Why The Glee Cast Hated Working With Lea Michele
Rumors have plagued Lea Michele for years that she was a terror on the set of Glee as lead character Rachel Berry — so what happened there, and why didn't the rest of the cast enjoy working with her?
In the summer of 2020, plenty of famous figures had to grapple with and apologize for their past indiscretions when the murder of George Floyd kicked off protests across the United States (and later, the world). That included Lea Michele, whom Samantha Ware, a fellow "Glee" cast member, accused of rampant racism and bullying. In a since-deleted post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Ware alleged that Michele made life miserable on set, including that the latter threatened to ... defecate in her wig. Dabier Snell, who only appeared in one episode of the series, backed Ware up with a post on X that claims Michele wouldn't allow Snell to join the other cast members at a table because he "didn't belong there." Alex Newell and Heather Morris went on to make their own comments about Michele's behavior, lending more and more credibility to Ware's initial allegations.
Then there's the late Naya Rivera, who wrote in her 2016 memoir "Sorry Not Sorry" that working with Michele was difficult for her too (so much so that the rumored off-screen drama changed Satana's character for good). "One of the 'Glee' writers once said that Lea and I were like two sides of the same battery and that about sums us up. If I'd complained about anyone or anything, she'd assumed I was b****ing about her. Soon, she started to ignore me, and eventually it got to the point where she didn't say a word to me for all of Season [6]" (per The Daily Beast).
Lea Michele responded to the allegations of racism and bullying in 2023
In 2023, Lea Michele sat down with playwright Jeremy O. Harris — who wrote the critical darling "Slave Play" and also popped up on "Emily in Paris" — for a piece in Interview. Harris asked her about the allegations leveled by Samantha Ware and her fellow cast members (pretty much all of whom were performers of color). Michele offered up a relatively boilerplate response: "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."
Michele further explained to Harris that she was trying to grapple with the fact that she made her co-stars feel awful during their time on "Glee" and how she tried to look at her past experiences as a learning experience. Beyond that, she acknowledged that she's talked to people and has her own baggage to deal with, though she said she didn't want to use any of that as an excuse. "The conversations that I've had behind the scenes with some people were incredibly healing and very eye-opening for me," the actor continued. "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."
What has Lea Michele been doing since Glee?
The whole reason that Jeremy O. Harris sat down with Lea Michele in 2023 — and asked her some tough questions about her reputation on the Fox series — is that a literal "Glee" plotline came true when Michele was cast in the Broadway revival of "Funny Girl." The singer and actor joined the production as its lead, Fanny Brice, after Beanie Feldstein departed — and as she told Harris, she hoped that working on a musical that was deeply associated with Rachel Berry would help her reintroduce herself as a changed, evolved person
"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,'" Michele said, also admitting that she shied away from "Funny Girl" in the past because of its association with "Glee" (Michele, as Rachel, memorably performed the show-stopping number "Don't Rain on My Parade" in Season 1 of the series). Michele ultimately earned rave reviews for her turn as Fanny, so all's well that ends well ... sort of. The controversies and drama of her time on "Glee" may never truly leave her.
For longtime fans of the musical dramedy, be sure to read about why co-creator Brad Falchuk is unsure about a reboot and the real reason "Glee" ended after Season 6.