Jane Lynch: Not the weakest link

As comedic as she is, is how iconic as she is. Jane Lynch has had a robust career in Hollywood earning five Primetime Emmys, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and one Golden Globe. Jane even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which she received during her run on Glee for her most notorious role, Sue Sylvester. From Two and a Half Men to The L Word to hosting the newly revamped Celebrity Weakest Link, Jane is anything but weak.

Jane Lynch, the icon. It’s a pleasure to see you.

Jane Lynch: Thank you for calling me an icon. Now that started the interview off just right!

The Weakest Link was revamped in 2020 with you as the host and executive producer. After several seasons on NBC, it’s now moved to Fox and has been rebranded as Celebrity Weakest Link. Which variation do you like better?

JL: This new one for sure! First off, we thought we were dead because NBC dropped our option. So, we just went on with our lives. Then, Fox approached us and said they wanted to greenlight it as a celebrity show. After filming and watching the entire first season, I must say we are in a whole new league with the celebrities because they’re funny.

I love the civilians, regular people. That’s fun to watch, but now, we have themed shows. The first episode is a Glee reunion of sorts where many of the cast members reunited. There is a Real Housewives episode with housewives repping from different franchises. There is a doctor’s episode with real doctors as well as actors who play doctors. I love this new iteration.

Speaking of housewives, you worked with NeNe Leakes of The Real Housewives of Atlanta who played Coach Roz Washington on Glee. How was she to work with?

JL: I wish she was able to come on the housewives themed episode. I just love NeNe.

Was the Glee Reunion on Celebrity Weakest Link indicative of bigger Glee projects coming up?

JL: We’ll have to see. I don’t know for sure. The mini reunion felt great and was so much fun.

When I posted on social media I was going to be interviewing you, I received so many questions including fans wanting to know if you could go back and play Sue Sylvester again, what would you change about her character versus keep the same?

JL: That is a great question because I’ve thought of those things myself. I would keep Sue Sylvester the same at the beginning, but over the years, she becomes a little more elegant and stealthier. Not as loud yet still able to put the knife in, more in a mob boss way. I say this because Sue could be out there sometimes. If you fuck with her, you do it at your own peril.

In terms of what I would keep the same, it would be Sue’s mentality of wanting to dominate, humiliate, and control. Life is a war, that’s why she wears the tracksuits. It’s her uniform.

Glee has had such a strong impact on society because it significantly increased LGBTQ representation and coverage within the media. The show became so big and monumental it had significant influence. It helped to destroy stereotypes. It tackled same-sex relationships, racism, suicide, eating disorders, mental health, and bullying. I actually came out between Season 1 and Season 2 airing. While Season 2 was airing, the mainstream media finally started to cover the gay suicide epidemic too.

JL: I remember because I was part of the Trevor Project for a while. We did a lot of work with them and the suicide hotline. Glee’s success was such a pivotal time. While the show was airing it coincided with nationwide media coverage of the bullying, which led to many deaths of gay individuals, the growing momentum for marriage equality, and ultimately its nationwide legalization coincided with the show’s final season.

When you were cast and started filming, did you think that the show would become as big as it was, and more importantly, have such a profound impact on society and culture?

JL: I didn’t know that it would be that big of a splash. I knew that people loved musical theater and there is a market who would likely be obsessed with the genre and resonate. I had a feeling the audience would be more than high school kids yet still a limited audience. I did not know it would become so huge. It was like a phenomenon that was much bigger than I could imagine. From the pilot, I knew how moving it was, especially when the students performed “Don’t Stop Believing” in their red T-shirts in the auditorium by themselves after Mr. Schue had quit.

I recall when the show first started airing being a teenager at the Best Buy in Paramus. The cast was doing a signing. I was too shy to get a picture. I always regretted it because right after you all became untouchable. It really shaped pop culture and the era just felt like everything and everyone was progressing. Do you feel we’re dealing with the opposite now?

JL: I think Glee helped to shape the 2010s collectively. If you look at the state of the world, I think there was a response to Obama being president. There was a sense of inclusivity the country was starting to truly feel good about. Now, there has been a backlash.

Does it concern you that marriage equality could be overturned?

JL: It does. It’s a crazy thing. I’m kind of sitting back in a more objective place. I used to be very invested and would tweet all the time. I live in Santa Barbara and saw Pete Buttigieg when he came here to speak recently. It was packed and he had such a great perspective. Pete said we’re watching the downfall of our institutions and a lot of things that we hold dear crumbling, and while we did not want to see this happen, it means that we get to redefine what democracy is for us and how we want to live. The phoenix will rise from the ashes.

Pete was the secretary of transportation and knew how horrible bureaucracy was in his own department. He knew how the government was bloated and not working for all the people. This is all very painful, and I don’t mean to take away from that, but stay objective and realize that from the ashes what we really want can be built. It just may take some time. We need to start taking care of our own, be a community, and look out for one another.

Throughout this year you are touring with Kate Flannery and your musical director Tony Guerrero on the Trouble with Angels tour. Currently you have dates lined up through to the end of August. What is the concept?

JL: This marks my third cabaret show with Kate Flannery, whom I have been singing and touring with since 2014. The Trouble with Angels tour is based loosely on a movie that Kate and I loved with Hayley Mills and Rosalind Russell in 1966, about two kind of crazy Catholic school girls who get in trouble at a boarding school. Kate and I really resonated with that film growing up, and we bonded over it as adults. Thus, we built the show around the music of that era. We said we were born in the 1960s, we’re in our 60s, so we’re going to sing songs from the ‘60s. We thought that made some clever sense. You’ll be hearing a lot of songs from the 1960s, and then we throw in some other ones too that are sonically 1960s. Our show is entertaining, comical, and very engaging with the audience.

You go way back with Kate Flannery, correct?

JL: Kate and I have been working together since the late 1980s. We met in Chicago at Annoyance Theatre performing The Real Live Brady Bunch together. We did all sorts of crazy things you do when you’re in your late 20s and 30s. Then, we both went out to Los Angeles and got big television gigs at the same time. I was on Glee; Kate was on The Office. We started doing charity shows together, and over time, compiled a library of songs that we enjoyed performing together. We always integrate comedy into our shows no matter what the theme. Kate is an uncontrollable, spontaneous, unpredictable person. I’m kind of the knuckle whacker who tries to keep everything in control. Kate is a triple Gemini; I’m a Cancer Sun, Leo Rising, Aries Moon. I need to be in control [laughs].

You two, alongside Tim Davis and the Tony Guerrero Quintet, also tour every holiday season on A Swingin’ Little Christmas tour. This has become an annual tradition. How does your holiday tour differ from your regular tours outside of the obvious?

JL: We have been doing this for 10 years and start every November, typically the day after Thanksgiving. The tour is based on the album of the same name which we recorded in 2016. It is a mix of Christmas classics and originals. Tony arranged them in a real kind of big band, jazzy, late 50s to early 60s manner. It’s a toe-tapping show. Tim Davis, who was my vocal director on Glee, is our musical director on this tour. Nobody arranges harmonies like him. We do these almost like Andrews Sisters like, harmonies. All three of us get a chance to shine and have solos with the other two backing.

@janelynchofficial