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"If any of you saw PaleyFest last week for their evening with the cast of The Mindy Project, then you got to witness firsthand the adorable sweetness that is Chris Messina. His castmates love him so much that they&amp;#x27;re not afraid to tease him endlessly over his lack of social media knowledge (&amp;quot;[Is Twitter] like a text message?&amp;quot;) or the fact that he&amp;#x27;s not comfortable in the spotlight. In fact, Messina is so much the anti-&amp;quot;me, me, me&amp;quot; actor that he politely asks most interviewers to talk with him over the phone so he can maintain his level of concentration at work. That&amp;#x27;s not to say that the his other costars aren&amp;#x27;t as dedicated (hardly), but Messina knows what works for him&amp;amp;#8212;and that&amp;#x27;s why you and I have fallen for his portrayal of Danny Castellano. I had met Messina only once before (on the 2013 SAG Awards red carpet, where he was nominated along with the cast of Argo), but our last interview this past October was over the phone. This time, I really wanted that in-person interview and was willing to wait on set to accommodate him. The last thing I wanted was to throw him off his game, but an in-person interview tends to be more personal and better than the phone, especially when there is so much to discuss. And so I got to visit Chris in his trailer during the last week of shooting for TMP season two for a sit-down that ended up being better than anything I could have hoped for. He seemed genuinely excited that I was so gung-ho to talk about the show, his acting, his process, and more. After a big hug before I left, he said to me, &amp;quot;I just want to thank you for this. I had a great time, and any time you want to come back and sit down for an interview, we&amp;#x27;d love to have you. This was great.&amp;quot; Glamour: I&amp;#x27;m just going to jump right in here. Mindy Kaling told me that you and B.J. Novak have been the only guys she&amp;#x27;s kissed with tongue on camera. Chris Messina: Oh wow. Glamour: Was it something you guys talked about prior? Chris: No. Kissing is either a real perk of the job, or it can be very strange. You [almost] become numb to it because it&amp;amp;#8217;s so technical. With Mindy, it&amp;amp;#8217;s a perk of the job, but it&amp;amp;#8217;s awkward too only because you&amp;amp;#8217;re surrounded by people watching you kiss. Glamour: How nervous were you when it came time to film the kiss on the airplane? Chris: I wasn&amp;amp;#8217;t really that nervous to be honest. I wasn&amp;amp;#8217;t that nervous about the butt grab either. I thought it was well written and well conceived. I felt very taken care of from the material. I&amp;amp;#8217;ve kissed a lot of girls in movies, so I was OK. [Laughs] Glamour: Mindy was singing your praises to me because you had a lot of screen time in that episode without dialogue and you had to convey so many feelings. Chris: I like that. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t like a lot of dialogue. I like silence. Glamour: How do you like dancing then? Chris: I like dancing. [Laughs] Glamour: How long did that scene take you to learn? Chris: You know, it didn&amp;amp;#8217;t take that long. The choreography was great. I mean, [the choreographer] is a real dancer. If you saw him do the routine, you&amp;amp;#8217;d be like, &amp;quot;Chris Messina can&amp;amp;#8217;t dance!&amp;quot; Glamour: You have some moves! I&amp;#x27;m very disappointed you&amp;#x27;re not on Dancing With the Stars. Chris: I don&amp;amp;#8217;t know about that! I&amp;amp;#8217;d be terrible! But I actually grew up dancing. My mom was a dance teacher, so she put me in dance school when I was a kid. I did everything. I used to take ballet. I was very into it, but then I got my ass kicked because of it growing up. Glamour: Did you go to bar mitzvahs when you were a kid and get everybody going with the &amp;quot;YMCA&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Electric Slide&amp;quot;? Chris: Ha, no, but I learned early on to try and hide it because it wasn&amp;amp;#8217;t going over very well where I grew up in Long Island. But then you go to high school and the girls were kind of fascinated by it, but at that point I had kind of stopped. Glamour: Do you teach your kids now? Chris: No, but we have dance parties. We put on the music and go crazy! It&amp;amp;#8217;s so funny to watch the kids dance. Glamour: Mindy said that Danny