#michael lannan

[jgroffdaily]

Jonathan on the Vulture Festival red carpet discussing his three most emotional performances.

[jonathangroffappreciation]

Michael Lannan on his favourite scene from 'Looking':

Jonathan has such command over his craft that he doesn’t really seem to have any craft at all. He's incredibly smart and extremely natural at the same time. In that scene he figured out how to balance Patrick’s frustrating behavior and his adorable qualities in a way that makes me want to hug Patrick and shake him at the same time.

My Favorite Scene: 'Looking' Creator Michael Lannan on That Flirty Moment on the Train

The creator of the HBO series opens up about a 'simple scene' from the pilot.

[mmenthusiast]

Looking (2014-2015)

Creator: Michael Lannan

Stars: Jonathan Groff, Frankie J. Alvarez, Murray Bartlett...

The experiences of three close friends living and loving in modern-day San Francisco.

I want moreeeeeeeee~~~ Why is it so short? Why did it have to get cancelled? :( At least we got the movie for some kind of closure, but I really liked this show and wanted it to go on...

Rating: 5/5

[lookinghbo]

Watch the cast (Jonathan Groff, Frankie J. Alvarez, Murray Bartlett, Raúl Castillo, Lauren Weedman, Daniel Franzese) and creative team (Andrew Haigh, Michael Lannan) of Looking discuss the show at PaleyLive in 2015

[dekster184-blog]

LOOKING seasons 1-2 + movie

Looking is an American comedy-drama television series 

It premiered on 2014, on HBO. 

Based on Lorimer by Michael Lannan

Producers are David Marshall Grant, Sarah Condon, Andrew Haigh.

After two seasons, HBO announced that Looking would not be renewed for a third season, instead ordering a one-time special to serve as its series finaleon 2016.

Starring: Jonathan Groff, Frankie J. Alvarez, Murray Bartlett, Lauren Weedman, Russell Tovey, Raúl Castillo

[jonathangroffcentral]

lojofo Throwback to when Hamiltons King George , Jonathan Groff , along with Ra and Michael (shout out for "Looking" on HBO)  sang to me ❤ These boys make me smile So happy I happened upon this today , now I'm ready to #workout #hamilton #looking #fitness #sing #helpless #schylersisters

[jgroffdaily]

@vulture Jonathan Groff talks about shooting at The Stud in San Fransisco in the exact same spot as where #Looking creator Michael Lannan’s first kiss happened #vulturefestival

[jgroffdaily]

Sometimes Looking Got a Little Too Real

The cast and creators of the beloved HBO half-hour put their most vulnerable experiences into the script.

A video of the full panel is available at the link, including an edited transcript. Some quotes:

A decade ago, in a very different San Francisco and a very different television landscape, Patrick Murray and his friends first stumbled onto HBO — literally, the pilot starts with Jonathan Groff ineptly cruising in a public park. Looking was a low-key, intentionally under-glamorous depiction of the lives of a few gay male friends played by Groff, future White Lotus employee Murray Bartlett, and Frankie J. Alvarez, as well as their token straight-woman-friend Doris (Lauren Weedman) and Patrick’s pair of love interests, played by Raúl Castillo and Russell Tovey. Created by Michael Lannan with the close involvement of director Andrew Haigh (of All of Us Strangers), Looking intentionally tacked away from the soap-operatics of gay dramas like the American Queer As Folk while still wrestling with the hot topics of gay life during the second Obama administration: PrEP, Grindr, marriage equality. In its two-season run plus a wrap-up film, the show was never a ratings smash — its time slot, right next to Girls, may have led some audiences to expect satire where Looking bent toward sweet earnestness — though it became the subject of furious discussion on social media, perhaps also a novel dynamic at the time. Looking lives on as a cult favorite, discovered and revisited by new fans online, and it remains a beloved project for its cast and crew.

Jonathan Groff: I auditioned in L.A. I had seen Weekend, and I was a puddle after that movie was over. I was so blown away and had never seen a gay movie or show that felt so relatable. And then when I heard the director of that was directing this pilot, I got really excited. It was the scene with Richie when he’s hitting on Patrick on the train in the pilot. I remember blushing for real, because until that moment in that room, I had never actually played “gay” in that way before, and it was such a confronting, scary, exciting experience. I was like, Whoa. I felt actually hot.

Frankie Alvarez: That’s because you weren’t playing, you were revealing.

