tracksuit and megaphone? Born
and raised in suburban Dolton,
Illinois, Lynch started her showbiz career
in an improvisational comedy troupe
called Second City, doing voice-overs
and filming adverts in LA. Her break was
a Frosties ad in 1998 filmed by This Is
Spinal Tap’s Christopher Guest, who
eventually cast her in quirky dog-show
flick, Best In Show, amongst others.
As one of Hollywood’s few openly gay
stars, she was named in 2005 as one of
the 10 most influential lesbians in
Hollywood and also starred in cult
lesbian series The L Word, another show
that captured a cultural zeitgeist. Never
short of work – with film roles in A
40-Year-Old Virgin and Role Models, as
well as countless TV roles – Lynch never
quite hit the giddy heights of fame, until
her current incarnation as Sue Sylvester,
which has catapulted her into the
spotlight, paving way for roles in Shrek
Forever After and Simon Pegg and Nick
Frost’s latest movie project, Paul.
In the flesh, despite the impression
that she could fell you with one look,
Lynch is wry and amusing, but also warm
and welcoming with tousled blonde hair
and sugar pink lipstick. In an opulent
hotel suite at the upscale Casa Del Mar
in Santa Monica she talks exclusively to
Stylist about coming out in Hollywood,
push-up bras and playing a mean girl.
Everyone’s fallen for your Glee
character Sue Sylvester but what
do you love about her?
She’s that inner mean girl that a lot of us
have, but she doesn’t have a filter. She
takes great delight in her heinousness
and her political incorrectness. I love
that total aggressiveness of people who
have that entitlement and just blow into
a room and take what they want.
Playing the role must be liberating?
It is. When I put on that tracksuit
I feel I have a licence to say anything
“All I want is just one day a year when I’m not
visually assaulted by uglies and fatties.”
“While they were in there, I told them to go
ahead and yank out those tear ducts. Wasn’t
using them.”
“You think this was hard? Try auditioning for
Baywatch and being told they’re going in
another direction. That was hard.”
“I, for one, think intimacy has no place in a
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I want. It’s probably very good therapy,
because I get it all out at work. I’m
a much nicer person in reality.
So do you see yourself in Sue?
I don’t think I could do it if I didn’t see
myself in her. But that’s not what I lead
with in life – the mean, humiliating
characteristics that Sue Sylvester
embodies – although it is in there.
What were you like in school?
I was an athlete. I was recruited because
I’m so tall; I was six foot by the time
I was 16 – and I played baseball 24/7.
I was a big old tomboy. I related to the
boys. I felt like I was a boy. But then
every day, I also did choir, it was my
favourite part of the day – and we
weren’t held up for ridicule the way
the poor Glee kids are.
Do you see yourself in any of the
Glee kids?
I absolutely relate to them. I suffer with
them. I see myself in Tina (Jenna
marriage. Walked in on my parents once and
it was like seeing two walruses wrestling.”
“I empower my Cheerios to live in fear by
creating an environment of irrational,
random terror.”
“I don’t trust a man with curly hair. I can’t
help but picture little birds laying sulfurous
eggs in there, and it disgusts me.”
“I’ll often yell at homeless people, ‘Hey, how
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Ushkowitz). She’s really talented, but
holds herself back; she’s afraid of her
talent. And that’s what I did, I backed
off from my enormous talent [laughs]
and I was always a little bit of a surprise
to people if I did actually step into
something and allowed myself to really
be seen. It was kind of like, “Oh, we
didn’t even know you were here.”
You have said you didn’t come out as
a lesbian until you were 21. Was there
a reason why you waited?
THAT’S HOW SUE ‘Cs’ IT: SYLVESTER’S BEST QUOTES
is that homelessness working out for you?
Try not being homeless for once.’”
“‘I’m going to ask you to smell your armpits.
That’s the smell of failure, and it’s stinking
up my office.”
“I will go to the animal shelter and get you a
kitty cat. I will let you fall in love with that
kitty cat, and then, on some dark, cold night,
I will steal away into your home and punch
you in the face.”
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