glee_fans | Two interviews with Jenna Ushkowitz

PopWrap: Kevin McHale told me last week that he's pro Tina and Artie because you guys are BFFs in real life -- are you on the same page?
Jenna Ushkowitz: Oh, I am so totally on Team Artie and Tina! Fans have started pro-Tina and Artie blogs, which I love!

PW: Have you guys come up with your own celebrity couple nickname yet?
Jenna: Well, some people are calling us Tartie, but I like Artina. But it is fun because we are such good friends, I don't know which came first actually.

PW: We also got to finally learn some more about Tina last week.
Jenna: That was thrilling because if you don't have that much information as an actor you come up with a backstory to make it work for yourself.

PW: In your made-up backstory was Tina's stutter real or fake?
Jenna: It was real. But I think it worked out for the best because you don't ever want to make fun of the stutter but I wanted to make it as real as possible since she pretended to have it since sixth grade. But they had told us that someone could be faking something, so I had an inkling.

PW: As an actor how did you feel about ditching it?
Jenna: I was so excited! [laughs] It would have been fun to keep it because that just gives her one more quirk, but this opens up a whole new set of doors for Tina.

PW: Yes, maybe that she's not trying to push people away any more she'll wear some color?
Jenna: Oh, that's interesting, I hadn't thought about that. But I'm all for the black -- I wear little black dresses every day!

PW: Will we learn anything else about Tina in the final four episodes of 2009?
Jenna: The next few episodes are about getting to sectionals and plots that have been brewing since episode one bubbling over -- especially with the baby daddy drama. So Tina goes back into her glee bubble and focuses on sections a bit, but in 2010 we'll see more of Tina.

PW: What can we expect from tonight's episode, "Ballads"?
Jenna: You'll meet Quinn's parents tonight and it's kind of dramatic -- but also touching and very real. Kudos to Diana [Argon] and Cory [Monteith] because they do a phenomenal job in it. You'll also see some Kurt and Finn interaction. I personally love that dynamic more than anything because those two are stellar together.

PW: And the music is already on my iPod!
Jenna: Here's a little tidbit about the final song tonight: We sing it to two of the members of glee and the actors weren't allowed to see us rehearse before we shot it because the director wanted their reaction to be real -- and they both started to cry. It's special to have those kinds of touching moments where you can get real, raw emotions on screen.

PW: Great, more tears. I cried for 20 minutes at last week's episode and hear that the performance of "Imagine" glee does with a deaf choir in an upcoming episode will make me bawl?
Jenna: I mean, the cameramen, the entire crew and the cast were in tears. That was such an incredible day. A bunch of us actually got "Imagine" tattoos afterwards because it was such a nice checkpoint in our lives.

PW: Aside from "Imagine," what songs on "Glee: Volume 2" are your favorites?
Jenna: "I'll Tell You I'm Not Going" is amazing and "Jump" was fun because we do it on mattresses. Any time we're given a prop it's like kids in a candy store, so "Jump" is like "Proud Mary" in that way. "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is also one of those emotional numbers because it's one of the final ones and it's such a classic.

PW: Does Tina get any more solos?
Jenna: "True Colors" is Tina's -- and I haven't heard the extended version that will be on the CD, just the TV cut, so I'm actually really excited to hear that too.

PW: Have you given any thought to what you'd like Tina to sing in next year's Madonna-only episode?
Jenna: Oh, there are a lot. I would love to do "Frozen" since it goes along with dark Tina. I'd like to see Kurt do "Material Girl!" Or maybe "Ray of Light," "Open Your Heart," "Like A Virgin" -- they're all classics. But our writers will do it right, I have faith!

PW: What else would you like to see in the second half of season one?
Jenna: I would love to see where Tina comes from because I've created my own backstory where she's rebelling against her mother more than anything. I don't think her room is filled with dark posters and heavy metal stuff -- I just think this is a phase she's going through. There's definitely a lot of options for all the characters to evolve and change next year. I'm totally rooting for Tina to join The Cheerios or something crazy like that!

PW: Oh god, that would be amazing!
Jenna: It would be hilarious to see her with that high ponytail -- but I have to keep the blue hair! I love my blue hair!

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17: You had more of a musical theater background before Glee. What's the transition to TV been like?
Jenna Ushkowitz: It was kind of crazy. I hadn't really done a lot of TV, except Sesame Street when I was younger. The hardest part of Glee in particular is that we are singing and dancing on a real stage with a camera right there in your face, following you around while you're dancing.

17: Are you ever afraid of the cameras?
JU: I got whacked on my hand when I was doing "Don't Stop Believing". It was this huge bruise on the bone, it was so bad. Physically I am afraid of the camera because we have to dodge it, and then sometimes it'll be on somebody [else] so you have to keep dancing in case they get your hand, but at the same time, you're like making funny faces at the person who's on camera.

17: What is the shooting schedule like?
JU: It's insane. Eight days an episode. If we're not shooting, we're rehearsing. And so we'll have demo tracks to work with in the dance rehearsals, and then the next day after we record that night, they'll send us a scratch copy of what we did so that we have our version. But it's a lot.

17: Are you guys suggesting songs to the producers?
JU: Always. We have a tactic…I don't know if I should share this [Editor's Note: Sorry Jenna, too juicy not to print!]. Basically we start singing around them, we sing the songs we want to sing, and it makes it feel like it's their idea. But now we've heard that we're doing a full Madonna episode. So we have now started to brush up on our Madonna library, and all of us are singing her songs. I hope she comes to the set, I want to meet her.

17: Is there a favorite that you've all been singing around?
JU: We're kind of pushing for Kurt to sing "Vogue" or "Material Girl."

17: You play Tina, a cute character with a blue hair streak who's a little shy and has a speech impediment. What is that all about?
JU: November 11th, the next episode, Tina's stutter will be explained! I don't want to give away too much, but it comes out from her shyness, her being so introverted and not wanting to talk at all. But, when they cast it, they wanted somebody with a stutter and Tourette's [syndrome]. So when I auditioned, I had full-on Tourette's. The audition tapes are starting to come out now, and I'm kind of scared. It was hard because you don't want to make fun of that, that's not a joke. So the stutter, it got better [over time], and now I find myself actually stuttering sometimes in real life.

17: Does the cast hang out when you're not filming?
JU: We're best friends. We're one happy family. We have "glee-kends," when we bowl, we have sleepovers, and three of us actually live in the same apartment complex, so it's a little like a college dorm.

17: Cool! Let's do some cast superlatives. Who's the most talented?
JU: Amber Riley is the best singer.

17: Who's the hottest?
JU: Kevin McHale.

17: Who's the funniest?
JU: Chris Colfer.

17: Who's the most likely to flub a line?
JU: I have to give it to Lea Michele. She never flubs lines, but she has probably the longest paragraphs in the whole world.

17: Who's the most serious?
JU: Can I do the opposite? Cory Monteith, he's a dufus, I love it.

17: Who has the best hair?
JU: Tina! Can I give a character the best hair? Tina!

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