Exclusive Behind the Scenes Photos—Shot by Jonathan Groff!

We gave the Glee actor a digital camera and let him loose on the set to snap uncensored photos of co-stars Lea Michele, Matthew Morrison, Jane Lynch and more. Bonus—and Spoiler Alert!—a sneak peek of the June 8 finale episode vocal showdown!

 Jane Lynch! She came to the set, because she's one of the Regionals judges. She is—and I'm not the only person that feels this way—one of my favorite people on the planet. When she wasn't shooting, she was sitting fifth row center watching us perform Bohemian Rhapsody. She was obsessed with that number. She could not stop watching it. And she would applaud when it was over. She literally watched it all day long. I think we had one scene together the entire season, and we never have onscreen interaction. Right before we took this picture, I said, "Jane Lynch, how did we make it through this whole season without having a scene together?" She was like, "I know!" She's so ridiculously nice off-camera that it makes you uncomfortable.

This is the biggest dance number they've ever done on the show. It took 3 days of rehearsal. This is our first day at Stage 21 on the Paramount lot. They used to shoot The Lucy Show here. The choreographer is back there with the hat on, and the girl with the red hair is the assistant choreographer. There were about 6 or 7 dancers and myself—sort of like a skeleton crew—rehearsing 8 hours to get the basic stuff down before we did two full 8-hour days with all of the dancers.

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Dancing with Vocal Adrenaline was definitely the hardest thing I had to do on Glee. I'm not a dancer. When I was unemployed in New York and auditioning for theater, I would go to the "singer who moves well" auditions, rather than the "dancer who sings well" auditions. [laughs] So the dancing—especially because there's lots of lifting and throwing girls around—was a totally new skill for me. We're rehearsing Bohemian Rhapsody, which is our final number. This was—[singing] "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for meeee"—so on the me's, they put their hands in the center. I'm representing the devil here. There's supposed to be an evil look in my eye as everyone surrounds me, before we explode into the big guitar solo. The day that we shot this number, one girl broke her pinkie. One girl twisted her ankle. One girl slammed her head into the camera. And I still have a 7-inch long scar down my bicep from a girl's heel.

Matthew Morrison and I were doing theater at the same time in New York, so I knew him from the theater community before I met him on Glee. He's awesome. Such a good leader of the company, because he really takes care of everyone and is so supportive. I really really dig him.

 This is Erin, and she's in charge of make-up. She's really kooky. Her outfit is pretty subtle here, but Erin always comes to set decked out in a totally different outfit. Between takes when you're sweating and whatnot, they hold fans up to your face to dry you off, and they have to reapply your makeup so you look like you didn't just do a 6-minute number. And she's right there every single time doing exactly what she's doing in the picture. Which would drive me crazy, but that's her job and she loves it.

I'm showing you my pit stains. And I think I changed my shirt maybe four or five times throughout that day, because I have a huge, huge armpit sweating problem. It's good for you, right? I thought maybe DETAILS would photoshop those out, but I have a feeling that's not going to happen. [laughs] Lea Michele and I did Spring Awakening together on Broadway for two years, and she will tell you that I dripped all over her and spit in her face, but I never smelled.

Here, the roaming camera guy is getting a close-up of me singing. [sings:] "Mama, just killed a man, put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now's he's dead..." This was a nerve-wracking take for me, because it was close-up on the hands. I read in the script that I had to play the piano—"Jesse plays the piano à la Freddie Mercury," so I was like "Fuck." I called the PA and asked for a piano lesson, so they set up meetings with Brad, the music director. He taught me how to play, unbeknownst to the director. We got to shooting that day and he was like, "Wait a second, you're actually playing it! Well, let's get some close-up shots of your hands." I think we got the shot in one take.

 By the finale, I've gone back to Vocal Adrenaline, totally pissed Rachel off, and severed all ties with her. I've been really mean to her. Lea was there, all dressed up in her costume, because there's a close-up shot of her watching our number. Then she just hung around and watched us do the number all day. I think we were taking a 10-minute break here or something, and she just hopped up onstage to chat.

This is when it was all said and done. We got together for a picture. We were so relieved. This is at the end of—Wait. Oh God, is my hand on her ASS there?! My hand is totally on her ass. That's our assistant choreographer, Brooke. I love her. The end of a long day.

They're rehearsing before shooting. The time was so tight that they're literally rehearsing in the lobby of the theater as they set up. There's Cory and Lea and Amber and Jenna and Nia and Chris and Kevin. They're singing a Journey medley. The people on Glee could not be more open and sweet and genuine. It was really hard to leave them.

via: details.com

Category: Jonathan Groff, News, Photos