Jonathan Groff reveals why wearing a dress is 'incredibly liberating'
Jonathan Groff has been wearing a dress on stage in an all-male Shakespeare production.
Jonathan Groff has found it "incredibly liberating" wearing a dress on stage.
The 41-year-old actor is currently starring in the Royal Shakespeare Company's all-male production of As You Like It as Rosalind, who is the heroine disguising herself as a male shepherd called Ganymede.
Jonathan told The Independent newspaper: “There’s something unleashing for me in just wearing a dress.
“Being a man, playing a woman. It's returning me back to the freedom of youth I had, when I was six years old, where I would put on dresses and pretend to be women.
"I haven't done it as much as an adult – I don’t know why – but when I was a kid, I was always in a dress. And so there's something about returning here to the countryside and putting on a dress that feels incredibly liberating.”
Jonathan admitted there are also aspects of the character he is able to relate to, including the "people-pleasingness".
He explained: "In my own psychoanalysis of myself. The shame that I felt growing up gay, and trying to make everybody around me happy, to sort of counteract the fact that I was gay.”
In November last year, Jonathan accidentally stumbled on his words at the worst possible time as he was speaking about the Just In Time Broadway cast's performance at the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Appearing on Jenna and Friends, co-host Andy Cohen asked if he had a "good coat" to battle the elements.
He replied: "I am just gonna brave the cold in the costume. I've decided to just not wear any undergarments."
Jonathan quickly clarified that he meant "any extra undergarments".
Andy quipped: "No, you need long underwear! So, he's going to be free ball in the Thanksgiving Day Parade."
As well as his stage roles in the likes of Hamilton, Just In Time, Merrily We Roll Along and Little Shop of Horrors, Jonathan has appeared on TV in Glee, Looking and Mindhunter.
On the big screen, he has landed roles in The Matrix Resurrections and Knock at the Cabin, as well as voicing Kristoff and Sven in the Frozen franchise.
