister. But I just
Speaker 4: remember him saying I come through and maybe like that
Speaker 4: sounds great man, I don't have to be able to
Speaker 4: make it. But you know, anyway, like I said, you
Speaker 4: asked one question and give you different answer. So Jacob
Speaker 4: artists without you. That's one that's like any of the
Speaker 4: stuff that he did. I think. Yeah, So it was
Speaker 4: so beautiful and I was very taken with and I
Speaker 4: like to shout it out because I don't want people
Speaker 4: to not like remember that moment, which I thought was
Speaker 4: so cool.
Speaker 1: No, it's really such a good one.
Speaker 3: Okay, what was the most And I don't know if
Speaker 3: you all know this because you didn't really watch Clear
Speaker 3: all that much. Do you have like an we talk
Speaker 3: about unhinged storylines like very off kilter or bad storylines
Speaker 3: that were like actually really wild. Do you have any
Speaker 3: in your memory that you felt like were really crazy?
Speaker 4: Much like the difficulty I have mentioned my favorite song,
Speaker 4: because there were hundreds of times, there was hundreds of
Speaker 4: songs we recorded. There were hundreds of unhinged story lines
Speaker 4: that I can't I can't even remember what which one.
Speaker 4: You're right, I almost don't want to say it because
Speaker 4: I don't want to even remind people that it happened exactly. Okay, guys,
Speaker 4: I'll say it dude, Blaine and Kurowski ended up dating. Yeah,
Speaker 4: that happened. That's what I'm saying. If I hadn't said it,
Speaker 4: you wouldn't have remembered it because your brain kind of black.
Speaker 1: We never remembered it. I will watch it.
Speaker 4: My brain has I just I forget about.
Speaker 1: All that stuff from my memory too.
Speaker 4: Well, not like consciously, it's just clearly my brain hasn't
Speaker 4: prioritized it as very important, which is another reason why
Speaker 4: I'm embarrassed. I missed last week and so uh so
Speaker 4: my uh my, my brain did my my frontal lobe
Speaker 4: did not. There was I was in conflict something new
Speaker 4: that I had to be somewhere, but my frontal lobe
Speaker 4: was too tied to my calendar anyway, both my frontal
Speaker 4: and other lobes aren't. Yeah, that was. I can agree
Speaker 4: that that that storyline was was wacky. Uh And Max
Speaker 4: is like a is a great pal. Yeah. I love
Speaker 4: Max and I see Max off and we have sort
Speaker 4: of like bi annual like like lunch like four hour
Speaker 4: lunch dates where we just talk about everything. And so
Speaker 4: I care about Max very much, and I uh yeah,
Speaker 4: every now and then when we're talking would have like
Speaker 4: Dawn on us, like did that happen like that? That
Speaker 4: would be absurd, it would be and it was, but
Speaker 4: it happened.
Speaker 1: So you know, Okay, this one's easy, and this is
Speaker 1: my last one. We ask everybody this question. So, what
Speaker 1: is the feeling that Glee leaves you with?
Speaker 4: Fucking it's the gift that keeps on giving, I would say,
Speaker 4: I would say, for lack of a better fucking answer,
Speaker 4: it's the cliche that I don't want to deliver. But
Speaker 4: fucking Glee, Man, it's one of the great titles of
Speaker 4: the show. Like it. It is such a gleeful experience.
Speaker 4: I truly, like, I know there's a lot of like,
Speaker 4: you know, hairy things that that people may think they
Speaker 4: know happened on the show or project happened to the show.
Speaker 4: Maybe because I'm a happy idiot, maybe because I can
Speaker 4: block out that stuff, Maybe because that's just in the
Speaker 4: right place at the right time. Maybe because I am
Speaker 4: late to the party. Chris and I never was privy
Speaker 4: to a lot of whatever difficulty or contention that may
Speaker 4: or may not have existed between people in situations. I
Speaker 4: had an a fucking plus experience on that show. I
Speaker 4: loved every minute. I loved every person, truly, And anytime
Speaker 4: people ask me about Glee, I'll go, like, you want
Speaker 4: the t I'll give you the tea. I'll tell you
Speaker 4: everything that I know because all of it is fucking
Speaker 4: glowingly positive and I have a positive I have a positive,
Speaker 4: wonderful story about every single person individually that if anybody
Speaker 4: ever said, think, well, I don't know I heard this,
Speaker 4: I'd be like, tell you what you want to hear
Speaker 4: a really really wonderful story about that person, then I
Speaker 4: have them. I have them all. I have all the
Speaker 4: receipts on great moments with everybody. And yeah, Glee was
Speaker 4: a gleef. Was so gleeful for me. It was a joy.
