I never felt cool growing up. I was a bit of an outsider, but I discovered theatre very early on, which got me through.
Even if you didn't come from another country, the idea of how do you make a home somewhere new is common to anyone who's either going to college, shifting towns.
I mostly want to remind her of the recipes of healing, and give her my own made-on-the spot remedy for the easing of her pain. I tell her, “Get a pen. Stop crying so you can write this down and start working on it tonight.” My remedy is long. But the last item on the list says: “When you wake up and find yourself living someplace where there is nobody you love and trust, no community, it is time to leave town – to pack up and go (you can even go tonight). And where you need to go is any place where there are arms that can hold you, that will not let you go.
I live in L.A. and I do have wonderful friends; I moved there when I was 19 so I developed a close knit group of friends, none of whom are actors, none of which are Australian, but I couldn't do it long term.
People who are feeling bullied and people who feel like outsiders should talk to their parents and guardians about finding a place with likeminded people where they can feel accepted. That's what I needed, and that's what I found with musical theater.
I love New York, but I'd felt like an outsider here.
I found music because I felt different.
If I find something is interesting, there are probably other people who find it interesting… if I'm into what I'm doing, there will be other people who are into it, too.
I started my YouTube channel when I was 13. At the time, I was being bullied by a few people who I used to be very close to. I felt very alone and unmotivated. After discovering the beauty community, I decided it would be a great way to express myself and use it as an outlet to be who I am.
I think there's a lot of honesty in that track. 'Smalltown Boy' was about leaving Glasgow but it was also about the people I had come to meet on my journey, especially when I was squatting in London.
London can be quite lonely and a hard place to live, but I do love it. It is where I forged my way to live. It is where I call home.
A lot of times, you land in a city, and you're like, 'This is not my people.' I'm gonna do the show, but you don't feel like this is for you. And then, some places, you just go and just fall into a groove, and you're like, 'This feels right.'
I didn't fit in on any level when I moved from Brooklyn to Burbank - on any level. And then I met a bunch of hippies, and I became a little hippie myself. A Brooklyn hippie.
I felt like an outsider, so listening to a bunch of outsiders' music like Bjork and Patti Smith made me feel better. But at the same time, I didn't have anyone singing specifically 100% about things I could relate to.
I wanted to find people who were like me, and I did, in the people I was reading.
I had been a kid that moved so much, I didn't have a lot of friends. Theater really represented camaraderie.
Growing up, I was a socially awkward kid who didn't know where he fit in, and I didn't have many friends, but I always had wrestling. I always had what was in between those ropes, and that always put a smile on my face no matter what.
I know what it's like to be ignored; when I got to L.A., I longed for somebody who looked like me to show me the ropes.
I very much own the fact that I'm a misfit. The Internet makes everyone realize they're screwed up.
I arrived at New York, and I went from being Andy Rannells from Nebraska to being Andrew Rannells in New York who was gay. And those were just the facts.
London has become a real home.
One similarity I see between peers and some of the people who read my books is that comics were definitely an outlet for us.
The idea of appealing to people of a like mind and like spirit always appealed to me.
I think that art, and making music or comedy, is a way of positing yourself on the map and then trying to find other people out there with you.
I came down to Los Angeles without knowing anyone. I had my dog, and that was it.
