Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff are taking the best trip down memory lane.
HBO Documentary Films' newest special, Spring Awakening: Those You've Known, sees the two iconic Glee alumni get back together with some of their fellow cast members to reflect on the Tony-winning musical over 15 years after its initial run.
Out got the chance to talk to Michele and Groff about revisiting their characters, the impact the musical still has on a generation of theater fans, Glee, and more.
"How can you not love Jonathan Groff?" Michele said about first getting to work with Groff when they were younger and falling in love with him. (Groff publicly came out in 2009 after Spring Awakening had finished its original Broadway run.)
She continued: "You don't even have to really know him to love him, but I did get to know him and I did fall in love with him every night, on stage and off. I had never had a connection with anyone the way that we had before. In my mind, at the young age of 19 years old, I remember feeling like, 'Well, then this must be it. This must be my person. If we feel this way, and if we are connected in this way, then you must be my person. So we should be together.' I mean, I learned that he is still my person, just not in that way. And now I get to have my amazing husband and my best friend, and I literally feel like the luckiest girl in the world."
"She took such good care of me," Groff added. "I mean, Leah and everybody in that show, and the creative team, the director, Michael Mayer, they just treated me with so much love and respect. They respected my privacy and I felt so safe in that space. It was such a lifesaver to be able to express myself physically, with the singing and the acting, with a group of people that weren't...I never felt judged by anyone. I never felt pushed by anyone. In this group, we all rallied around each other with so much love. To be able to have that experience with a group of people that just lifted me up was such a gift."
Spring Awakening: Those You've Known is now streaming on HBO Max.
