SPOILER ALERT!
Glee airs on Fox following the Super Bowl, and on Global at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday.While Glee has gone from a tantalizing spark on the pop-culture horizon to a full-blown phenomenon in its second season, don't label Jenna Ushkowitz an overnight sensation. The 24-year-old who plays Tina Chang-Cohen on the hit TV series has been building her showbiz career since she was toddler.
Maybe that's why she lets the less-glamorous by-products of stardom slide on by. Like the fact that if you Google "Jenna Ushkowitz," the first thing that comes up is a picture of her . . . in a bikini . . . with a co-star rumoured to be her boyfriend . . . in Monaco.
"It's weird. It's also not true," Ushkowitz says with a laugh. "So you're dealing with these rumours and trying to stop them. But you have to just laugh. Kevin (McHale) and I are best friends, so we can laugh at it together. But it's definitely weird."
Ushkowitz paid her dues in New York City, logging three seasons on Sesame Street as a youngster. She and Glee co-star Lea Michelle have known each other since they were eight-year-old theatre rats. She attended a performing-arts high school and has appeared on Broadway. All groundwork for Glee, with its cast of triple threats who have sung, danced and acted their way to the top of the TV heap.
And as popular as the series is, the prime spot following the Super Bowl tonight could bring a lot more eyeballs to the Golden Globe-winning show that portrays the soap-opera-esque goings-on of a high-school glee club. (Last year's game drew an estimated 105 million viewers.) Ushkowitz says she and her co-stars are as anxious as the fans to take in the finished product.
"It feels like an eternity. We've been working on this episode since before Christmas," she says of the episode, rumoured to be in the $3 to $5 million range. "The production value, definitely, we had to step it up a couple of notches."
And the show runners weren't born yesterday. The episode, which also includes a zombified performance of Thriller on the football field, opens with the midriff-baring cheerleading squad doing a number to Katy Perry's California Gurls while BMXers whirl overhead and pull tricks in the background.
The circus-like feel is something Ushkowitz is used to. Since it premiered, Glee has built on its early buzz to become a powerhouse, not only in terms of TV ratings, but on the music charts as well. Thirteen million digital downloads and five million album sales later, life has changed for the cast.
"It's so many things, from opportunities that we never thought we'd have, from meeting the president to going on Oprah. It's surreal, but it just keeps getting better and better," Ushkowitz says, adding, "We all have our friends to keep us grounded . . . You do have to check yourself, too, because we are role models."
Since the clock is ticking on the interview, Ushkowitz helps wrap things up with a speed-round of Q&A.
Q: What's your go-to song in the shower?
A: Right now, it's Rolling in the Deep by Adele.
Q: Are we ever going to meet Tina's family?
A: I hope so, but I don't know. You'll have to ask Ryan (Murphy, co-creator and co-write of Glee). I've been campaigning for Sandra Oh to be my aunt. And I know she's Canadian!
Q: What's your hidden talent?
A: (After laughing a bit) I have this weird quirk that I can cry like a baby with my throat. Very weird. Do you really want to hear it? (Yes!) There are people sleeping in my house, but I'm going to do it anyway. (Ushkowitz proceeds to deliver an eerily spot-on impression of a crying infant.) It's very weird. It's my party trick.
A: Probably Kim from Miss Saigon. (Original cast member) Lea Solanga is one of my role models on Broadway. Kim has a beautiful arc and she kind of reminds me of myself a bit, from where she comes from to where she goes. (Ushkowitz was born in South Korea and adopted by her family in New York state when she was three months old.)
Q: Glee's had some pretty big guest stars. Who left you the most star struck?
A: Definitely Britney (Spears). She was it. It was the most surreal experience for me because she is my Madonna basically.
Q: What else can we expect this season
A: There lots of unexpected hookups in the Super Bowl episode and some huge production numbers. It kind of sets up the rest of the season. Then it's Valentine's Day and Mike (Harry Shum Jr.) and Tina get to spend that together. There are people who are single who are having a harder time with it. It's all about who hooks up with who. Oh, and Gwyneth Paltrow is coming back.
source: calgaryherald.com
0 commenti:
Post a Comment