J.G.: Yeah, exactly! I kind of left on a high from that audition. It felt a little scary to … It’s one thing to be out, but then it’s another thing to, like, douche on-camera. [Laughs] And it’s like, “Wow, I guess if I do this show, it’s really like G-A-Y across my forehead.” At that time, there was this notion that if you were gay and you played gay, that was all that you were going to be able to do. But I felt it so deeply that I ended up not caring as much about that and wanting to play the role.

F.A.: That reminds me of a story. When you came out to your parents, you told your mom, “I’m never gonna be the grand marshal at the Gay Pride Parade.”

J.G.: And then we were in the Pride Parade together! I came out in 2009, and by 2013, we were at the front of the parade!

John Hoffman: …That whole first season was magic. Michael and Andrew were so open and kind and generous. And then I made Jonathan douche! I wanted everyone to get naked more! I was the one in the room going, “Guys, we need more people watching, so everybody has to be naked a lot more and having more sex!”

Lauren Weedman: If you’ve got an ass, get a fork! We’re eating!

Michael Lannan: Well, when I was rewatching it recently, I was like, “Man, there’s a lot of desire and kissing and sex!” I was like, “Oh my God, we did that!”

J.H.: Everywhere I could! Although, I later became friends with Shirley MacLaine, who’s now 90-something. I got her to watch Looking, and she said, “That is quite a show. I really enjoyed it. One note — too much kissing.” [Laughs]

L.W.: No kissing, just fucking. Is that the show’s point?

F.A.: Straight to the bottom-ing!

In an oral history about the show, one of the things that came up, alongside John being the one who really wanted douching onscreen, was how much the characters started to mold around the actors. I think one of you said, “We didn’t want to tell too much to Michael and Andrew because it might just appear onscreen.” Did you feel the sense of these characters becoming expressions of yourselves?

J.G.: To me, almost to an embarrassing point. I was figuring it out as I went along and offering up vulnerable truths. I remember being in a diner with Andrew, and he was like, “Tell me about your last breakup” and then writing down in the notes for the fight for me and Kevin at the end of the season, where we’re moving in with each other. And then I got to act that out! And the boyfriend who it was kind of about was like, “Wow, okay, so … did you tell them about it?” It was a great gift. For the actors to offer up tidbits and whatever, and then to have the writers and the directors make it artfully a part of the story, it was incredible. It was like actual therapy.

L.W.: I remember we were at the Paley Center and people were getting up and going, “I don’t see myself represented!” I thought it was beautiful, because it mattered! There’s one little morsel out there of some show that maybe you have a chance to see yourself, and people are like, “I want to be seen on this!” Of course, I’m not the writer. Much worse to be the writer. [Laughs] The reaction — it felt like it really mattered.

J.G.: I was shocked to see our gentleness attacked in such an aggressive way by what people were typing. It made me, what you were saying, Lauren, feel like, Wow, I guess this is way more meaningful than I ever anticipated. That people are actually upset and angry and furious and bored, or whatever it was they were feeling that they felt they had to kind of shout it from the rooftops. It’s a testament to the point of view of Michael and Andrew that they held fast to what they wanted to do. They heard criticism and they applied it, but they didn’t change what the core of the show was. And I think that’s why we’re here, because you had such a specific point of view. It’s such a lesson in digging in and connecting to your truth, and not letting negative noise affect that. But it was so hard for you guys! I remember it was coming from every angle.

Do you have memories of favorite places you got to film in San Francisco? Especially in that moment in time, because that city has changed so much.

M.L.: We filmed Patrick and Richie dancing at the Stud, and they kiss at the exact spot where I had my first kiss. It was crazy and beautiful. When that happened, I was like, “Wow, this really is a simulation.”

J.G.: That’s the one that came to my mind, too, because I remember you being there, and I remember us dancing. It was so hot, by the way. Super-hot.

M.L.: Temperature-wise?

J.G.: No, sexual tension! [Laughs] It was in this cool gay bar in San Francisco, and I remember you saying to the director of that episode, “Please push the camera in,” because it was a faraway shot. It was like your heart and your soul knew that we gotta go in on this. I remember feeling that and feeling you and really feeling like, “Oh, wow, I’m inside of somebody’s brain and heart right now, and I’m with this guy.” It felt like an artistic, transcendent moment. It was such a special thing to be inside of your memory of your first kiss. You were channeling something. The storytelling thing was happening.