‘It was fun to get pushed around’: Andrew Rannells on ‘razzle dazzle’, kissing co-stars and being a better friend to Lena Dunham

Andrew Rannells Finds New Depth in ‘Miss You, Love You’ After Years of Razzle-Dazzle

Wanderstayfinder.com – For over a decade, audiences have known Andrew Rannells as an effervescent performer whose energy seems boundless. Whether belting out show tunes in shopping malls or delivering sharp-witted one-liners on television, the actor has cultivated a reputation for being impossible to ignore. Now, at forty-eight, Rannells is embracing a quieter, more introspective chapter in his career with the comedy-drama Miss You, Love You.

The film places Rannells in the role of Jamie, a personal assistant who travels to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to support Diane, a recently widowed woman portrayed by Allison Janney. As the story unfolds, Jamie and Diane form an unlikely bond while navigating the complicated emotions surrounding Diane’s husband’s death from Parkinson’s disease. When they realize that Diane’s son—Jamie’s employer—might not attend the funeral, these two strangers must learn to lean on each other during a difficult transition.

A Career Built on Visibility

Rannells’ path to this moment began long before Miss You, Love You. Lena Dunham spotted him performing as Elder Price in the original 2011 Broadway production of The Book of Mormon, a musical that would become a cultural phenomenon. Her casting decision launched Rannells into the spotlight as Elijah in Girls, the formerly closeted ex-boyfriend of Dunham’s character Hannah. The role proved so memorable that fans continue to greet him with the line “Your dad is gay!”—a reference to Elijah’s pointed advice about refining one’s gaydar.

His visibility extended beyond television. Rannells appeared in numerous talk shows, often delivering moments so quotable they spawned YouTube compilations with titles celebrating his iconic status. Ryan Murphy’s The Prom showcased his musical talents as an incorrigible Juilliard graduate performing a shopping-mall song-and-dance number. Throughout it all, Rannells maintained a reputation for being larger than life.

Being Pushed Around in Miss You, Love You

For Miss You, Love You, Rannells found himself on the receiving end of intense dramatic energy. He worked alongside Janney, whom he had previously met while filming the comic thriller Another Simple Favor. Despite their earlier collaboration, nothing prepared him for the intensity of their scenes together.

“She is relentless. She goes and goes and goes. All her years on The West Wing really prepped her,” Rannells explained during our conversation.

Wearing a silvery-grey shirt and running a hand through his chestnut quiff, Rannells reflected on the experience. “I was just trying to keep up with what Allison was doing,” he said. “It was fun this time to be on the other side of it and to feel what it’s like to get pushed around and bullied.”

Personal Life and Professional Choices

Rannells speaks from his Los Angeles home, which he shares with actor Tuc Watkins and Watkins’ twin teenage children. The room behind him is softly blurred during our video call, making it difficult to identify the three paintings hanging on the wall. Since listing his stylish Manhattan apartment for nearly $2.5 million last year, Dogs Playing Poker seems unlikely to be among them.

His relationship with Watkins began on stage. They met during the 2018 Broadway revival of The Boys in the Band, a pre-Stonewall chamber piece that has become a cornerstone of LGBTQ+ theater. Their first kiss occurred in character, and they would end each performance making out on stage for ten minutes while Jim Parsons watched, often moved to tears.

“We turned a showmance into a relationship,” Rannells said with a characteristic eyebrow twitch.

Interestingly, despite his success and his role as a personal assistant in Miss You, Love You, Rannells has never hired one himself. This makes him somewhat unusual in Hollywood. “One of my closest friends has an assistant. At times, I’m closer to the assistant than I am to him,” he noted. “Maybe it comes from years of working in theatre. I got in the habit of doing things for myself. To relinquish that control now would be, I think, hard for me.”

Midwest Roots and Voice Acting Legacy

Rannells’ work ethic traces back to his childhood in Omaha, Nebraska, where he grew up next to a children’s theatre and began drama classes at a young age. His performing career started early and proved lucrative. From ages thirteen to thirty-one, he worked as a prolific voice actor for cartoons including Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! This work eventually led to his stage career, with a tour of the United States in Pokémon Live! at just twenty-one years old.

Learning to ask for help remains one of the lessons Jamie must master in Miss You, Love You—and one that Rannells continues to work on personally. “You are raised in the midwest to take care of your own problems: don’t make waves, fix it, move on,” he said. “Sometimes I do myself a disservice by not asking for what I need. I’m getting better at it. But I’ve certainly seen it abused. A lot of actors take advantage of people and I don’t want to be that person.”

As Rannells approaches his forty-ninth birthday, he carries with him decades of experience, from Broadway stages to Hollywood sets, and from voice-over booths to intimate conversations about friendship and vulnerability. Miss You, Love You represents not just a new role, but a new way of being—someone who has spent a lifetime being seen, now learning to simply be.