ONTD

Matthew Morrison gets around. So if you spy the 31-year-old former army brat in the produce aisle, refrain from ducking behind the cantaloupes while you try to remember if he was that guy you woke up with the morning after three-dollar mai tai night a few years ago. You probably just saw him on Broadway in South Pacific, Hairspray, or his Tony-nominated role in The Light in the Piazza. Maybe you remember him from your work sabbatical of 2006, when you got unhealthily devoted to your “ice cream mornings” with As the World Turns. (And unless you were one of their seven fans, you won’t remember him from his unhappy year in boy band LMNT, pronounced “element” by the initiated, but referred to as “lament” by Morrison himself.) Likeliest of all, though, is that you know and adore Morrison from his role as Will Schuester, the triple threat of a teacher from Glee, Fox’s genius musical that just might renew your faith in the power and potential of hour-long television.

ELLE: So, Matt, you’re a musical theater star who’s been interviewed by The Advocate and much discussed on Manhunt.com, and you star in Glee, a program that’s referred to as “the gayest show on TV.” You must feel particularly proud being the first gay man to grace this page.

MATTHEW MORRISON: I’m not gay.

ELLE: I had indeed read in various places that you’re straight, but in light of the circumstantial evidence, I wasn’t sure.

MM: I grew up singing and dancing, so people have been calling me gay since fifth grade. I’ve heard everything you could possibly hear about it. But I do love gay people, so I’m not going to act like I was insulted or angry about it.

ELLE: But do you ever do anything to suppress your gayest traits? Like, on a club dance floor, will you keep a lid on your best moves in order not to look too much like Tommy Tune out there?

MM: Oh, yeah. I’ll do what I refer to as “the shoulder dance,” just, you know, move my shoulders and do a little head bobbing.

ELLE: What was the first moment you realized you were a heterosexual being?

MM: I was really sexual from an early age. My first kiss was actually with two girls at the same time. One girl would be behind the bush with me for a minute and the other girl would be timing us. Then they’d switch.

ELLE: Dirty! Who was your first sexual obsession from popular culture?

MM: Tiffani-Amber Thiessen from Saved by the Bell. I loved her.

ELLE: I heard an interview with Screech recently. He wrote a memoir that said she was easy. I think he referred to her as “Hollywood’s pass-around girl.” Who knows how reliable a source Screech is, but does hearing this make her more alluring?

MM: No. You actually just killed it for me. Thank you very much for that.

ELLE: Sorry. Now that you’ve worked on quite a bit of film and TV, has anything particularly embarrassing happened while in the proximity of a famous actress?

MM: Besides constantly having to wipe the drool from my mouth? Not really. Last week, actually, I was in New York doing a workshop for a new musical with Jessica Biel, this beautiful Argentinean actor Mía Maestro, and Salma Hayek. I really like smart women, and [Hayek] is really brilliant. We went out to lunch a couple times. We had great conversations all week, and she, like, cried when she had to say goodbye to me. It was a great romance without having any real romance.



i want to punch the interviewer.