Lea Michele is opening up about her friendship with Jonathan Groff! Image Source: Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Lea Michele is opening up about her friendship with Jonathan Groff!
Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff, who co-starred in Broadway’s sexually charged "Spring Awakening" musical show almost 15 years ago and have become best of friends, are reuniting once again to share their stories about the show’s journey to the stage in the new HBO documentary "Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known".
Lea Michele, who starred as Wendla Bergmann, shared in the documentary that Jonathan and she became close and added that they were so intertwined. The actress, who was 19-years-old when she starred as Wendla Bergmann, is a teenager who wants to learn more about her body as she starts to grow and evolve into a woman along with her sexual desires. When Wendla’s mother fails to answer her questions, Wendla turns to Melchior Gabor, who was played by Jonathan Groff on the show.
At the culmination of the first act, Melchoir takes away Wendla’s virginity and encourages her to listen to her urges, and they engage in an intimate sex scene at the culmination of the first act, with both actors getting partially naked on stage. Jonathan Groff shared in the documentary that they made out so hard in the play that they would sweat, snot would come out of their nostrils, saliva, tongue, and mouth. The actor added that he was 21 at the time and was learning about his sexuality before he openly came out as gay in October 2009.
Jonathan explained that Lea and he were given a material where they had to fall in love, and the first thing he felt at the time was that everyone was going to know that he was gay and had never had sex with a girl. Jonathan, who did not come out as gay at the time, said to himself that he should just pretend that he knows what he’s doing, and added that he wanted choreography to tell him what to do and give him the moves to allow him to express himself, and he added a thank you to director Michael Mayer.
Lea Michele said that the two of them became very close and there was a point where she showed him her vagina and Jonathan said he could confirm that she did. Lea explained that he told her that he had not seen a woman’s vagina before and asked her if she could show him, so she agreed and took a desk lamp and showed him, adding that she had NOT seen his penis. Lea Michele explained ahead of the documentary during an interview with People that she is grateful that she and Jonathan connected in that way because, that way, they were able to go on stage and have a level of trust.
The Glee actress said that if they hadn’t been comfortable with each other or connected so well with each other, it would have been impossible for them to perform on stage if there was no trust. Lea added that the couple had to be in love and it just so happened that they met on the show. Otherwise, she believes that they would have met under different circumstances because they were meant to be in each other’s lives. The actress also added that she felt safe at home at night and it was hard to do those scenes, including the beating one.
Lea Michele added that playing Wendla on-stage was like an honor for her and, as an actor, it was great material, but it’s hard to have to go up there every night and she added that she couldn’t have done that if it wasn’t for him. Lea Michele, who welcomed son Ever with husband Zandy Reich in August 2020, has already offered to be Jonathan's surrogate if he ever decides he wants a baby.
During a recent interview, Lea Michele mentioned that the great thing about the documentary is the fact that it's a wonderful microscope into who they are as individuals and not just like people assume they are. She added that the Radical Media and the production team behind the documentary made every one of them comfortable and it was so great to talk about the material as adults. Lea and Jonathan added that they feel a certain amount of relief as the questions they are asked are more mature and serious unlike the ones they were asked at the time.
The actress added that with that level of comfortability came to a story of just what goes on behind closed doors between her and Jonathan Groff. That's only one of them. There are a lot of other things. "Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known" will debut May 3 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.
