Interview with Michael Urie

AE: Going back to Justin for a second, you’ve already played a big part in his learning to be more comfortable with himself, and right he’s in a phase of trying to be more like his Dad. Do you continue to do more mentoring with him this season?
MU: There’s nothing on the books yet, but they can’t keep Justin and Marc apart forever, so I’m sure that they will have moments again. What’s great about the second season is that, and I think it's why America has grown so attached to Justin, is that he gets mentoring everywhere he goes, and everyone who mentors him is good at it. He’s got great parental figures.

Though his father is gone and his mother had him too young and his grandfather doesn’t know anything about fashion and his mother doesn’t know anything about fashion either and they don’t really know what to do with him all the time, they all still accept him and encourage him to do what he wants and don’t pressure him. So there’s always going to be room for a Marc mentorship with Justin. But he gets it everywhere he goes, from Daniel to Betty to Ignacio to Hilda, there’s always somebody to watch out for little Justin.

AE: The ratings seem to have dropped a bit this season and some critics have been harshing on the show for some reason. Are you guys aware of that? Are you talking about it on the set?
MU: They’re just wrong (laughing). I guess the ratings have been down, but the DVD sales are so good and you know they have the new DVR [ratings] – and we were number 16 DVR, which is great. I think Thursday night people aren’t always home by eight, but they still catch it, they still watch it. We’re also the number two downloaded show on the Internet.

AE: I heard you just bought a place next to Becky. Are you all settled in?
MU: Yeah. We can’t really get enough of each other.

AE: Apparently. [laughing] The LA Times interview with the two of you . . . you sort of met at the same stage of your career.
MU: You know, we were kind of like soul mates, friend soul mates that met at the right time.

AE: I imagine there aren’t a lot of people who understand how your life has changed, what’s great about it and what’s not. In Becki you have someone who’s walking the same path as you and gets what you’re talking about.
MU: Yeah, that’s exactly what it is, and we have the best mentors as far as what it’s like to work and be in the public eye. With Vanessa Williams and Rebecca Romijn, you know we’ve got great people to go to for advice.

AE: At the Television Critic’s Association conference last July, we were talking at the ABC party and you told me at one point how great it was going to the parties and having everyone tell you how much they loved you on the show, but that it was a little hard to go home to an empty apartment. I know talking about your personal life isn’t something you do, but if you could talk about being a celebrity and the media and how the fans would like to know the details about a celebrity’s private life. Do you understand where that comes from?
MU: I completely get it and I fall victim to it sometimes, too. Vanessa calls it ‘a friend in your head.’ It happens all the time, especially to those actors on TV. If you see a big movie star, they’re intimidating. Or if you see a recording artist, they’re intimidating. You see a sports star, they’re intimidating. But someone on TV is in your house all the time. They’re literally in your living room and you see them week after week. You see them change and grow and you feel like you know them. They’re your friend in your head, or your friend in their head. So when they meet you or when they see you, they think they know you.

I was in Yosemite with my family last weekend and we were just walking down a trail and we heard, “Ahh! I love you! I love you!” And this woman ran over and hugged me. It’s pretty awkward sometimes. It’s like oh, my god, I don’t know you, but they come up to you with this look. For the first several months when that would happen, I just assumed I did know them, because they seemed to know me so well. I’ve gotten a little more accustomed to it.

So I think the extension of that is they want to know about your personal life because they feel like they do know you. And I guess that’s totally fair that they would just want to know who you are on the inside. I find it’s just too complicated to get into all that. It’s about the work and about the project. I think that there’s enough in the work and what the projects do for people’s personal lives that our personal lives are far less interesting.

AE: Does being on a hit television show like this make it actually harder to meet people to date and do you find yourself getting hit on or come onto more now that you’re so well known?
MU: Yeah, that’s definitely true. Rebecca and I were in D.C. for this HRC event and someone asked me if they could kiss me, so I gave him my cheek. I didn’t think it was appropriate, that a total stranger, you know, but . . . It’s definitely more attention, but it’s again it’s that "in your head". If someone thinks that you’d be a good boyfriend for them, they think it in their head, so they’re not really flirting with me. They’re flirting with what they know of me from television, and I’m not really like that, so . . .

AE: If someone came up off the street and kissed me, that would be really uncomfortable.
MU: Yeah, it’s odd. I’ll kiss my friends – no big deal, but like a stranger? I don’t know.

AE: Any other movies or theatrical roles that you’re currently working on?
MU: Well, I just did the voice of a little doggy for this live action dog movie where they’re going to CGI their mouths moving. I play basically the dog version of Marc. His name is Liberace. It’s this little pug and he’s a friend of the Drew Barrymore dog. It’s really funny.