Glee star Lea Michele opens up about the controversies involving her former costars and how she has attempted to grow from the experiences. First airing on Fox in 2009, Glee ultimately ran for six seasons before coming to an end in 2015. The show chronicled the lives of a group of misfit high school students who attempt to escape the harsh realities that come with being a teenager by joining one passionate teacher's glee club. Since the show's ending, various stars made spoken out against Michele for her alleged mistreatment of them on set.
Sitting down recently with Interview Magazine, Michele addresses her former Glee costars' complaints and accusations.
The actor, who is appearing in the lead role in Broadway's Funny Girl, reveals that she personally reached out to some of her former castmates following the accusations. While being careful not to directly address any of the claims that have been made against her, Michele seems to suggest that she's learned from her past experiences on Glee and that she is now focusing on applying those lessons to this new stage of her career. Check out Michele's full comment below:
“I think these past two years have been so important for everybody to just sit back and reflect. I did a lot of personal reach-outs. But the most important thing was for everybody to just take a step back. More than anything, I’m so grateful to have this opportunity to apply the things that I’ve learned over the past ten-plus years in a positive way. What I told myself stepping into Funny Girl was, ‘If I can’t take my role as a leader offstage as important as my role as a leader onstage, then I shouldn’t do this show.’ Because that was always a struggle for me. So to have this opportunity now at 36 years old as a wife and a mother— to step into this job that comes with so much pressure and a huge amount of responsibility—was a very, very big achievement for me.
"At the end of the day, what matters the most is how you make people feel. And you have to put aside your feelings. The conversations that I’ve had behind the scenes with some people were incredibly healing and very eye-opening for me. I’ve been doing this for a really long time and I’m not going to ever blame anything on the things that I’ve been through in my life. But you also can’t ignore those experiences or deny them. They are a part of the patchwork of my life. When I got the call that I was going to play Fanny Brice, I said, ‘Okay, this could be really big for my career, but it’s also helpful to have this opportunity to introduce people to who I am now.’”
Lea Michele's Glee Controversies Explained
While the Glee set was mostly free from controversy when the show was actually on the air, in the years that followed, Michele became the subject of considerable scrutiny. The controversy started in 2020 when Michele voiced her support for the Black Lives Matter movement, prompting a response from actor Samantha Ware, who played Jane Hayward on the final season of Glee. Ware alleges that Michele made her life on set a "living hell" revealing in a tweet, "I believe you told everyone that if you had the opportunity you would ‘s— in my wig!'"
Ware's response to Michele then prompted replies from other former Glee costars, including Heather Morris, who agreed that Michele was unpleasant to work with, and Alex Newell, who also supported Ware's comments. Dabier Snell, who only appeared in one episode of Glee alleged that Michele wouldn't let him sit at the same table as her and the rest of the cast. Some other actors outside of the show also chimed in, with Gerard Canonico expressing that Michele was a "nightmare" while working on the play Spring Awakenings.
It's now been nearly eight years since Glee ended, but, for many of the actor's former costars, it seems like memories of working with Michele remain unpleasant. Michele recently addressed the accusations by explaining that her drive for "perfectionism" ultimately may have contributed to some "blind spots" when it came to her costars. The actor's latest comments would suggest that has attempted to right previous wrongs by personally reaching out to former Glee costars, but it's unclear how successful those attempts may have been.
Source: Interview Magazine