For “Struck by Lightning” Chris Colfer plays an aspiring outcast who blackmails his high school classmates into helping him make a literary magazine to better his application to Northwestern University. As it turns out, high school blackmail is something Colfer, who also wrote the film, knows a thing or two about.
I wanted to start by talking about the blackmail angle of this movie. What’s the worst thing you ever did to a fellow high school classmate?
Blackmail, actually. Senior year I did a show that I wrote and directed called “Shirley Todd,” which was a spoof of “Sweeney Todd,” and I blackmailed pretty much all of my friends into being in it. I’m not proud of it, but I mean it had to be done. For instance, there was a girl that was in it who’s a vegetarian, but I found a hamburger receipt in her car once and I held that against her. But mostly I just had, like, a manilla envelope that looked like it was full of stuff and I just kind of said, “I have information on you” but I really didn’t.
And how did the show turn out?
It was great. I mean, I don’t know if Clovis, Calif., was ready for that show because it was very, very graphic and sarcastic and really raunchy. Like, I look at it now and I think, God what was I thinking saying that in high school? But it was a hit. My grandma liked it.
Was it like the Sondheim version?
Yeah, it was a spoof on the Sondheim, but all the roles were gender-reversed. I think it’s going to make a great Broadway debut someday. I really do. I’m confident.
You could direct it.
I would want to be in it.
For 2013, what do you see coming up for yourself and what are you obsessed with, pop culture-wise?
Well, I’ve got a lot of stuff planned on the books. I think I’ll be doing my second film that I wrote, mostly likely be filming that in the summer. And then I have my third novel, the sequel to my first novel, is coming out at end of summer, early fall. And then “Glee.” And as far as pop culture, what am I obsessed with? I’m really bad at being obsessed with pop culture. I know I reference it quite a bit in things that I do and write, but I don’t know. I really love the new creatures they find in the ocean. That’s not really pop culture, that’s just being a nerd.
That’s still culture.
Yeah, culture. I always love that. I love when they find the new jellyfishes and the new planets and solar systems. I love that.
