Lea Michele is opening up about her healing journey after being harshly criticized by her “Glee” co-stars for what many of them have referred to as toxic, bullying behavior from their time on the show.
The 36-year-old actress addressed the intense backlash from her former fellow cast members during a candid conversation with Interview Magazine.
“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.”
The “Funny Girl” star’s comments come after castmate Samantha Ware famously called out Michele’s on-set behavior in 2020 and alleged that she made her time on the show difficult.
Lea Michele addressed the backlash from her cast members when they accused her of being a bully during the taping of “Glee.” (Getty Images)
Ware took to Twitter then to express how Michele made her first television gig “a living hell,” alleging that she’d told other cast members that if given the opportunity she would have “s— in [her] wig.” She also alluded to “other traumatic microaggressions” from Michele.
Alex Newell, another star of the show, displayed support for Ware’s comments, while castmate Heather Morris said online that Michele was “unpleasant to work with.” An actor who co-starred on Broadway with Michele also claimed she was a “nightmare.”
Samantha Ware called out Lea Michele over behavior she alleges happened while on the set of “Glee.”
More recently, another “Glee” alum, Chris Colfer, publicly stated that he wouldn’t be seeing Michele’s “Funny Girl” debut last fall, joking, “I can be triggered at home.”
After Michele took the heat from her colleagues, she got candid about rectifying her relationships with former castmates and noted she found solace along the way.
“At the end of the day, what matters the most is how you make people feel,” she said. “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.”
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Michele went on to detail her coping mechanisms amid the drama among her “Glee” co-stars and how it helped her prepare for her role in the Broadway revival of “Funny Girl.”
“More than anything, I’m so grateful to have this opportunity to apply the things that I’ve learned over the past 10-plus years in a positive way,” Michele continued to tell the media outlet.
Lea Michele as Fanny Brice in “Funny Girl” on Broadway. (Getty Images)
“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.”
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As she continues to move on from the “Glee” drama, Michele expressed her gratitude for her current stage in life.
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“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.”
