TORONTO — Musician and actor Darren Criss has mixed feelings about having 1.3 million followers on Twitter.
“It’s not my thing,” he said Wednesday in Toronto. “I try to do as much as possible but given the choice I wouldn’t.”
Appearing on Global’s The Morning Show, Criss described tweeting as “terrifying” but fell short of dismissing social media completely.
“I understand its value. I know it’s important for guys like me,” he said.
Criss, 26, plays gay high school senior Blaine Anderson on Glee, which airs on Global. He’s using the show’s summer hiatus to hit the road for concerts across the U.S. (and one in Toronto on Wednesday night).
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The venues are decidedly smaller than the arenas in which he performed as part of the Glee cast tour in 2011.
“I was a musician before Glee and played in a lot more humble venues,” said Criss. “I’m kind of back to what I’m used to and more comfortable with.”
He said the intimate venues also allow fans to feel closer to him. “I wanted to do this tour as an opportunity to connect with people who have supported me thus far,” he explained, “because otherwise you’re just on a television screen or a YouTube screen and there’s a disconnect.”
A classically-trained violinist who said he picked up the guitar, in part, as a way to get girls, Criss is working on a full-length album of his own as a follow-up to the EP Human in 2010.
His Glee fame has opened many doors — he stars opposite Kristen Wiig in next month’s movie comedy Girl Most Likely — but Criss said success hasn’t changed him.
(Following his appearance on The Morning Show, Criss cheerfully signed autographs, posed for pictures and chatted with fans who gathered outside the studio.)
“One learns to hope for everything and expect nothing, and so when you have anything on the other side that sort of validates your hard work it’s surprising and overwhelming,” he said. “But it’s flattering.”
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