Jonathan Groff is about to have a very big moment.
An all-American good guy with a killer set of pipes, Groff, 28, first made his name known in Broadway’s “Spring Awakening,” which earned him a Tony nomination, and a turn on “Glee.” Now he’s starring in the first-ever film adaptation of a David Sedaris work, “C.O.G.” — from Sedaris’ “Naked, C.O.G” story collection — about young David moving to Oregon to work in an apple orchard; it comes out Friday. He’ll follow that up with a slew of buzzy projects: Disney’s next animated musical, “Frozen,” Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart” for HBO, and a new series, “Looking,” also for HBO.
We caught up with the actor by phone as he walked along a busy San Francisco street to get his hair cut before a rehearsal for “Looking.”
Had you ever been apple picking before you did this movie?
[Laughs] No, I’d never been apple picking before. This was my first experience, and the extras in the movie are actual apple pickers. They sort of gave me a little tutorial on how to do it. It’s way more difficult than I anticipated — it takes a lot of upper body strength. My lower back was killing me from that giant sack that you wear on the front of you. And they were all laughing at me. They said it in Spanish, so I didn’t understand them, but somebody told me they were like, “What is this guy? This movie’s going to be terrible. Nobody that looks like that guy is picking apples. He has no idea what he’s doing.” And we were like, “Oh good, that’s the point!”
By the end of it, were you incredibly sick of apples?
I wasn’t, weirdly. I saw a lot of them. But the apples in Oregon are so delicious. So I spent a lot of time eating apples.
Are you a big David Sedaris fan?
Yeah, I am. I’d read “Naked” so long ago that I had forgotten about this specific story. It’s one of the longest short stories he’s ever written, and it’s one of the few that aren’t about his family. I think that was part of why David agreed to let [director/screenwriter Kyle Patrick Alvarez] do the story because it’s one that people don’t know really well, and it’s one his family aren’t in. He’s one of the great literary writers of our time. He is a genius. I love him.
Why do you think it took so long to get a film adaptation of any of his work?
There was one close to happening, I think Matthew Broderick was going to play him . . . based on [Sedaris’] book “Me Talk Pretty One Day.” From what I understand, David had a little freakout moment about people playing his family and how that would make them feel. So I think he’s just been reluctant to do it ever since then.
How did you approach playing David? Were you trying to embody the real David Sedaris?
Well, when I first read the script, I said I don’t even want to meet the director on this because I read the script knowing it was a David Sedaris story and just saw him on every page. Not only saw, but heard him — he has a very specific speaking voice. I said, “This is going to be great, but I don’t do a David Sedaris impression. Good luck, this is not the project for me.” [But the director said] he was really interested in the bones of this story, not necessarily having someone do a David Sedaris impression.
Once I heard that, I felt better about it, and then I approached the role just as I would with any other part. I listened to some audio books of him on my flight out to Oregon, and then I stopped watching him or listening to him. I wanted to have his voice ever so slightly in the back of my head because obviously he wrote the story and this experience happened to him. But I stopped once I got there because I wanted to kind of make it my own.
Have you talked to him about what he thinks of the movie?
Yeah, he wasn’t around at all during shooting. He and Kyle are very close, and he wanted Kyle to just do his own thing. As if I didn’t have enough respect or admiration for him before, he came to our premiere at Sundance, which he didn’t have to because he had nothing to do with the movie other than writing the source material. He came and saw the movie and was incredibly supportive and very chatty and really nice. And weirdly obsessed with my mom — he would not stop talking to my mom. She’s a gym teacher back in Lancaster, Pa. So I don’t know, she’s very entertaining to him for some reason.
Some people are a little confused by the title of the film when they find out the acronym stands for “Child of God.”
Ugh, no.
Just because if you know David Sedaris’ work, you don’t necessarily think of Christianity. How would you explain the movie’s title?
The title is so tricky, isn’t it? Because everybody also always want to call it “Cog.” If somebody asked me why it’s called “Child of God,” I would say it’s definitely not answering any questions about religion, but I think that it brings up a lot of questions about religion. It’s about how when s - - t really hits the fan, sometimes people who have no beliefs find themselves trying to embrace a set of beliefs, and how fascinating that is. I think that it’s a movie that brings up questions about religion without answering any.
