For many Glee viewers, Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson were a couple worth rooting for. Their romance gave fans songs, emotional moments and a relationship they could revisit long after the show ended.
Some viewers wanted that love story to continue beyond the characters, however. Chris Colfer is now reflecting on what happened when fans began imagining him and co-star Darren Criss as a real-life couple.
In an interview published by Bustle on October 6, Colfer explains that the attention sometimes made him uncomfortable. Fans used details from his personal life, or invented them, to support the stories they were writing.
He recalls a period when simply being photographed with someone could result in that person appearing in fan fiction about him. Colfer appreciates the creativity inspired by fictional characters, but becoming the subject himself felt different.
There is also a real relationship behind the familiar television face. Colfer and his boyfriend, actor and producer Will Sherrod, have been together since 2013. This January, Colfer marked their 13-year anniversary with an affectionate Instagram tribute celebrating both their relationship and Sherrod’s role as a dog dad.
For fans who first knew Colfer as Kurt, it is a warm glimpse of the life he has built beyond the show. Thirteen years is a substantial chapter—one belonging to Chris and Will themselves.
Criss has a family of his own, with wife Mia and their two children. The actors’ lives have continued well beyond the romance they portrayed, even as Kurt and Blaine remain meaningful to viewers.
Colfer’s latest screen role takes him somewhere considerably stranger. He stars opposite Alice Krige in Glenn McQuaid’s queer horror-comedy The Restoration at Grayson Manor, playing wealthy heir Boyd Grayson. After an accident costs Boyd his hands, experimental prosthetics bring a disturbing new dimension to life at the family estate.
The film begins its limited U.S. theatrical run in Brooklyn on October 9, with Los Angeles following October 14.
Fans can keep loving Kurt and Blaine. Chris and Will’s lasting relationship offers another story to appreciate, this time outside the script.
📷 @chriscolfer / Fox
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