GLEE's Chris Colfer on Tuning Out the Bullies

Indulge us as we get a taste of the celebrity lifestyle sweetened by Magnum ice cream.

here today with Golden Globe winner Chris Colfer talking about his brand new film Struck by Lightning.

Hey Chris.

Hi, how are you?

So how does that feel Golden Globe Award winner?

Is that is that old news yet?

No, never.

No.

No, I I love having that uh uh suffix on my title.

In your Golden Globe speech, you really touched on how you've become such an inspiration to so many young people around the world.

And in your new film, Carson really goes for his dreams as well.

I know the exact career that I want.

What is it, Munchkin?

I want to be the editor of the New Yorker and the youngest freelance journalist to be published in the New York Times, LA Times and the Chicago Tribune.

Okay.

I've got to get to Northwestern.

Never heard of it.

When did you decide to stop listening to the bullies and really just do your thing?

Oh gosh, early, early on, I think um elementary school, I'd say.

Like I I just I thank God for whatever reason I was a very driven kid.

I don't know where it came from.

Probably just from my my parenting, um my parents and and I teachers that really just installed this drive in me and then and thank God they did because otherwise I I probably wouldn't be here on this couch.

How did you get over any sort of bullying or naysayers who said, you know what, you're not going to make it big?

I don't know.

I I had this I I'm a Gemini.

So I had this weird sense of screw you, I'm going to do what I want.

And, oh my God, I'm going to I'm going to die lonely and never have anything happen for me and blah, blah, blah.

And I'm I'm really glad that the other side kind of took over.

Time magazine just named you one of its most influential people in the world.

Yeah, crazy.

What do you want to do with all that influence?

Oh gosh, not screw up.

That's for sure.

It's a lot of pressure.

No pressure.

A lot of pressure.

Um, I guess I just well they never said I was I was a good influence.

They just said I was influential.

Good answer.

Um, but I I I just hope that uh I I validate it and and not do anything stupid.

I remember when I realized I was different.

Everybody hates you.

Bite me, Hobbit.

You remind me of my grandson.

Why is that?

You sad little thing.

You need to be on antidepresants.

You were on ADD medication as a kid.

I thought I was just really calm and mature for my age.

No, you were drugged.

I hid it in your food.

You know, you started on television, now you're not only on the big screen, you're writing for the big screen, and I hear you have a book coming out.

Yes, I got a book coming out in July.

A children's novel.

It's called The Land of Stories, and uh it too is something that I wanted to do for a very, very long time.

And it's about two twins not twins.

I said of twins, Alex and Conner, a brother and sister who inherit a uh book of fairy tales from their grandmother, and the book happens to be magic and they're transported into the fairy tale world.

And do you think that this book is going to inspire young people like your on-screen work has?

Oh, I would hope so.

I mean, for sure.

And what way?

I hope it just I hope it just inspires escapism.

I kind of wrote it for for um unofficially, I kind of wrote it for kids um that are that are in positions where they can't escape.

Like sick sick kids who are suffering in hospital beds.

I kind of wrote it for them as a way to escape and have adventures of their own.

With all of this going on, day-to-day, traveling all over the world, what's your go-to guilty pleasure to get you through the day?

Food.

What kind of food?

Food, any kind of food.

You talking bad food, we're talking health steaks.

Bad food, bad food.

Yeah, I love I love bad food.

Fried.

Fried.

Breaded.

Breaded.

Carbs, me up.

Yeah.

There we go.

Yeah, food for sure.

Tell me a little bit about what your Glee fans mean to you.

They're obviously your first fans, you thank them in your Golden Globe speech.

Yeah, I mean, they're kind of the reason why I I'm doing what I do now.

Um, and I I I feel like I kind of wrote this movie for them in a way because they're really the ones who inspired me to get on the movie uh because after being on Glee, I heard I heard so many stories of these kids with all these aspirations and just no drive, just no um belief in themselves.

And I was like, well, there needs to be a movie uh that inspires kids to to to tell them that it's possible, anything is possible.

Life comes at you fast.

It runs through your body and tries to escape and be expressed in any way possible.

It's a lot like Lightning.

Carson, are we friends?

I think we're best friends, Malory.

Well, we have some questions from a few of them that they've tweeted in for us.

Oh, I love this.

Great.

@ConvivialMuse, Oh, nice word.

right?

Said, can you make sure that he knows that not all his fans are 14-year-old fan girls.

Some of us are 30-year-old professionals.

I apologize thoroughly, but I I definitely do have an army of 14-year-old girls.

I will say that.

That's undeniable.

But I I do I I agree, not all my fans are 14-year-old girls, but there is an underlying amount of of of uh 14-year-old girls.

Have you ever been surprised by who your fans are?

Yeah, totally.

When I when the when the Glee first started, I was so surprised how many grown men were fans of mine.

And that And they admitted it.

Admitted it, totally.

And I I thought, why is that?

And I think it's because Kurt and his father's relationship, every dad who's seen that has put themselves in Bert's position and thought, what would I do if that's my son?

Right.

And I think that's why they they like me for for some reason.

@QueenB73.

Sounds familiar.

Right?

Asked Chris Colfer if he was born that cool or did he have to work at it?

And then you get a winky face.

I would like to know what cool she's referring to.

That I don't know.

The only cool that matters.

Okay.

Cool.

Then if this is considered cool, then yes, I I must have been born that.

That's.

Heather asks Chris if wearing three hats as writer, producer and actor, made his experience with Struck by Lightning easier or more challenging?

Well, my neck was sore from all the hats.

But um, very easy because because it really allowed me to to really grasp the project and I had a lot of control over it, which which I loved.

Thank you very much, Chris Colfer.

And congratulations.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.