Darren Criss talks about Blaine Anderson for the Home Entertainment release of Glee: Season 4
With many of the former Glee Club members now graduates, the hunt is on at William McKinley High School to find talented singers to rebuild the New Directions. It’s not goodbye to the graduates however as beloved characters Rachel and Kurt move to New York to continue their education at the New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts (NYADA), struggling to adjust to life after high school. So Glee: Season 4 still features all of your favourite characters, but also introduces great new additions to all the laughs, tears and fun-filled antics in a season that features numerous episodes that will leave you desperate for more.
Like the memorable seasons before it, Glee continues to attract big names, with starring roles from Kate Hudson as a nasty NYADA dance teacher, to Sarah Jessica Parker and Whoopi Goldberg (reprising her role as NYADA Dean Carmen Tibideaux). As well as this, the popular show’s trademark tribute episodes entertain more than ever, with this season featuring episodes dedicated to the music of Britney Spears, Grease and Stevie Wonder.
Glee Season 4 also sees the introduction of latest Glee Project winner Blake Jenner who joins the cast as Ryder Lynn, a football-playing sophomore who Finn encourages to audition for the upcoming school production of Grease.
I have to say, when you sang Teenage Dream in this recent episode that is what Glee does so well.
Well that was a success. That’s a really, really difficult thing to pull off because we shot that live and I had to arrange the piano part and it kind of played everything. And there’s a logistical side of doing something that is quite difficult. It is getting easier and easier as technology gets better. Les Mis, I know is doing it, the whole thing, but they’re also a big budget blockbuster movie that has a bit more time than we do to do things. So it’s good. I was really worried about it and there were a lot of things that of course, in my actor land mode I was watching me like dammit, they didn’t get that thing I did that I worked so hard to do every other take. The use of one take that I was kind of nervous about. Who am I to devalue your experience? That is great if that’s how it hits you. That’s wonderful.
I think it also encapsulates what makes this season very interesting to watch. Moving forward is not an easy thing.
That’s great. I agree with you. That is one of the best things about the show and in the pilot where you have this kind of tragic character, Rachel Berry, who when you meet her, but the gold star next to her name, all these things are wonderful about her. She really had all these bright eyed dreams about everything and then she gets this slushy in her face, because you realize that she’s a loser. That is the great drama. Moving on and realizing that there isn’t a place called home. It makes the show more interesting but it’s also a good thing broadcast to especially our younger audience, of life does move on and it’s not necessarily a terrible thing. It can be a tough thing that is hopefully a good thing if you look at it the right way and you can embrace life in a positive manner. There’s a whole lot of new stakes to the season that just make it, up the ante quite a bit.
We want Blaine and Kurt to succeed because we want that romantic ideal to live. But you guys broke up. But that must be a great thing for you to play as actors.
Yeah, it’s nice to show the other side of the coin especially for Kurt and I — excuse me, Chris and I were joking about how they had become, at that point, an old married couple, the I’m going to love you forever fairytale couple, which is a really nice thing to have painted in the beginning. It’s important to tell kids that things do end and you can still be a part of each other’s lives. And that gives us room to breathe as actors and exploring different places. Those characters, part of me really hope that Kurt gets to really meet other people and not even romantically but just in general, gets to experience more parts of life and other people in New York as maybe Blaine does but hopefully they still stay in touch and are there for each other because that’s kind of, that’s what life is. You remain close to the people in your life whether you are actually in their life or not you know. You’re a part of each other whether you like it or not, forever because you have such a close bond. So, it’s definitely a cool chapter to explore. I think it’s good for us.
It’s interesting what it’s done to the alchemy of what Glee is.
Yeah, well that’s how high school works you know. People graduate and then there’s new blood. That’s just how it works. It’s funny because that’s how I feel on set, as we’re unsure of where our characters, we have these new kids already that get to experience some of the things that we experienced when we got there. It’s important to show that there’s always going to be a new adventure to have because even if they are the same stakes, high school will always be high school and yet we have thousands and thousands of movies and stories that are about high school or college or anything because it there’s — the stakes can be the same but people are always going to be different. The show will continue to be interesting through different pairs of goggles. I hope it sets a precedent to have the show keep going on like that and that you know hopefully that those characters will be seniors one day and they will have gone on a great journey that we haven’t gone on yet and will meet new kids and they just — I hope it really sets the standard for how the show can have longevity.
When we get older you reach a peak and you love the view and you’re happy to have made it. But there’s a little wisp of longing to do it again. Do you envy his new task a little bit?
Yes and no. I think the grass will always be greener. Certainly, when I started, I wish I was a little less nervous about what to do and who to talk to. Now that I know my way around of course, the chase is so much fun. I think it’s having a healthy balance of both. I had a really wonderful moment where the new kids, it was Jake, Blake, Becca and Melissa had a scene that I wasn’t in. I was on my way out. I was done for the day but I stayed on set just so I could watch them interact. I seldom have their own dynamic and it was really special because I was like man, I remember when that was me but instead of longing for it I was proud of where I had gotten into very happy for them. I’m so very proud of, like I’m not their parent or anything. I’m barely older than them at all. Some of them are older than me. But it’s just cool to see that that can happen continually. And that’s why I hope that they still continue to have new cast members as the show goes on because it’s just, like you said, it makes it fizzier.
GLEE: SEASON 4 IS OUT NOW ON BLU-RAY AND DVD