GLEE: Jane Lynch on Her First Crush, Her Super Bowl Pick, & More

Jane Lynch has become a force to be reckoned with as her Sue Sylvester alternately torments and supports the kids on Glee. In support of Sunday’s post-Super Bowl episode, “The Sue Sylvester Shuffle”, Jane took a few minutes to talk with reporters via conference call and answer a lightning round of questions. With just 25 minutes and jammed phone lines, Jane faced us like a pro and gave sincere, witty answers to all of the questions thrown her way. Here are some highlights:

Her first crush:
“My first love in my head, believe it or not, was Ron Howard. If he doesn’t know that yet, he will soon. I’m writing a book.”

Her Super Bowl Pick:
“I say Green Bay because I’m from the Midwest, but really, I don’t care.  I hope somebody wins and is happy about it.”

Sue Sylvester Has A Tantrum in the Super Bowl Episode:
“We’re kind of doing an episode of Glee that is on steroids and writ large.  Sue Sylvester is a little bored with her routine, even though she has kids riding around on BMX bikes and jumping through fire.  And this one routine with Katy Perry’s “California Gurls”, she wants to top herself, so she finds out there’s a human cannon in town, she buys it and wants to shoot Britney out of it. Mr. Schue doesn’t allow it, and she has a hissy fit.  She has two hissy fits where she just rips two rooms apart.  So it was definitely Sue Sylvester on the war path.”

Continually Being Surprised By Her Character:
“Having a sister with Down’s Syndrome took me completely by surprise.  Carol Burnett coming on as my Nazi hunter mother took me by surprise and I was also very surprised when I said my mother was a famous Nazi hunter that that was true.  It turns out that there’s so many things that I’ve said that I’m like, yeah, sure, I smoked out Noriega with Special Forces.  And I’m sure we’ll do an episode where maybe an old war buddy of mine comes back and indeed that was true, too.”

Sue is Joining New Directions:
“Sue has a devastating summer, suffers a devastating loss with her Cheerios after the Super Bowl episode and she becomes very, very depressed and she becomes kind of dangerously depressed, where she’s more violent than usual.  They get her to join the Glee Club to lift her spirits and they find that raising her voice in song kind of lifts her and she gets out of her depression.  So I’m actually in the Glee Club for a while.”

Favorite Sue One-Liners:
“I love the monologue where I talk about the 1968 convention where Mayor Dailey punched his own wife in the face.  That was fun.  I like the one where I say, ‘Being in glee club doesn’t mean you’re gay. It just means you’re awful.'”

Favorite Sue Prank:
Getting Principal Figgins sick with the monkey flu so she could take over his job.

Favorite Non-Sue Character:
“I’m loving Coach Biest.  I love how big her heart is and I love how selfless she is and heroic.”

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Return:
“She’s going to do a couple of episodes and she’s working with us this week, and she’s just the best. She’s great.  And she’s here because she wants to dance and sing and put a good message out to the kids.”

Advice to Her Seventeen-Year-Old Self:
“I would tell myself, if I could go back to myself, to not suffer.  To don’t sweat it. Don’t try to control things and just let your life happen.  Show up, do your best everywhere you go, but there’s no reason to beat up on yourself.”

The Glee-Inspired Shows Coming on Other Networks:
“We’re too busy to care what anybody else is doing, but it’s flattering and it sounds like a show I would like to watch.”

The Point of Her Upcoming Memoir:
“I think a little tidbit I can give you is I grew up basically with everything handed to me.  Not my career.  I worked for that, but I had a really good family, I was brought up with a lot of love, but still I chose time after time after time to suffer over so much.  And that mental component of suffering is the thing I think, if I can look back on my life, is a choice.  And to this day I still would choose maybe the angst over something else when I really don’t have to.”

Don’t miss the return of Glee after the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 6, followed by the Valentine’s Day episode on Tuesday, February 8 on FOX.