Glee’s Jane Lynch: post-Bowl episode will be a blast … maybe literally

By Lori Acken

Speaking with journalists via conference call Thursday afternoon, Glee star Jane Lynch says that her character, cheerless cheer coach Sue Sylvester, will come through this Sunday’s post-Super Bowl episode with a bang … and possibly a whimper.

Or a Sue Sylvester version of a whimper, anyway. Which pretty much means that rooms shall be demolished.

Lynch called the upcoming “The Sue Sylvester Shuffle” episode — in which Mr. Schuester and Coach Beiste scheme to unite the glee club and and the football team, while Sue’s desperation to win cheerleading Nationals reaches dangerous levels — “a Glee episode on steroids.”

“Sue Sylvester is a little bored with her routine, even though she has kids riding around on BMX bikes and jumping through fire in this one routine with Katy Perry’s “California Gurls,” and she wants to top herself,” Lynch explains, “And she finds out there’s a human cannon in town; she buys it and wants to shoot Brittany out of it. Figgins doesn’t allow it – it’s a liability issue — and she has a hissy fit. She has two hissy fits where she just rips two rooms apart. It was definitely Sue Sylvester on the war path.”

And, according to Lynch, the defeat is the start of a downward spiral that lands Sylvester in the most unlikely of therapies as the season progresses.

“Sue suffers a devastating loss with her Cheerios after the Super Bowl episode and she becomes very, very depressed; she becomes dangerously depressed, where she is more violent than usual,” Lynch laughs, “They get her to join the glee club to lift her spirits and they find that raising her voice in song lifts her spirit — it kind of lifts her and she gets out of her depression. … So I’m actually in the glee club for a while!”

Lynch didn’t say if her time in the spotlight will coincide with that of  returning guest star Gwyneth Paltrow, whom Lynch says is filming with the cast now and will be back for several episodes. But asked if the big-deal episodes like Paltrow’s, the Super Bowl show and past editions devoted to musical icons like Madonna and Brittany Spears are more exciting to do than “regular” episodes, she happily points out that very little about the series is ordinary stuff.

“What I love about this show – maybe with the exception of a couple – is that every episode is kind of a big deal.” she muses. “…  I like ‘em all.  I feel like we’ve maybe had two episodes that are run of the mill and I can’t even remember what they are.”

And as for those believability issues that are the favored ammo of the show’s few critics — insta-choreography in the classroom; Broadway-worthy sets and costumes on a Lima, Ohio, high school stage; teachers that are so not like the ones you had in high school, well, Lynch says, that’s the best part of the show.

“It always goes too far,” she laughs. “It’s always ridiculous. Some of the things that I do, how mean I get and how everybody lets me get away with – it’s ALL ridiculous. And I love it.”

The actress also discussed her upcoming memoir, “Happy Accidents,” in which she’ll chronicle her early  career in Chicago and her film work, while addressing how she learned to stop fretting over things beyond her control, to embrace her homosexuality and to triumph over alcoholism.

“I grew up with everything handed to me,” Lynch explains. “I had a very good family and I was brought up with a lot of love. But I chose, time after time after time, to suffer over things. … But I’ve learned that suffering is a choice.”

It’s that message she says she wants to share with the world — including the sort of high-school-nobodies that are the heart and soul and voice of Glee, and even her once-upon-a-time seventeen-year-old self.

“I would tell myself to not suffer, to don’t sweat it, don’t try to control things and just let your life happen,” Lynch says. “Show up, do your best everywhere you go … but there’s no reason to beat up on yourself.”

But this was ultimately a discussion about the Super Bowl episode, so inquiring minds wanted to know her thoughts about one particular beating … that is, whom Lynch thought would deal the victorious blow in Sunday’s big game.

“I say Green Bay because I am from the Midwest,” she chuckled. “But really? I don’t care! I hope somebody wins and is happy about it.”

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© 2011 Fox Broadcasting Co. Credit: Chris Cuffaro, Miranda Penn Turin and Joe Viles

About Lori Acken 1195 Articles
Lori just hasn't been the same since "thirtysomething" and "Northern Exposure" went off the air.