Speaker 4: It was a joyous experience, and uh it was. It
Speaker 4: was a fucking blast. I've loved I loved working on
Speaker 4: that show. I had so much fun with you guys.
Speaker 1: I believe you. Yeah, I totally believe you.
Speaker 4: Yeah again, happy idiot, Like that's just the way I
Speaker 4: process that kind of experience.
Speaker 3: Like though it's not everybody's experience, and it certainly wasn't
Speaker 3: everybody's experience, but like for you, it was, and it
Speaker 3: was very real and very honest and like every day
Speaker 3: Darren came in with a smile on his face.
Speaker 1: I'm not kidding.
Speaker 4: I wish yeah, and I was, and I was, and
Speaker 4: I was careful with it too, because I'd be like,
Speaker 4: you know, I know, I I really I'm very aware
Speaker 4: of whatever energy I give off because I don't ever
Speaker 4: want to alienate or or antagonize people that aren't particularly
Speaker 4: like you know, like happy, go lucky, because I don't
Speaker 4: want to be a dick, Like I don't want to
Speaker 4: let my positivity like rain on the front of you're
Speaker 4: not yeah, So like I try and like put a
Speaker 4: lid on it, you know. And I was very careful
Speaker 4: to not and like not to say every like listen,
Speaker 4: we had hard days, but on the whole, I was
Speaker 4: always like this is rat this is great, you know,
Speaker 4: Like there were there were certain days that people were
Speaker 4: like like where shit was tough and we're tired of
Speaker 4: was like something that is going on that in the
Speaker 4: on the inside, I'd be like pushing down the desire
Speaker 4: to be like yeah, but guys in this rad yeah,
Speaker 4: because it's just like get a punch from all like
Speaker 4: every and you would have rightfully like it would have
Speaker 4: been Darren, shut the fuck up, not now that would
Speaker 4: have been the correct response, which is why I would
Speaker 4: you never did.
Speaker 2: I think I feel like we can talk to each
Speaker 2: other like that. I feel like some.
Speaker 4: People yeah, And actually if you did, like I would
Speaker 4: never be like, oh god, I'd be like, yeah, you know,
Speaker 4: like I I think I understood I Again, I had
Speaker 4: a very bird's eye view experience of the whole thing,
Speaker 4: where I understood where where you guys were coming from
Speaker 4: the experience that you had, and I tried to be
Speaker 4: as as sensitive to that experience as possible. But I
Speaker 4: can currently had my own experience that was like this
Speaker 4: sort of semi charmed life as it were, you know,
Speaker 4: this fucking charmed Candyland experience that set me up for
Speaker 4: a really joyous experience that it could have been a
Speaker 4: lot of other things, and it just so happened to
Speaker 4: not be. And in the way that I kind of,
Speaker 4: you know, not wanting to bring up certain storylines because
Speaker 4: my brain blocked them out, Like if there's anything bad
Speaker 4: that happened, I've kind of like blocked out because because
Speaker 4: they're so eclipsed by things that were like so extraordinary
Speaker 4: and wild that I just like I don't care to
Speaker 4: like have give that any more shelf life in my brain,
Speaker 4: Like I got too much shit to remember and cherish
Speaker 4: and love to like leave room for any bullshit that
Speaker 4: like would taint. How how shiny some of those beautiful
Speaker 4: moments really were, you know, like it's a one in
Speaker 4: a million experience, one in a zillion experience. Like who
Speaker 4: gets that, you know at that age?
Speaker 1: Not everybody, yeah, ever in their whole life. Okay, you're
Speaker 1: allowed to tell your story now.
