Did you have any professional training?
I've never had any professional training anywhere, just high school and community theater shows.

Your
character, Kurt, is the show’s fashionista and a key member of New
Beginnings. How similar was your high school experience in Clovis,
Calif.?
It was similar in the sense that I was definitely teased a
lot in high school and I was definitely at the bottom of the food
chain: total underdog, complete "Gleek." I was never like Kurt at all; I
wish I was now that I watch the show, but I was never fashionable. I
wish I was like Kurt in high school! [Laughs]

Were you in your high school drama club?

I
was in drama, speech and debate, president of the writers' club, I was
editor of our school's literary magazine ... I pretty much did everything.

You wrote, directed, and starred in a musical spoof of Sweeney Todd called Shirley Todd. What can you tell me about that?
[Laughs]
The end of my senior year, my school did this thing for the seniors
called the Senior Show where one senior was designated to do whatever
he wanted for however much time on the stage -- they get their own show
in a sense. All the other kids previous to me had done SNL-type skits
and gags and that type of stuff. But I was dead serious that I wanted
to do a show that would be funny and adult, so I wrote this spoof
called Shirley Todd, which is Sweeney Todd except all the roles were
gender-reversed, so I was Mr. Lovett rather than Mrs. Lovett, and it
took place in modern-day punk-rock London. It was a lot of fun.

Were you out in high school?
Oh, no. People are killed in my hometown for that.

How much has Ryan Murphy, who is gay, helped you navigate Hollywood?
I would say he mentors me as much as he mentors everyone else in the cast. He's definitely like our stepdad, if you will.

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