Jonathan Groff

at that boy like what what do you take away from that moment now like with distance and time what are you so grateful for about that moment oh my god um it was like getting picked up and put somewhere else it was like the claw coming and just like that's a good way to think of it was like

Thoroughly Modern Millie, which I had seen six times, the director of Spring Awakening is Michael Mayer, the director of Thoroughly Modern Millie.

It was a combination of feeling like I got picked up and put somewhere, and I remember auditioning for it.

And I remember calling my dad on the phone the night before the callback and saying, I can't do this right now, but I know that I could do it if they gave me the chance.

Cause I knew I, I, I like my talent was not, I just like, I know I didn't really have the proper like gifts.

Like this, my singing was, I didn't have my singing together, but I had this like primal thing down in my like gut that was like, I have to play this role and they let me do it.

And it was like,

So then this thing in me got to like, it's like those opportunities.

Like you get that opportunity.

And especially with theater, because it's almost religious because you're repeating.

And when you repeat things over and over again, it can change you from the inside out.

And I've like, whoa.

like, like, um, made me the, the, it like taught me how to act and taught me how to sing.

And there was, and I was in the closet during that whole show and,

And I had my roommate, Cody, that was my boyfriend.

And when I left that show, I came out of the closet a month later because this rebel that was this character, this person that didn't care, didn't let the world define him, this was what I was playing.

Like you said...

I'm a people pleaser.

I'm like prioritizing niceness, prioritizing like making sure everybody feels good.

And coming out felt like that would create a dissonance.