Castellano is one third B.J. Novak, one third Chris Messina, and one third made up. Had you heard that before? Chris: Wow, no! Glamour: You&amp;amp;#8217;re finding out about all new stuff today, aren&amp;amp;#8217;t you? Do you think that&amp;amp;#8217;s true though? And have you met B.J.? Chris: Yes, I love B.J.! But I don&amp;amp;#8217;t know if [Danny] is at all B.J., but maybe I don&amp;amp;#8217;t know B.J. well enough to know that. I love B.J. He comes on the show sometimes, and I love when he directs here. He&amp;amp;#8217;s a really good director. I think Danny Castellano is...I don&amp;amp;#8217;t know. Glamour: How much of yourself do you see in him? Chris: Some of it I do. Some not at all. Glamour: So aside from looking alike, what are the similarities? Chris: I&amp;amp;#8217;m a little bit of a dinosaur with computers and stuff, so we&amp;amp;#8217;re similar in that way. Glamour: Can you make gingerbread houses? Chris: I can&amp;amp;#8217;t. I wish I could. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t have much interest in gingerbread houses, except in eating them. Glamour: Are you sarcastic like him? Chris: I definitely have rants. We&amp;amp;#8217;re alike and we&amp;amp;#8217;re not at all alike. He&amp;amp;#8217;s a great character. I love playing him, and they write really well for me. Without the writing, I wouldn&amp;amp;#8217;t know what to do. Glamour: Our female readers&amp;amp;#8212;and me too&amp;amp;#8212;would kill me if I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t ask if you&amp;amp;#8217;re romantic like we&amp;amp;#8217;ve seen Danny become as well? Chris: Yeah, I think so. I think I am. I try. And then sometimes, like a lot of guys, I take for granted and forget, and then I wake up and try again. I like the romance, and I like watching romantic stuff, believe it or not. I like romance in films. I like love in films. I love watching people&amp;amp;#8212;and I think there&amp;amp;#8217;s a lot of this in the show, particularly with Mindy and Danny&amp;amp;#8212;where people can&amp;amp;#8217;t connect and they&amp;#x27;re looking for a connection and they keep missing each other. I really love watching that. If you love the characters enough and you&amp;amp;#8217;re rooting for them, but they just keep missing each other, that&amp;amp;#8217;s really fun to participate in as an audience member. Glamour: I played this game with Mindy, and I&amp;amp;#8217;m going to have you do the same. Describe Mindy in three words. Chris: Uh-oh. [Laughs] I hope I&amp;amp;#8217;m good at this! OK, 1) smart, 2) funny, and 3) she&amp;amp;#8217;s a very good, amazing observer. She&amp;#x27;s in the moment and present with you, but she&amp;amp;#8217;s also observing, and a lot of that stuff ends up seeping into the characters. Glamour: So what do you think she said about you? Chris: She said I was a pain in the ass, grumpy, and that&amp;amp;#8217;s all she said. Glamour: OK, she said smoldering... Chris: Oh geez! [Laughs] Glamour: And sensitive... Chris: Oh yeah. Glamour: And goofy. Chris: OK, that&amp;amp;#8217;s good! I like that. That&amp;amp;#8217;s very nice! Glamour: She said you&amp;amp;#8217;d say she&amp;amp;#8217;s confident and bratty. Chris: [Laughs] She is both. I should have used those! She is very confident. She&amp;amp;#8217;s super smart, so she&amp;amp;#8217;s confident. To have your own show, I don&amp;amp;#8217;t know how she does what she does. She&amp;amp;#8217;s in editing, she&amp;amp;#8217;s in casting, she&amp;amp;#8217;s writing, she&amp;amp;#8217;s acting. I think she&amp;amp;#8217;s extremely funny, extremely confident, extremely smart, and, at times, bratty. [Laughs] Glamour: What&amp;amp;#8217;s your prep before your scenes? Chris: This is very different than anything I&amp;amp;#8217;ve ever done before because I think the less preparation for this, the better. It sounds kinda lazy, but if you&amp;amp;#8217;re loose in comedy you can find...actually, if you&amp;amp;#8217;re loose and relaxed in anything you do, you&amp;amp;#8217;re usually better at it and more open to finding stuff. Glamour: Just be in honest, you dance in your trailer. Chris: I dance in my trailer. Ballet, hip-hop, tap dance. Glamour: That&amp;amp;#8217;s what I figured. Chris: But fear is good. I know it&amp;amp;#8217;s going well when we&amp;amp;#8217;re laughing, when we&amp;amp;#8217;re breaking. Glamour: Five months ago you told me that you thought if Mindy and Danny eventually got together and got