Jonathan Groff Sounds Off on Hamilton Drag, Sex Scenes with Lea Michele & Dating Non-Actors

Jonathan Groff took New York by storm in 2006 in Spring Awakening, the musical that earned him a Tony nod and will return to Broadway this year. Nearly nine years later, he’s gone from schoolboy heartthrob to out-and-proud screen favorite. “Heartthrob” still applies. After several small screen stints, including the HBO series Looking (which, despite cancellation, is not gone for good), Groff will return to Broadway this summer in Hamilton, reprising his performance from the downtown engagement at the Public. The incoming king recently sat down with FourTwoNine’s Kevin Sessums and discussed everything from simulated sex scenes (straight and gay) to Looking’s final chapter to his equal-opportunist dating philosophy. Here are seven quotes (and two photos) that caught our eye.

On Being In the Closet & Stage Sex with Lea Michele
“We never talked about it… We were having such a deep and intense experience doing that show together. But we never talked about my personal life. It is amazing to me, now that I made that part of myself so off-limits that even Lea didn’t ask me about it.”

On Being Out of the Closet & Screen Sex with Russell Tovey
"It’s so funny to me, because doing a gay sex scene and doing a straight sex scene—except for the different equipment—is the same. Although Russell did fuck me in the show, so I guess that’s a little different. And I fucked him too, yeah. But for me, sex scenes are more about intimacy than they are about sexuality."

On Not Saying Goodbye to Looking Just Yet
"I don’t want to let it go yet. I’m not ready to. I am grateful that we at least get to come back and put a little closure on the experience. Because I didn’t get to say goodbye to the experience when I heard the news. We’re all experiencing this together as a group."

On Standing Out in Hamilton
"I wear the most ridiculous costume you've ever seen. It’s so fucking fun. When they asked me to do it, I just said sure because I love those guys—Lin and Andy and Thomas. I hadn’t even seen it, so I wasn’t even sure what I was saying yes to. It’s basically a cameo. I’m only in it for nine minutes. But the moment pops because of the costume, and I’m white, and no one else is in the cast."

On Madonna’s iPhone Fiasco
"That bitch was on her phone. You couldn’t miss it from the stage. It was a black void of the audience in front of us, and her face there perfectly lit by the light of her iPhone through three-quarters of the show. What was funny about it was that she was there that Saturday night, but at that Saturday matinee Michelle Obama was there. We were collecting for Broadway Cares after the show, and Mrs. Obama stayed in the audience, and Lin called her out and the audience applauded for her."

On Dating Zachary Quinto & Gavin Creel (and Civilians!)
"I feel like in dating actors the nice thing about it is they understand the schedules involved or having to leave for three months to shoot something and all of that. But when I was dating Gavin and dating Zach, it was more about the people they were instead of the actors they were, which is the same about the people who aren’t actors that I’ve dated. It’s about them as people and not about any careers or jobs they have."

On Not Playing the Conventional Romantic Lead
"When I came out, I understood that maybe I wouldn’t be the male romantic lead in a Nicholas Sparks movie. But I’d rather be a working actor and not hiding anything in my personal life. Weirdly, after I came out, I began to get a lot more film and television work. That’s all a way of saying that the reason I don’t mind talking about it over and over is because that is the way acceptance happens, and that’s the way you break down those walls."