MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Every week, a guest draws a card from NPR's Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. Jonathan Groff has won all kinds of attention for his Broadway roles, from King George in "Hamilton" to his Tony-winning turn in "Merrily We Roll Along." In his new musical, "Just In Time," he portrays pop star Bobby Darin.
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JONATHAN GROFF: There's something really sacred and special and in the moment about what happens in live theater that feels in line with what Bobby's magic was and why it makes sense to me that we've forgotten about him a little bit because his magic was in that live performance.
KELLY: Groff has been nominated for another Tony for his role. On Wild Card, he talked with Rachel Martin about his early career and the influence of Broadway star Gavin Creel, who died of cancer last year.
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RACHEL MARTIN: What weight did you have to shoulder before you were ready?
JONATHAN GROFF: The obvious one that's coming to my head is, like, when I came out of the closet through sort of, like, moving to New York and experiencing other people that were who they were and watching them thrive, and then falling in love with Gavin Creel, who just passed last year, and going, oh, wow, this is way better than anything. And so that was, like, the final, like, kick in the ass that I needed to, like, phoom (ph), fully express it and talk about it and release that weight. And the acceptance of that is now - it helps me with every other version of that in my life.
MARTIN: I assumed that someone who had so much success so young, that the answer would have dovetailed into something about, you know, the weight of fame. But I hear you saying that maybe you were able to manage those things because there was this fundamental weight...
JONATHAN GROFF: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...That you had to experience the releasing of...
JONATHAN GROFF: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...That. And maybe that helped with all the other burdens in your young professional life.
JONATHAN GROFF: It's interesting. There's something related to it, though, like what you're talking about with fame because part of why I wasn't coming out was, at that time, in 2006, coming out was, like, limiting your career as an actor.
MARTIN: Yeah. Yeah.
JONATHAN GROFF: And what happened when I was with Gavin and I came out was I decided to not care anymore about that. What I was feeling with him and how he was living his life was so inspirational and such a, like, beacon of what could be possible that the idea of being famous or being in movies or being on television, suddenly, that those ambitions became so much smaller when I felt love.
MARTIN: Wow. I'm so sorry about Gavin, by the way.
JONATHAN GROFF: Huge, huge loss, but he's - it's so - it's such a privilege to be able to talk about him, and he was one of a kind.
MARTIN: And what a gift he gave you...
JONATHAN GROFF: Oh, my God. Beyond.
MARTIN: ...In that relationship. Yeah.
KELLY: You can watch that full conversation by following Wild Card with Rachel Martin on YouTube. And you can see Jonathan Groff in "Just In Time" on Broadway now.
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