married, they&amp;amp;#8217;d eventually divorce. Chris: Did I really say that? Glamour: Yes! Do you still feel that way? Chris: They&amp;amp;#8217;ll divorce and get back together and then divorce again. How&amp;amp;#8217;s that? Glamour: Not good unless they get back together! Chris: I don&amp;amp;#8217;t know! OK, ask me again in five months, I might tell you something different. Glamour: Do you think they belong together? Chris: Yeah. Glamour: Why? Chris: Hmmm... Glamour: I feel like I&amp;amp;#8217;m your therapist right now sitting here on the couch. Tell me how you&amp;amp;#8217;re feeling today, Chris. Chris: Oh, man. I&amp;#x27;m tired today. Twenty-two episodes...it&amp;amp;#8217;s a lot of television. This is really turning into therapy now. You&amp;amp;#8217;re good. [Laughs] Glamour: Are you trying to avoid the question? This is your therapist asking. Chris: Twenty-two episodes is a lot, but it&amp;amp;#8217;s fun too. I&amp;amp;#8217;m a lucky guy. I&amp;amp;#8217;m surrounded by so many amazing actors, and to think about all the amazing actors that are even better than me and unemployed, I&amp;amp;#8217;m very lucky. Wait, I think I forgot to answer your question. I went off on a tangent. Oh, why are Mindy and Danny supposed to be together? I actually think they might bring out the best in the other. When I was younger, I was often into the girls that were just like me...this is me talking by the way, not Danny. Glamour: Gotcha. Chris: And that never worked because we were so much alike that it would be too much. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t know if this is making sense, but now I find that in my relationship that we&amp;amp;#8217;re a lot alike in a lot of ways, but we&amp;amp;#8217;re also very different. That difference actually teaches you and brings out the best in one another. It challenges and teaches and maybe compliments. In a way, Mindy and Danny are very opposite. And while they have similarities, I think when they slow down and are kind of quiet with each other, and Danny stops ranting and Mindy stops being a brat, they can bring out the best in one another. I do think they&amp;amp;#8217;re meant for one another, but I also think they are in each other&amp;amp;#8217;s ways, and they&amp;amp;#8217;ll keep f--king it up. Glamour: But you kind of have to for good comedy. Chris: Exactly! If it was perfect, it would be boring. Glamour: Are you comfortable with this new leading-man status? Chris: That&amp;amp;#8217;s awfully nice. Glamour: Well, it&amp;amp;#8217;s true. Our readers love you. Chris: Really? That&amp;amp;#8217;s so nice. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t think I&amp;amp;#8217;m aware of it to be honest with you. People are very nice when I&amp;amp;#8217;m out. But going back to being a dinosaur, I don&amp;amp;#8217;t read it as much [on social networking sites]. There&amp;amp;#8217;s so many outlets, and you can read something amazing and then five minutes later read that someone hates you. So I stopped reading it. I&amp;amp;#8217;m in a bit of a bubble, but it&amp;amp;#8217;s nice when people come and tell me they like the show. Glamour: What current or former TV couple have you most enjoyed watching over the years? Chris: I haven&amp;amp;#8217;t watched a lot of television, but when I was kid I watched All in the Family, and I liked Archie and Edith a lot. Then, of course, Sam and Diane from Cheers. I loved them together. Glamour: What&amp;amp;#8217;s coming up for you this summer? Chris: I&amp;amp;#8217;m going to do two films. I&amp;amp;#8217;m going to go back to The Newsroom. I have a film at the Tribeca Film Festival that I directed, so yeah, I&amp;amp;#8217;m really slacking off this summer. [Laughs] I&amp;amp;#8217;m going to spend time with my kids. They are four and five. We&amp;amp;#8217;re gonna go away and take them to New York, where I grew up. Twitter follower @metetomas superimposed this photo of me and Chris because &amp;quot;I hope the interview with Chris was like this.&amp;quot; I still can&amp;#x27;t stop laughing! The Mindy Project returns to Fox tonight! Don&amp;#x27;t miss these two amazing back-to-back episodes, and and come back to Glamour.com immediately after the show because I&amp;#x27;ll have commentary from Mindy Kaling. Tell me, do you love Chris Messina even more now? And what do you want to see happen for him and Mindy?"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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