It's not exactly accurate to say that singer/songwriter/actor Darren Criss came out of nowhere. After all, not only was he one of the stars of the hugely popular YouTube spoofs "A Very Potter Musical" and "A Very Potter Sequel," but he was also responsible for writing most of the music for the two videos.
But it is fair to say that his career became white hot almost overnight after Glee's version of "Teenage Dream" was released last November. The video featured Blaine (Criss) unabashedly singing and flirting to Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) on his first day at Dalton Academy.
AfterElton had the chance to briefly talk with Criss at the Fox All-Star Party during the recent Television Critics Association Winter Tour in Los Angeles. Despite being one of the most sought after interviews, Criss was relaxed, funny and gracious.
AfterElton: Hi, Darren. I'm with AfterElton—
Darren Criss: Of course, I am very familiar with AfterElton.
AE: Well, we are very familiar with you. Now you’ve answered all the gay questions so I’m not going to ask those again.
DC: I’m happy to answer gay questions, backwards and forwards, upside down questions.
AE: Well, I think you've answered them all. You’ve been very eloquent about it and we’re very appreciative having a guy like yourself having no issues with playing the part. So I want to talk about something else. When did you know that "Teenage Dream" was blowing up so huge? When you were filming it, did you have any inkling of what was to come?
DC: No, no and I’m glad I didn’t. In general I never like to anticipate or presume anything of anyone or any situation. People have asked me a lot of things about scenes, “Oh, did you think this would happen?” No, all I’m thinking about is man I really hope I don’t make a fool of myself. I really hope I hit my marks, remember the words and just try to do my job and be in the moment and be in character.
Now if that has anything to do with the success or positive response that it’s yielded then that is wonderful, but no I certainly didn’t anticipate it to be as well received as it has been. And it’s been great. We talk about how it is wonderfully indicative of where audiences are at now.
I mean five years ago I don’t know if I would have seen two young male teenagers having kind of a flirty repartee. So that’s really special, but you don’t just think about it. I just do it and it’s not until you step back from it because there are so many things going on. There are so many cameras and lights and it’s work, you know?
AE: I guess from the viewer's perspective when we’re watching it and we’re having the reaction, we’re thinking you must have known something.
DC: Oh, no. The magic doesn’t happen until after you get to see it yourself.
AE: When did you first get an inkling of the reaction that the video for "Teenage Dream" was generating?
DC: You know, it was pretty cool because having been a fan of Glee just before and having seen what it would do I was quite used to seeing the songs on the chart immediately. That’s an incredible thing to say about any musical endeavor, individual artist, band or show. So when I saw the song on the chart I thought, “Oh that’s cool, that song people really liked it.”
But I expected it to go down a day or two and it stayed up there and I was really, I mean, it’s an incredible feeling. The thing that I’d like to say about that song and why it was successful, I had very little to do with it and that’s not to pass the buck. There were so many things stacked in my favor. It’s already a great great song, like it or not, it’s never going to leave your head. It’s very catchy.
Second of all they did a great arrangement of it. It’s a really cool fresh take on it that really feeds into that appetite that people start having during a second season. They want something new, something a little different that kind of feeds into that appetite.
Then you attached it to a character and there was a lot of speculation on top of which has to do with a character that people already loved. So it’s all these things and people were going to watch it. You just had to hope that it had that extra, you know, something or other that made it likable.
I was the very last grain of sand at the top. I heard the scratch track of how it originally sounded and I was like, “This is great!” I would totally buy a thousand copies of this even if I didn’t sing it. I hope I don’t screw it up. Which is my long-winded way of saying, I saw a lot there and I’m glad I wasn’t the only one that saw it.
AE: I don’t mean to sound like a gushing fan. That’s not normally how I…
DC: Gush! Gush away.
AE: I’m in my forties and when I saw that video my jaw basically hit my desk just from what I was seeing and how moved I was by it. It was something I've waited my whole life to see. What does it do to your head to know that people are having that kind of reaction? Even if you’re the "last grain of sand" though I think you’re selling your part short.
DC: It’s beautiful. I get goose bumps thinking about it. You know, as an actor you’re always wondering am I just playing an ancillary function to a larger monkey’s song and dance of some pony show. I’ll say this person’s line, I’ll be the boyfriend, I’ll play the cop and that’s it. What is the significance? What’s the value that I have to the greater community?
Often times you don’t get that. That’s not something that comes around very often and it’s such a privilege. It’s such an empowering thing to be the embodiment to a greater ideal.
AE: I’ve talked to Chris and it’s not often that actors get a role where they really mean something.
DC: Yes.
AE: Putting you two together and seeing you guys sing that song to each other, like I said I’m in my forties and they played that song today during the Television Critics Association and it gave me goose bumps all over.
DC: It’s nice that people react the way they do. It tells me something about where we’re at now with our social consciousness. The response from the gay community, of course it’s been very strong, but to me the coolest part has been the response from people from parts of the world who are maybe not as exposed to certain ideologies and have expressed to me first that they have kind of reevaluated the idea the way they think about, not necessarily homosexuality, but to relationships and just human rights basically. Very heavy stuff.
It comes from such an earnest simple thing that is just a relationship between two young men and that is just phenomenal. Like that is so cool. I get very verklempt about it, I think it’s so cool. I mean, I grew up in San Francisco, I was a straight kid growing up in a very gay community and it’s something that I’ve had to watch so many friends have to struggle with and have no place to go to identify in kind of a grander media culture. To be a small piece of that machine is incredibly wonderful.
AE: Are we going to see you in the Super Bowl episode?
DC: Yeah, they threw me in there at the last minute. So there is a little fun thing.
AE: Any hint about what it is in the Super Bowl?
DC: It’s an entertainment episode. It’s like an hour long half time show so it’s, the best is yet to come as far as Kurt and Blaine. There is certainly some fun stuff in there. There’s a great number I really look forward to seeing.
source: afterelton.com
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