The Oxygen Channel is breathing new life into the hit television show Glee with its latest project. The winner of the Glee Project competition earns a seven-episode arc in a storyline built around their new character. Thousands auditioned around the country, including an open call in Chicago.
Through homework assignments of performing in front of a mystery guest and making music videos before a last-chance recital, these hopefuls proved their talents for TV. Producer Ryan Murphy whittled down the group to the final four and had a record 1.2 million viewers for the finale. The results were a double win for Irish singer Damian McGinty and rocker Samuel Larsen, with a bonus two-episode stint each for Rachel-esque Lindsay Pearce and openly gay Alex Newell. Windy City Times talked to the group the day after the finale.
Windy City Times: Hi, all. The Project is finally over. How hard was it to keep the secret?
Samuel Larsen: Nearly impossible.
Lindsay Pearce: It was really hard.
Alex Newell: Pretty easy.
SL: It sucks, but I think when you have that kind of a lawsuit that could potentially be against you if you say anything, it gets in your ears.
WCT: When you were all standing there, who did you think would win?
Samuel Larsen: Wow, I thought it was going to go to Alex. That was my guess.
Damian McGlinty: I would have to be honest I think all three are more than worthy, but I thought it was between Lindsay and Samuel. I thought Lindsay.
LP: I thought it was going to be Alex or Damian. But I wasn't actually able to listen totally to everyone's performance.
AN: I thought it was going to be one of the three of them.
WCT: How shocked were you, Damian, to realize you had won as well as Samuel?
DM: It's really hard to explain but it was a huge shock to the system you know. Like standing there with Samuel, and when Ryan announces that Samuel has won the Glee Project, it's a real sinking feeling thinking that you've got so far yet you're still a million miles away. But then when Ryan told me I had also won, you lose all sense of reality and you forget where you are. And it was just the craziest feeling and the best. It was a phenomenal moment in life, you know.
WCT: I spoke with Dot Jones recently and we talked about how amazing you all are.
LP: Dot's incredible. She's the sweetest…
AN: I love her.
WCT: Who are you excited to meet but haven't yet?
LP: Chris Colfer.
SL: Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch—it's a tie.
DM: Yes I have to admit I'm very excited to meet Matthew also. We're all going to be working with the real experienced professionals pretty soon is a real "pinch me" moment.
AN: I want to meet Lea because she is the epitome of what I want to be for a Broadway actor.
WCT: Do you know what any of your roles will be like for your special appearances yet?
SL: All we really have to base what our characters might be like is whatever Ryan spitballs at us when we would sing for him. I know for me, personally, he's kind of considering me being that indie-rocker guy that you don't expect to be a Christian but is—which is really, really cool and I hope he follows through with that. But at the end of the day they're incredible writers and they've created the best show ever so it's whatever they want.
DM: Ryan said to me that he sees me going into the school as an Irish exchange student who starts off very lonely, very vulnerable, but ends up kind of growing. I'd suppose a little bit like the way I was in the Glee Project.
LP: I don't really know what else to add. We don't really know much at all, but I'm really excited to see what they're going to have me sing, and what they'll have us do and who we'll be working with.
AN: I don't know anything, but as long as I get to sing with Amber Riley I'm all right.
WCT: Well, Alex, I was going to say that you could be like Amber's brother or cousin. That would be a really cool angle, I've always thought.
AN: Yes, honey, yes. I mean great. I'm the lookalike. I met her at the 3-D movie premiere and we took a picture. As soon as I tweeted it, just to a family member and my mom, I got this immediate response of how much we looked alike—down to the smile and the nose and everything. I would love to play her counterpart. She's so fierce and I know any song that they threw at us we would absolutely murder the song.
WCT: How has the reaction been to you from your family and friends being gay and performing in drag on this show?
AN: It has been great. Everyone kind of accepts it. They're like, "Its just Alex doing what he's doing. He's always over the top. He goes big or he goes home!" My family loves it. They eat it up. They think it's hilarious. They love seeing me in a dress for some strange reason, they get a kick out of it.
My fans like it, too. I do get a lot of drag queens saying that I do a good job about it and I should be on RuPaul and stuff like that.
WCT: It took a lot of courage to perform in drag at 18 years old. Have you done a character like that prior to the show?
AN: No, I've never played Effie White, but if I ever get the opportunity to play her I would murder the show. It's something that I probably do look forward to doing because I don't want to like sound mad, whatever, but I do it well. I do play a good female. It's not like I'm doing a drag character, I think of the physical mannerisms of a woman and stuff like that.
WCT: I have heard there are some divas on Glee. How are you going to stay down to earth?
AN: Since I am a diva it's nothing new. If you didn't know me until after the show then you would think that I was over-the-top and a diva. If you knew me before the show then you would know I never changed.
WCT: Now you can be mentors for the next season of the Glee Project. What advice would you give them?
SL: If there is a season two, I think my advice to them would just be get out of your head and don't try to please Ryan; just try to top yourself. Be the best you can be. If he likes it, it will work; if he doesn't it's not your fault. You just got to be you, that is what its all about.
AN: Ditto, just be yourself. I think that's it.
DM: I would say don't watch any of the drama that surrounds you. Look at the girls in particular.
LP: I don't even know where that came from.
DM: There was a lot of drama on the girl's part.
WCT: Were you surprised about the amount of work that went into the musical numbers on this show?
LP: I definitely wasn't surprised. You can't watch Glee and not think that they don't work their butts off. But it was kind of awesome to kind of get the feel of what it would be like to work on the show and the blood, sweat and tears that go into it—definitely surreal.
SL: I think, you know, at the beginning and obviously throughout the competition we knew it was a reality show to get on Glee. I think after a while it just kind of felt like our own show. There's moments that it just felt like we were making our product as opposed to just try to get on someone else's. And I think that kind of translated into like the pride we took in songs and whatnot, so.
DM: For me like I'm under no illusions, I know it's probably incredibly hard work on Glee. I do not believe for a split second it's going to be as hard as what The Glee Project was. I really don't. It was four or five days an episode on The Glee Project. We had to learn the homework assignment and make the music video.
LP: The dancing!
DM: The pressure. Like I know Glee's going to be hard but...
AN: I can't imagine it being that hard. They're just rehearsing the whole entire time and then putting out a finished product. But it's going to be the same, but not as hard as The Project was.
DM: And they're going home to televisions, computers and phones.
AN: Yes, they have constant connection with the outside world, whereas we didn't at all. It was worth it though. I'm never going to say it wasn't worth it.
DM: Oh yes, absolutely.
Casting details for season two will be released soon. So warm up you vocal cords and dancing shoes, and stay tuned to oxygen.com . Watch for these four on the new season of Glee. Check www.fox.com for upcoming listings and details.
