Andrew Rannells
Luckily for me I have a very supportive family and a loving group of friends.Collection: Family
As an actor, particularly in theatre, you're trying to get jobs on TV; but you're also losing jobs in theatre to people who are on television.
I still can't shake the Nebraska off of me.
At a very early age I knew I wanted to be an actor and then more specifically that I wanted to be on Broadway and be in musicals.
I've certainly played those leading man or male juvenile roles, where you're not supposed to make people laugh.
I'm 6'2 and not a small person.
If you get into multicultural sort of casting for no other reason than to diversify, then it seems false.
I used to do community theater with Conor Oberst.
I haven't really made up my mind concretely about having kids.
When I was a kid, there were hardly any gay story lines or characters on television that I recall. Then when I was in college, 'Will & Grace' started up.
I've been pretty career-focused since moving to New York.
I think as a young person, you're kind of game for whatever sometimes.
Even though I'm from the Midwest, the majority of my life has been spent on the coasts where being gay wasn't really much of a conversation.
I love doing both theater and television.
As an actor, you generally don't get to choose what projects you are part of, so I've been very fortunate that 'The Book of Mormon' was something I got to be part of. I don't want to be lofty, but it was groundbreaking, in many ways, for musical theater, so that was really thrilling to be part of.
My mother was predominately a stay-at-home mom.
Always my fallback is - I'm gonna move to a poor town and open a scone shop.
I am mildly addicted to Mucinex-D. I feel like I should just come clean about that.
I can't wake up at all without caffeine.
I live in the East Village, and occasionally people will recognize me there. When I'm in Williamsburg, I always get recognized. Midtown, not so much.
I was a little boy who watched 'Solid Gold' every week and wanted to be a 'Solid Gold' dancer. And I would do very in-depth reenactments of 'Grease 2' and 'West Side Story' with my sister Natalie in our garage. I was a very theatrical kid.
Surround yourself with people who are going to support you regardless of what your sexual orientation is, and you can have a beautiful life filled with love.
It never occurred to me that one could just buy tickets to the Tonys. I figured you had to be invited.
In 2011, I earned a Tony nomination for my role in 'The Book of Mormon.'
Everyone is different, and every relationship is different, and I think the rules can change, and feelings can change. It's not only about who you're with, but also where you are in your own life and your own process.
I feel very fortunate that while I had a little bit of personal panic or maybe a little internal struggle as a teenager, really coming to terms with the fact that I was gay, and also knowing I was going to have to tell my family. And, how was that going to affect things? And would it affect things? And ultimately, it did not.
I arrived at New York, and I went from being Andy Rannells from Nebraska to being Andrew Rannells in New York who was gay. And those were just the facts.
My group of friends, we sort of go at each other pretty hard sometimes. And it's half performance, half truth that you can say cutting things to your friends that might be a little true, but as long as you package it in a joke, it becomes a little more palatable.
I remember seeing 'Falsettos' on the Tonys in '92 and being like, 'What the hell was that show?'
I didn't have an agent until I got 'Hairspray.' I had to get a Broadway show without an agent to get an agent.
It was always my goal to be a working actor.
I'm always thrilled when I get feedback from young people, particularly from 'The New Normal,' young gay people - when they say they want that when they grow up, that means a lot to me.
There was something really special about working with Lena Dunham. I immediately felt very comfortable with her, and we spoke the same language.
I've always been a huge fan of Tina Fey's. She's a very unique storyteller and has such a great voice and sense of character and comedy, and manages to do things that are oftentimes very broad but still have a lot of heart to them.
Coming from the theater, you know what your given circumstances are every night and who your character is. You're reenacting this one moment of their lives over and over, so you get really good at figuring out how to navigate it. TV was a huge adjustment for me because the script changes every episode, and you have a different set of circumstances.
There are certainly actors who I felt rivalries with, but then, as time goes on, you realize that you have to keep your eyes on your own paper because everybody's doing their own work.
I would like to tell stories through the lens of the gay person, but not just for gay people.
Coming to New York to go to school and being very far away from my own family, I definitely found myself piecing together my sort of chosen family here, and I have friends that I'm still very close with, that we all met at the same time and have become a huge part of each other's lives.
I'm not friends with a lot of my exes, and I think there's a reason for that.
I would always pick pop songs and would sing them even if they were not correct for the audition - which didn't always get me a lot of jobs, but sometimes they did.
My career, definitely, the early years were a little scattershot, in terms of - it was a little regional theater, it was a lot of voiceovers, it was a lot of random day jobs. I mean, it was hard. It was hard to scrap around, and once 'Hairspray' happened, then it all kind of clicked into place.
When I came out when I was 18, and I graduated from high school, and I felt like that was the time to officially say it, I surprised zero people in my family.
In L.A., people will recognize me for doing 'Girls,' but have no idea that I have ever done anything on Broadway or can sing or dance or any of that stuff.
One of the great things about 'Girls' is that each of these characters really does represent a human being. There are definitely relatable aspects to all of these folks, and certainly within my close friend group, those personalities very much exist.
I had to be clean-shaven all the time to play a Mormon missionary, so after I was done, I grew a mustache out of rebellion. It was actually very polarizing. I became attractive to a completely new group of people and also repulsive to a new group of people. The lesson: mustaches are divisive.
This is a musical, ma'am. If there's no gay, there's a problem.Collection: Gay
So much of being an actor is trying to force yourself into these roles and sometimes it's a good fit, and sometimes it's not a good fit... you have to get clear about what it is that you do and not try to be a bunch of other people. Not try to be that guy or try to play that part; find the roles that you do well.Collection: Play
I figure, oftentimes the best way in is through humor, and you can deal with serious situations a lot easier, or at least bring up the conversation.Collection: Serious
Always my fallback is - I'm gonna move to a poor town and open a scone shop... Sometimes after some bad auditions I think, you know what - time to open that scone shop! Let's start baking.Collection: Moving
I'm happy to say I haven't received that much negative feedback. I'm always thrilled when I get feedback from young people, particularly from The New Normal, young gay people - when they say they want that when they grow up, that means a lot to me. As a kid growing up, I didn't really have a lot of gay role models on television, so it's nice to be part of a movement that gives some more of those.Collection: Growing Up