Lea Michele addresses backlash from Glee costars, says she's done personal reach-outs

Maureen Lee Lenker
·3 min read
Lea Michele addresses backlash from Glee costars, says she's done personal reach-outs

Don't stop believing that Lea Michele is going to give up on trying to damage control the Glee backlash.

The actress, currently starring on Broadway as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl and breaking box office records, sat down for a chat with playwright Jeremy O. Harris (Slave Play) in Interview, where Harris asked about how she navigated backlash she faced from her Glee costars in 2020 and whether she sees her current moment as an opportunity to rectify things.

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 12: Lea Michele attends The 75th Annual Tony Awards - Arrivals on June 12, 2022 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. (Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 12: Lea Michele attends The 75th Annual Tony Awards - Arrivals on June 12, 2022 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. (Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan/Getty

In 2020, in the midst of many celebrities posting sentiments in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Michele's former colleague Samantha Ware posted on Twitter accusing Michele of making her life on set "a living hell" when she, among other things, allegedly threatened to s--- in Ware's wig.

Since then, other comments in regards to Michele's bullying tactics on set and her alleged racism have been, if not directly addressed, at least hinted at by some of her former costars. Heather Morris, who played cheerleader Brittany S. Pierce, called Michele "very unplesant to work with," and Ware criticized Michele's casting in Funny Girl, writing, "Silence is complicity."

Michele has addressed the allegations before, admitting in a New York Times profile that she "has an edge" to her.

But Michele told Harris that she's done a lot of soul-searching and has tried to make amends. "I think these past two years have been so important for everybody to just sit back and reflect," she said. "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."

Lea Michele Joins The Cast Of "Funny Girl" On Broadway
Lea Michele Joins The Cast Of "Funny Girl" On Broadway

Bruce Glikas/WireImage Lea Michele in Broadway's 'Funny Girl'

"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,'" she continued. "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."

Michele said she also views Funny Girl as an opportunity to introduce audiences to who she is now, rather than focusing on the girl she was while making Glee. " The conversations that I've had behind the scenes with some people were incredibly healing and very eye-opening for me," she concluded. "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.'"

EW has reached out to representatives for several of Michele's Glee costars, including Kevin McHale, Amber Riley, Heather Morris, Samantha Ware, and Jenna Ushkowitz.

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