Dianna Agron is turning icy.
She’s perched in a suite at the Mandarin Oriental hotel on Columbus Circle, fitted in a prim Dolce & Gabbana frock, hair pulled back to highlight fresh, glowing cheeks.
“Sorry, I’m just going to put this on my legs ’cause I’m cold,” she says, draping a bathrobe over her designer dress.
Agron, the 27-year-old blond,hazel-eyed star known for her role as cheerleader Quinn Fabray on “Glee,” also keeps things cool on the big screen in her new mob comedy, “The Family,” out Sept. 13. She plays daughter to Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro, a mafia clan who land in the witness protection program.
Agron’s character, Belle, is quite a departure for the actress, who has sung and danced her way through four perky seasons of “Glee.” While Quinn’s preferred method of attack is a witty tongue-lashing, Belle’s is a swift knock to the head.
“It gives you the same escapism that it gives audience members because you would never do something like that in real life,” she says of her butt-kicking film scenes. “Completely thrilling, would never want to apply it to my everyday life.”
Agron’s everyday life has had its share of thrills and blows this year.
After rumors of a romance with football star Tim Tebow, Agron’s now said to be dating British actor Christian Cooke. She’s also close pals with Taylor Swift and has hinted that she inspired the singer’s young-and-fun single “22.” But the lows have been particularly painful.
“This year I’ve had some of the biggest cries of my entire life,” she admits.
In July, her “Glee” co-star Cory Monteith (whose character, Finn, dated Quinn in the show’s first season) died, with authorities listing the cause of death as a combination of alcohol and heroin.
“It hasn’t completely hit in yet,” Agron says, her voice softening. “It’s one of the strangest things that has ever happened to me. I don’t know how people do it over and over again throughout their lives. It just makes you take a new lease out on life and look at things a little bit differently.”
She pauses to take a breath.
“He was truly one of the most wonderful people I’ve ever met in my entire life, and that’s something that everybody can say about him, you know?”
“Glee” showrunner Ryan Murphy announced that the third episode of the upcoming season, which debuts Sept. 26, will be a tribute to Monteith and his character. Agron, who was reduced from a series regular to appear in just three episodes last season, was not asked to participate in the memorial show. In fact, the actress isn’t certain she’ll be back at all this season.
It’s a surprise, given her formerly pivotal role.
“Yeah,” she says coolly.
Time to move on to bigger and better projects?
“I think moving on might be the wrong choice of words because [“Glee”] is always going to be a part of me and with me and I would always go back,” she says. “So it’s not necessarily about a departure. It’s about what it’s imparted in me and what it’s given me.”
She says she’s still close with all her “Glee” castmates, especially after Monteith’s death. And for now, she seems content to focus on her personal life, her new adventures in “The Family” and her hopes for Hollywood success.
But one thing’s for sure: no more cheerleading roles.
“I always say, ‘never say never,’ ” she says, laughing. “But I truly believe I have exhausted the cheerleader that I never was.”