Lea Michele Punk'd by Ashton Making "New Year's Eve"

Taking a break from “Glee”, the brunette with the great set of pipes was thrilled to play a back-up singer for Bon Jovi and get stuck in an elevator for days with Ashton Kutcher.

TeenHollywood: Can you talk about working with Ashton Kutcher.. stuck in an elevator?

Lea: I got to be stuck in an elevator with him for two weeks which was awesome. He’s hilarious. I got Punk’d a couple of times.  He’s also really smart and would talk about everything going on in the world and I had absolutely no idea of half the stuff he was talking about so I would go home and Google everything and try to brush up on everything that’s going on in our world to come in the next day and try to have a conversation.  But, he was great. He made me feel very comfortable.

TeenHollywood: How did he Punk you?

Lea: He opened the door with a towel on. He was supposed to have all his clothes on. It was a good Punk.

TeenHollywood: This is another role where you get to show off your voice so I wonder if you lean toward roles where you can sing? Also, they are postponing “Funny Girl” (a revival of the musical in L.A. then to Broadway) to rework it, so would you be interested if your schedule permits?

Lea: Of course. I would do that show for an empty room by myself.[laughs].  And I really didn’t intend to do a film role where I sang. I sing so much on my show that I sort of felt like maybe I would start looking into things that didn’t involve me singing but, when I read the script, these songs were already in there. They didn’t add them for me and I just felt that it was such a perfect part for me to play for my first film to transition from “Glee” into something so I thought it was great. 

I had so much fun. I got to be a backup singer for Bon Jovi which was awesome and I think that from now on I’ll try to look at other things without singing just to give my voice a little break. But, when something as perfect as this comes along and it makes sense and it fits, then it’s sort of a no-brainer.

[Note: Director Gary Marshall says Lea wasn’t originally going to sing Auld Lang Syne at the end of the movie but he thought the Bronx girl should bring it home]

TeenHollywood: What do you do for New Year’s Eve?

Lea: I do the same thing every year for New Years or I’ve done it for seven years now. I’m from New York and I did the Times Square thing once and I’ll never do it again but New Yorkers have this special spot in Central Park where they do a five k run the minute the clock strikes twelve.

I ran once and I’ll never to that again [laughs] but it’s awesome to watch these people run and it’s such a great environment and place to be so that’s where I’ll be and have been for the past seven years. I’m drinking champagne so that’s why I’ll never run again. Those two combined didn’t really work very well.