Speaker 4: Uh, I will say this kind of connects the pot
Speaker 4: or stuff. I mean, there's so many weird sort of
Speaker 4: side stories, so if you can't tell, but my general disposition,
Speaker 4: I am a comic con convention going person.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: I went to comic Con before we were asked to
Speaker 4: go to comic Con, Like, I waited in line all night.
Speaker 4: I like, was that's like a thing. It was like
Speaker 4: it was a it was a fun like pilgrimage I
Speaker 4: would make growing up in San Francisco to San Diego
Speaker 4: to go to ComicCon and my I think my first
Speaker 4: year so I graduated, like may, I moved to l A.
Speaker 4: So July Comic Con I went down to Comic Con
Speaker 4: with him buddy Joey Richter, who would actually end up
Speaker 4: being on Glee. He was one of the dance one
Speaker 4: of the guys in I like Big Butts Wild. He was.
Speaker 4: He was the Ron Weasley to my Harry Potter and
Speaker 4: the Potter stuff. He's a big figure in the Star
Speaker 4: Kid uh sort of pantheon. And so we drove down
Speaker 4: and I think we were we like slept outside all
Speaker 4: night to be in Hall h to see the Lost
Speaker 4: panel because it was the last than a Loss, and
Speaker 4: we had a really great time, like sinking into parties
Speaker 4: and like just it was always a fun thing for us.
Speaker 4: And actually to make it even crazier is I remember
Speaker 4: we drove from my Eastwick callback to that wow funny. Yeah,
Speaker 4: that was wild. And I remember even oh because I
Speaker 4: had my w my Warner Brothers pass for going on
Speaker 4: that lot for that callback and uh, and I remember
Speaker 4: going to the Eastwick panel and going waiting in line
Speaker 4: for autographs from Rebecca Romain and all the stars of
Speaker 4: Eastwick and I had them sign my my I've been
Speaker 4: looking for that past everywhere. I don't know where it is,
Speaker 4: but like Rebecca Romain like signed it, and then like
Speaker 4: two weeks on set with them being like I meant
Speaker 4: you guys at Comic Con. Oh so that's its own
Speaker 4: little side story. But we were also there a very
Speaker 4: Potter musical had just been kind of released, and so
Speaker 4: we went down because we were also asked to talk
Speaker 4: on a fan panel for like Harry Potter fandom. And
Speaker 4: this is really exciting because like, yeah, so we got
Speaker 4: to spend our Saturday doing all the fun stuff and
Speaker 4: Sunday was the Sunday since to be like perhaps not
Speaker 4: as like the high demand stuff, but we're in the
Speaker 4: smaller hall. We're like on this panel talking about this
Speaker 4: musical that we did and like the Harry Potter fandom
Speaker 4: as we've been experiencing it, and the joke I had
Speaker 4: at the time on this panel. I don't know if
Speaker 4: there's video of it. Of this panel across the way
Speaker 4: in Hall H where I just spent the night sleeping
Speaker 4: outside of the previous night was the Glee panel. All
Speaker 4: h right, I'm not on the show. I have an
Speaker 4: audition for the show I have, but this but this
Speaker 4: is the earlier one, like for college, like the I
Speaker 4: had audition for it. But you know, so like Glee
Speaker 4: is happening and I'm like making jokes during the Harry
Speaker 4: Potter panel saying like, just you guys know, just to clarify,
Speaker 4: this is not the Glee panel. We don't want a
Speaker 4: confusion here. That's actually in hall h And I kept
Speaker 4: saying that, like making fun of ourselves for not being
Speaker 4: as popular as Glee. The next year, when they asked
Speaker 4: me to be on that panel again if I wanted
Speaker 4: to come back, I had to say no because I
Speaker 4: was on the Glee panel.
Speaker 3: And Holly, yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 4: Cool. So I have a lot of weird sort of
Speaker 4: ins and out like parallel. Yeah, it's a special little thing.
Speaker 4: So it's all kind of life's wacky stick around man,
Speaker 4: crazy writers. Every season they've got some crazy writers, some
Speaker 4: unhinged storylines, dare I say life? Yeah? Yes, A lot
Speaker 4: of special, weird things like that were happening for me,
Speaker 4: and that's kind of how I felt about Glee. There
Speaker 4: were full these little magic, little holy shit moments that
Speaker 4: that continue that can like with somewhere only we know.