Dale Dickey plays David’s co-worker. She’s played a number of “rough” women in movies such as “Winter’s Bone .” She can be kind of terrifying. Was it intimidating to work with her?
[Laughs] I know. She is so crazy. I felt the same way. She’s a very imposing presence on film, for sure. She is so nice. That’s the real shocking thing about Dale Dickey. She’s a really, really, over-the-top, almost uncomfortably kind, nice person. She cried when she wrapped. She was only there for three days, and she gave us all a tearful goodbye.
Another one in the film is Corey Stoll. How was your chemistry with him?
It’s funny you should mention chemistry because we actually had to rewrite. Originally, [Stoll’s character] Curly is this sort of crazy, really odd guy that does like weird voices and is very strange. We shot a whole scene where he brings me over to his house, he like screamed at his mom and threw her walker down the hallway. All this like really intense stuff that he would sort of snap in and out of.
And then as we were shooting it and playing with the scenes and whatever, it just didn’t feel quite right somehow for the two of us. So on the day of shooting, Kyle rewrote the scene during dinner break to make it a little bit more flirtatious, a little sexier and a little bit more of a connection moment.
Speaking of chemistry, was it hard for you to see the gossip columns so interested in your recent breakup with Zachary Quinto?
At least three years ago now, I stopped Googling myself. I never look at myself online, and I don’t read gossip Web sites. So I was aware of that happening because I would get an e-mail from like a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend who said, like, “Oh, I heard this happened! Or I’m so sorry that this happened.” So peripherally, I would hear rumblings about it, but I don’t read it.
So it doesn’t bother you?
It doesn’t really. Maybe it’s the power of denial, pretending it doesn’t exist. I don’t know. I just sort of don’t engage. I’m not on Twitter, I’m not on Facebook, I’m not on Instagram. I’m not plugged in in that way, one, because I don’t have the energy for it, and two, because it’s inviting in a lot of that information.
You recently wrapped the HBO adaptation of Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart.” I imagine there was a lot of crying on set.
Yes, I was convulsing and dying of AIDS, which was so intense. But funnily enough, there was a lot of laughing on-set because everything that we were doing was so bleak. The scenes were so dark and so sad that it was almost like we had to laugh a lot to sort of overcome that, to be able to deal with that, actually. It was almost like a survival tactic.
People are already ready to declare your new series “Looking” the new “Queer as Folk” or the next “Sex and the City.” Are those comparisons fair?
[Laughs] I kind of love [it]. Yeah, I’ve heard the gay “Sex and the City,” the gay “Girls,” which — listen, if that gets people to watch the show, I welcome those comparisons. It’s an honor, [those] are historic, amazing shows that I am a huge fan of. To be compared with them before we’ve even aired is slightly daunting and also exciting. The show is being directed and a lot of the writing is being done by this guy Andrew Haigh, who wrote and directed a movie called “Weekend” that came out a couple of years ago. He’s sort of shepherding the show for HBO. He’s not the original creator, but they brought him on to direct the pilot and he’s written a bunch of the episodes for our first season, and he’s directed a bunch. His vision has been guiding us all. I loved “Weekend,” and it meant a lot to me when I saw it in the movie theater. I think “Looking” feels more like that movie than any of those other shows, with a little more comedy thrown in than “Weekend.” But it’s certainly got the vibe and look and feeling of that movie.
You don’t always play gay, but between this role and your upcoming parts in “The Normal Heart” and “Looking,” it seems like it’s something you’re doing a lot now. Intentional?
No, not at all. It’s sort of like an added bonus, I guess. Obviously gay projects play a special role for me because I am gay, so I’m doubly proud of them. But no, it’s certainly not anything I’ve been seeking out. When I approach looking for work, it’s about the people I’m working with and the role and the script.
You’ve also got the upcoming Disney animated musical, “Frozen.” Do you have any songs in it that you think are going to become one of those iconic Disney classics?
Idina Menzel plays the ice queen sister of Kristen Bell, who’s the lead girl, and they played me a song Idina sings that I get chills thinking about. I think it’s going down in the books as one of those classic songs that kids will grow up singing [and] we’re going to hear the last 16 bars of all over the audition rooms of New York. I don’t want to build it up too much, but she sings a song in the movie that feels like it’s going to be a big deal.