AOL Interview With Jane Lynch 'Coach Sue Sylvester'

[JamesG]

Jane Lynch is one of those TV actresses who have played a zillion memorable bit roles, yet you can't quite place her. She's appeared in countless hit shows – as her miles-long IMDB credits attest – from Married...With Children all the way up to The L Word. Her knack for physical comedy and her ability to fully absorb each element of her oft-zany characters has set her apart from her peers.

Lynch has certainly hit it big with her next role as aggressive cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester in the upcoming musical dramedy Glee. The amount of buzz circulating around this feel-good show about a group of misfits is nearly deafening, and Lynch is right in the centre of it all, poised to finally taste the fame she's avoided up until now. Once the much-deserved brouhaha translates into actual viewers, we're sure Lynch won't be a background figure for long.

The affable and down-to-Earth star spoke with AOL about what it's like returning to high school, and how it feels to wear Adidas tracksuits to work.




Your IMDB credits are incredible. You've practically been on every show known to Man!

Yeah, that's true. I've been at it a long time.




How does it feel to land such a dynamite role on Glee?

It feels amazing. I think it was when I was first reading the script, I laughed out loud when I hit a part that said "Sue Sylvester may or may not have posed for Penthouse" – and that was it. I thought, 'I'm in.'

The world of Glee is just this wacky, great world, and I knew the music would be fantastic. I remember the first day of shooting, and the song they sang, 'Don't Stop Believin'...I was in the audience and I thought 'Oh my God, this show is going to be a friggin' hit!'




Cheerleading coach. Aggressive. High School. Track suits.
Does Sue Sylvester contribute to the high school gym teacher lesbian stereotype?

[Laughs] Well, she's not a lesbian. She'll do anything to get ahead, so I wouldn't put it past her to pretend that she is, but she actually falls in love at one point in the first few episodes. She gets her little heart crushed.


Her little metallic heart?

[Laughs] I didn't say that. But put it down, I like that.




Does playing the hard-ass cheerleading coach bring back any memories of your own high school experience?

Not really, no. I was in sports and stuff, but I don't remember anyone being a hard-ass. I created Sue out of whole cloth. I had a drama teacher in college, though, who was very cruel and liked to cut right to the bone. Everybody was afraid of her and bowed down to whatever she said. So I guess I had that.




Sue Sylvester is spot-on as a high school coach. Especially the matching Adidas tracksuits.

I have every colour of the rainbow.


Do you get to keep any of them?

No, they're the property of Fox Television [Laughs].


I bet it's one of your comfiest roles, though.

It is. It's like slipping into my pyjamas every time I go to work.




You really absorb yourself into any role that you get – a lot more than most actresses on television. How do you do that?

A lot of it just comes naturally, I don't really think about it. Usually I find some particular psychological aspect that I can find inside of me, and then I pull that up and wrap myself around it.

Then I go to the extreme of whatever that is. That's what makes me laugh...when people have extreme psychological, emotional issues [Laughs]. I pick a colour and go with it.


Your Adidas suits are like a mood ring.

Exactly. They could be, yeah!




What can we expect from Sue during Glee's first season?

Well, we're going to learn a bit more about her on a personal level. We'll get a bit of compassion for her but then she'll bare her teeth again, and you'll find her as heinous as before.

She's not just bad all the time, we're going to see her actually have some equanimity.




Is a lot of her nasty behaviour about the school budget?

Sue is always going to look for an enemy, that's what she lives for. Even when it looks like there's going to be a resolution, she has to go in there and mess it up.




I know you enjoy singing. Will you be doing any singing at all this season?

This season, no. But I do dance. I dance with [co-star] Matt Morrison, we do a Lindy Hop. It was tough; I'm not a dancer. I kept telling them, "I don't do this. I'm not good at this."

We ended up being really good, and I was flipping him around like a little girl.




Is there any Glee co-star who's particularly knocked your socks off?

All the kids do, every single one of them. Chris Colfer, who plays Kurt, is amazing. He's a little old man living in a 19-year-old body. Very wise, sweet, generous, and kind, and he can sing like an angel.




There's something very heart-warming about the show, and each of the characters.

It's about the losers who really want to have their voices heard. They want to do what they love.

http://insidetv.aol.com/2009/09/08/j...led-with-glee/