The Glee Project co-winner talks about how the show helped prepare him for Glee and how the show’s star Cory Monteith became a mentor of sorts.

THR posted a fantastic interview with Damian McGinty, the co-winner of The Glee Project, who appears on tonight’s episode of Glee “Pot O’ Gold.” Here are some excerpts from the interview:

The Hollywood Reporter: How much did The Glee Project prepare you for the realities of Glee?
Damian McGinty: The Glee Project for sure was in many ways the perfect preparation for being on Glee. No. 1, the orders on The Glee Project were similar to the orders on Glee. There were times on The Glee Projectwhere we were shooting for 20 hours a day and it’s the same on Glee where some days are incredibly long. In that respect, it really prepared you for that and the workload you’re going to get, all the different dance routines and singing in the recording studio. It’s those aspects are very similar. But Gleeis most definitely a completely different experience than The Glee Project. Glee isn’t a competitive environment so it’s much more enjoyable than The Glee Project. On The Glee Project, there was a lot of pressure and a lot of ragging on your performance whereas with this you can really enjoy yourself and give your absolute 110 percent best.

THR: Will Finn take Rory under his wing and really look out for him amid the bulling that’s coming his way?
McGinty: That relationship is actually like real life: Cory has been like that for me. We’ve done a lot of scenes where Finn is teaching Rory and showing him the way and being a real mentor, like a big brother-little brother thing. It shows many things: Finn isn’t the kid that he was two years ago anymore; he’s now a mature adult who can be an example to somebody like Rory who is really young and vulnerable and has just come in.

We love that we are finally getting to learn more about Rory! To read the full interview, with some minor spoilers about upcoming developments, click here!