Getting Your Glee Fill with Josh Sussman

It has been almost one month since the season finale of Glee aired on Fox and there’s about two more months until the show returns. But fret not Gleeks! I’ve got something to fill your glee-less days over the summer. You can listen to an excerpt of my interview with Glee star, Josh Sussman on Gleek Squad Podcast (available on iTunes) and read the full interview below! Check it out:

I want to know what you added to your character (Jacob) that wasn’t initially in the (Glee) script?
In the original script for the first episode that I did, “Showmance,” they didn’t have my initial lust for Rachel Berry. I was giving her creepy looks in celibacy club…they didn’t have the line, “You enchant me.” Ryan Murphy was very generous. He saw the way that I looked at her and he said, “How about you say this, how about you say, ‘You enchant me’ to her.” So he allowed me to make it a little creepier. So that wasn’t there and yeah, stuff like that was fun.

So he wasn’t as creepy until that moment.
Right, right. Originally the character was supposed to be more like a jock, just a horny teenager who’s in the celibacy club and my name was originally Randy before it became Jacob. I’m dressed differently…in my first episode, my hair is a a lot shorter and then they were like, “Oh don’t cut your hair.” So as you watch the season, my hair progressively grows and grows and grows.

Speaking of growing…the show grew to be a phenomenon. So when exactly did you realize that this show was so huge?
We were filming most of the first season before it ever aired and I think when we were filming the ninth episode, “Wheels,” and I think around then is when it premiered after American Idol on May 19th. People loved it! Then, they had just showed the “Pilot.” I wasn’t even part of that. But over Memorial Day weekend, I went back home to New Jersey for a bar mitzvah and on the DJ’s list, they were playing the Glee version of “Don’t Stop Believing.” All of the kids were dancing and singing along and at that moment I was thinking, “Woah, I’m part of something special.” Even though no one had seen me on the show yet, none of my stuff had aired…Glee is becoming huge. I don’t think it was possible to predict how big it did get. There was nothing all summer long and we didn’t know if it was a good marketing strategy or if it was great, showing the “Pilot..” will people forget about it over the summer? And they didn’t. It came back in September and right away it was a phenomenon. In January we started filming the back nine and at that point it was already huge. It was kind of overwhelming going back, the pressure’s on now.

Do you have a favorite line of Jacob’s?
“I have an urge to kiss you right now. I’m gonna just go for it.” I love all of my scenes with Rachel. “Show me your over the shoulder boulder holder” or “Get those sweater puppies out of their cashmere cage.” They give me some pretty fun things to say.

I think between your lines and Heather’s lines, those are the best.
Heather is genius the way that she says her lines. She cracks me up. I love Brittany, I want to have a scene with Brittany. We got to have a small bit where she was chasing me and I was rejecting her. If you blinked you missed it. I think it was in the “Funk” episode after Will seduced Sue and then stood her up.

“Funk” was actually one of my favorite episodes.
Yeah. I loved “Journey.” When Quinn had her baby, I think that was the best sequence of the whole season, how they cut “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It was so good.

What was your favorite song?
My favorite song…the Avril Lavigne song, “Keep Holding On.” I loved that.

If you were asked to sing a song, what would it be?
I would love to serenade Rachel with something seductive. The first thing that comes to my mind is “You Are My Sunshine.” I’d love to see Rachel give Jacob a chance.

I think it would be pretty funny if you sang “Touch Me” from Spring Awakening.
Oh yeah, that would be really cool. Writers, you just heard a great idea right here!

Thanks! Now which celebrity were you surprised and thrilled to find out was a Glee fan?
Neil Patrick Harris, before he was even on the show…we were at the Golden Globes and I was in the bathroom and this guy comes up to me and says, “Hi, I’m Neil. I just want to tell you that I love the show and I think your character is so funny.” I’m looking at him like, this is Neil Patrick Harris! I grew up watching him on Doogie Howser. I think he is great on How I Met Your Mother. So it was very surreal. I was thinking, “Wait…he knows who I am?” I still haven’t gotten used to it. The other day, Wayne Brady told me that he thinks I am really funny. In my head, I was thinking, “What? I think you’re really funny!” I can’t believe that these people know who I am. It makes my head spin.

Now how did you get involved in the MTV project, Warren the Ape?
This is mock reality show following Warren, the ape around. I play Warren’s assistant. Warren is a drug addict and alcohol who sees a doctor and I drive him around. We have really cool guest stars…Seth Green will be on the show this Monday. And this show is so much fun because it is all improvised. There is a story structure but there is no script. Everything I say, I get to make up. It is so much fun. I grew up watching The Muppets so it is a lot of fun interacting with this puppet. He is so life like.

What is more challenging; interacting with the puppet or improv?
At the beginning, I found myself looking at the puppeteer, Dan and I had to catch myself since I knew I should be focusing on the puppet. Improv is so natural and we talk about real stuff. The camera just keeps rolling so sometimes we will have 40 minutes of footage for one scene and a lot of really funny stuff is cut out.

Now can you tell me more about the Disney project, Fishhooks you will be working on soon?
Yeah! I had been pursing voice over work for the past five years and I finally got my first voice over project which I am very excited about! This is a new Disney Channel show which takes place in a giant aquarium I believe. I’m not even sure yet, I haven’t seen the full script. I am going to play a crab named Randy. I also grew up watching The Little Mermaid so I’d love to end up friends with Sebastian. I used to work for Wizards of Waverly Place so I am excited to be part of the Disney family again. I feel really lucky to be able to work on 3 shows at the same time. I am very grateful.

So you mentioned New Jersey earlier but when did you move to Los Angeles?
I moved to LA at the beginning of 2005 and I drove across the country. I’m kind of gullible. I guess that is dangerous moving to a new place and being very naive… The week that I moved here, I saw an ad in BackStage for a seminar on how to make it in show business. So I went to the seminar at some place called the Church of Scientology. I had never heard of it but went anyway. They were really pushing Scientology and trying to make you think that the only way to become successful in acting was to become a scientologist. I didn’t know anything about that, so I went to some of the classes and they were very overbearing. So I got out of that. But I was very lucky right away since I got to work right away. Right before I moved, I auditioned for a dating show on MTV and 3 weeks after I moved to LA I got called back. I flew back to do the show. It was the “Pilot” episode for Parental Control. Thankfully the “Pilot” never aired because it was so embarrassing. I had to dance to the song, “Barbe Girl.”

Well, I think you just put yourself out there for that footage to be found.
Oh, I hope not. I guess I did. (laughs)

Well on that note, thank you so much for your time. Where can your fans follow you?

They can follow me on Twitter and there are some really fun videos they can check out on YouTube.

Glee returns this fall on Fox. Watch Warren the Ape Mondays at 10:30/9:30c on MTV.