Glee’s New Kid Damian McGinty: Santana Is Gonna Go All Lima Heights Adjacent on Rory!
Unfortunately for new Glee kid Damian McGinty, his character Rory will fall madly and immediately in love with Brittany in Tuesday’s episode — which will force Santana to go all Lima Heights Adjacent on him.
“I’ve had many scenes with Naya Rivera. She’s terrifying,” McGinty, 19, tells TVGuide.com. “Whenever Rory looks terrified, it’s not even acting. I feel genuine fear.”
Even as he wraps Episode 7, McGinty, who won his role as the pompadour-sporting Irish lad bunking with Ms. Pearce’s family on The Glee Project, says things still haven’t improved between young Rory and Santana. “In every last one of our scenes, she’s been ripping me to shreds,” he says.
But whether Santana likes it or not, Rory and Brittany (Heather Morris) go nicely together. “They have a really funny, really sweet partnership,” McGinty says. “He also has a lot of hilarious one-liners that are a result of being really innocent — the difference is Rory realizes when he says something stupid.” And since Brittany thinks he’s her personal leprechaun that no one else can see, part of Rory’s plan to woo her is to grant her magic wishes.
The other person Rory will be instantly smitten with is Finn (Cory Monteith), who takes the 15-year-old under his wing after he sees him getting bullied in the halls of McKinley. Turns out Rory’s a big fan of Finchel’s smooching video from Nationals. “It’s as if Rory has been watching Glee for the last two seasons and is a huge fan of all these people, and especially of Finn,” McGinty says. “They’ve got a big brother-little brother relationship going on; it’s really cute. To be honest, it’s a little like what’s happening in real life. Cory’s been incredible helping me settle in. He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met.”
What else is in store for Rory? McGinty dishes:
Like Santana, Kurt (Chris Colfer) won’t be a fan, not after Rory shows off his considerable falsetto. He didn’t get to use it on The Glee Project, but we’ll hear him hit plenty of higher-than-high notes, McGinty says. And Rory won’t be a threat to Kurt for long: with Mercedes defecting to Shelby’s group — and more to follow — New Directions “is in bad need of some new blood,” McGinty says.
Speaking of the two groups, look for an “epic” show choir showdown. Apparently, Shelby’s budding choir and Mr. Schue’s can’t co-exist.”Eventually, there is going to be a huge throwdown between Shelby’s all-girl group and the New Directions, and neither wants to lose,” McGinty says. “I think it’s going to be a grand fight.” Will both go to Sectionals, which take place in Episode 8? “You never know on Glee.”
Rory willget to, er, participate in West Side Story. McGinty can’t give away what happens, and his character did miss auditions, but whatever it is “still has the crew laughing, that’s no joke,” McGinty says. “People are still talking about it weeks later.” He can say this: Rory’s part of the chorus, and “his interpretation of the scene is different from anyone else’s.”
There’s a reason for those short shorts (pictured above). Rory will be trying to get involved on the sports side, too. Key word: trying. “I’m gonna play some sports this season, yeah. Whether or not Rory is any good is a different matter altogether, but he really wants to try. At the minute, Rory is just the ultimate underdog, he really is.”
And the pompadour? Does Rory think he’s a ’50s greaser? There’s not an answer for this yet, but McGinty says Rory is both “an old soul… but also very young and innocent.” Apparently, his ’50s fixation isn’t just a product of the writers’ imaginations either. “It’s not. I personally love Bobby Darin music, I love that kind of thing, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin…” So far, McGinty reports he hasn’t sung one top-40 hit on the show. “It’s all the old stuff,” he says, happily.
No subtitles — so far. The Glee Project made liberal use of subtitles in case viewers found McGinty’s thick Irish accent unintelligible. But the actor must be enunciating well so far because he hasn’t heard that he’ll be getting captions any time soon. On the other hand, “I’m almost certain it’s going to play a part at some stage. It has to!” he says.
Off-camera, McGinty’s really bonded with Mark Salling. Why? The two are fierce table tennis competitors. “We try to beat each other all the time,” McGinty says. “If we get five minutes, we rush off to play. Matthew Morrison, too… but he isn’t the best, to say the least.”