Speaker 4: They pop up in new ways and they keep happening
Speaker 4: and getting to reflect upon it with you guys make
Speaker 4: them more real in my life. I had to remember
Speaker 4: ten years ago. I don't know if I want to
Speaker 4: put this on the video but you know when your
Speaker 4: phone does whatever. Yeah, it was for some reason it
Speaker 4: was the pictures from uh what the fox say?
Speaker 1: Oh God, don't.
Speaker 4: A somewhat notorious moment. I know we were ending on
Speaker 4: such a positive things were going, they were actually and
Speaker 4: for some reason it was that. And it was me
Speaker 4: with like sort of almost lucious malefoy hair because of
Speaker 4: they gave me this do for the applause Gaga. Oh
Speaker 4: it wasn't what the Fox say, it was for raar.
Speaker 4: I just it was a jungle. So maybe I'm putting
Speaker 4: those two together. Oh that's why it was because it
Speaker 4: would have been the Cadie Gaga. So I was in
Speaker 4: Gaga and the next stuff and you and Jenna you
Speaker 4: were in like a Tarzani kind of yea.
Speaker 2: I took a bunch of pictures of all of you.
Speaker 1: Oh, yes, we had it. We we had some time
Speaker 1: that day because I have a lot of pictures that day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that one comes up on my phone a lot.
Speaker 4: I'd probably just gotten a new phone. Then that's why
Speaker 4: it's like the the like the earliest memory of my
Speaker 4: phone has so again, things come up all the time,
Speaker 4: and I'm boys are minded now of the things I
Speaker 4: really missed.
Speaker 1: Look at that one of them not being the podcast today.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I'm using this in a different context, but yes,
Speaker 4: that was my including you guys.
Speaker 1: We love you and you guys.
Speaker 4: It's nice to do this. I love getting to do
Speaker 4: this with you guys.
Speaker 2: Truly, I really appreciate you doing this again.
Speaker 3: We're four, Well, we're in the three. We just finished
Speaker 3: three and we're starting for.
Speaker 4: So this is this the first episode of the season
Speaker 4: or the last episode.
Speaker 1: Of three, last episode of the season.
Speaker 4: Wow, Wow, what an honor your fine season three.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Thank you for spending this much time with us and
Speaker 2: really really appreciate it. We have to have you back.
Speaker 2: There's even more.
Speaker 1: There's always more, so much more, so much, always more.
Speaker 2: You're the best always. Thank you for being filtered talking
Speaker 2: through all of.
Speaker 1: The I love you, Darren.
Speaker 2: Congrats on the beautiful family you just you guys are
Speaker 2: the best.
Speaker 4: Bye, guys.
Speaker 1: We hope you enjoyed that is Darren Chris.
Speaker 2: I feel like if you've listened to this entire interview,
Speaker 2: you get a very good sense of who Darren is.
Speaker 3: And truly it is true like he'd show up happy,
Speaker 3: like most days, he'd be like the one that you'd
Speaker 3: be like, even if you were in a bad mood
Speaker 3: that day, you'd be like, Okay, I'm gonna just like
Speaker 3: put a smile on my face because you know what,
Speaker 3: You're right. We should be lucky that we're here and
Speaker 3: we should enjoy it because this is it's just like
Speaker 3: being reminded and pulled out of it sometimes. And Darren
Speaker 3: was like always that person if he wasn't snapping on Figgins's.
Speaker 2: Couch very consistently, the cheerleader on set correct and that way.
Speaker 3: Well, we hope you enjoyed the episode, and if you
Speaker 3: haven't listened to part one, go.
Speaker 2: Back listen and thank you so much to Darren. That
Speaker 2: was incredible. Thank you for giving us how much of
Speaker 2: your time and opening up to us, and that's what
Speaker 2: you really miss. Thanks for listening and follow us on
Speaker 2: Instagram at and that's what you really miss. Pod. Make
Speaker 2: sure to write us a review and leave us five stars.
Speaker 4: See you next time.