Looking Was ‘Like Therapy’ for Jonathan Groff

Groff Photo: Getty Images for Vulture

It only took 42 minutes of reminiscing on Looking before Jonathan Groff got teary-eyed — pretty good considering how impactful the show was for him. During the Vulture Festival reunion of the HBO series with creator Michael Lannan, producer John Hoffman, Lauren Weedman, and Frankie J. Alvarez, Groff said being a part of it was “like therapy.� Alvarez, who played Agustín, reminded Groff of his coming-out story, where he told his family, “I’m gay, but I’m not gonna do a parade or anything,� before eating his words only a few years later: “Then we were in the Pride parade together!�

“I didn’t feel comfortable to even be in the parade that year,� Groff recalled. “I was like, ‘I guess I’m doing the show,’ so I got to get on the parade, and I remember being with [Alvarez] on the front of that car and going like, ‘Oh my God, this is fucking amazing.’ And that was what the whole show was like. It was like a rebirth, like falling in love with the idea of being gay. For me, it was like therapy.