Every major film or series has its own collection of trivia. Don’t believe us? Just go to IMDb, click the trivia tab, and you’ll find pages upon pages of useless yet interesting and funny facts about your favorite productions, and Hamilton is no different in this regard. Ever since the award-winning Broadway musical appeared on Disney+, the internet cannot stop analyzing it.
One little detail fans have discovered now that they can watch the performances from up close as opposed to the back of a theater is that Jonathan Groff – the actor who portrays King George – spits when he talks. And not just a little bit. Over the course of the recording, even casual viewers can find dozens of salivary projectiles being fired from his mouth.
The spitting is apparently not specific to the role, but a tic which Groff carries with him in real life. In a recent interview, the actor – who can also be seen playing the lead in Netflix’s Mindhunter – says he’s always been somewhat of a spitter and rather than denying the embarrassing detail, he’s owned it.
But while Groff was ready for this, it now appears that the rest of the production initially wasn’t. John Kamen, one of the musical’s producers who oversaw its recording for Disney+, admitted that they were both able and willing to clean up Groff’s spit in post. Ultimately, however, the team behind the musical decided to keep it because the theater is all about capturing authentic performances.
“We said don’t worry we can clean that up — they were like ‘No, leave it!'”
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the source material, Hamilton tells the story of America’s least-known but arguably most-important founding father, Alexander Hamilton. After arriving in the New World a poor immigrant, he works his way up the social ladder through hard work and passion, shaping the country’s history and values along the way.