Alex Newell Photo for NOH8 Campaign!

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The AfterElton Interview: "Glee's" Alex Newell!

The fourth season of Glee is off and running, and one of the newer faces at McKinley High is male-to-female transgender character Wade “Unique” Adams, played by Alex Newell.

Newell made a strong impression when he competed on the first season of The Glee Project and while other contestants from the reality series have guested on the Fox series, Newell’s part on Glee, currently at recurring status, will hopefully become full-time soon.

AfterElton sat down with Newell in West Hollywood last week for a lively chat (and photo shoot) to find out how he approaches the role, where things are going with this week’s Grease episode and about his role in the highly anticipated The Geography Club [based on the book by former AfterElton associate editor Brent Hartinger].

AfterElton: When you’re playing Wade and Unique, do you see it as two different people?

Alex Newell: I do. It’s really strange. I remember one time, I was practicing and practicing a number to be Unique because in my script it said ‘Unique.’ They do a really good job of telling me which character I’m playing, if I’m playing Unique or if I’m playing Wade. But for this one I had all the mentalities and the mannerisms that I was going to do. But then they were like, ‘Guess what? You’re going to be Wade.’ I was like, ‘Wait. I’ve been practicing this as Unique.’ So, I had to go back and just redo everything because I see them as two different characters. They’re basically two different entities and two different human beings. They’re so different that it’s hard to even say that they’re alike. The only thing they share is the same body.