Lea Michele Controversy: Last year, Lea Michele faced backlash for alleged mean-spirited conduct on the set of Glee, for which she ultimately apologized. Heather Morris, her former co-star, is now speaking out about why she believes she and other victims waited so long to come out with their claims, which surfaced over a year ago.
“It’s almost as if we could have spoken up and told the Fox executives how we felt about the issue, but nobody did. So we now live in a culture where it is normal to go do stuff like that, while I believe many people were terrified “Morris revealed this on the podcast Everything Iconic with Danny Pellegrino on Wednesday, May 26. She portrayed Brittany on all six seasons of Glee. “I know, truly, I didn’t feel like it was my place, and I’m not sure why, since I was a cast member just like everyone else, and we all need to feel at ease on set.”
The claims against Michele
Lea Michele Controversy: Who portrayed Rachel Berry on Glee, was first made public in early June 2020. Samantha Marie Ware, who portrayed recurring character Jane Hayward in season six, criticized Michele on Twitter when she voiced indignation about the death of Minnesota man George Floyd by a police officer and used the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.
“LMAO DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU MADE MY FIRST TELEVISION GIG A LIVING HELL?!?! I WILL NEVER FORGET, “In response, Ware tweeted. “I BELIEVE YOU TOLD EVERYONE THAT IF YOU GOT THE CHANCE, YOU’D ‘S—T IN MY WIG!’ AMONG OTHER TRAUMATIC MICROAGRESSIONS [sic] THAT MADE ME QUESTION A HOLLYWOOD CAREER…”
Read More: 14 Most controversial moments from ‘The Howard Stern Show’ – Howard Stern Controversy
Following Ware’s popular tweet, meal kit delivery service Michele’s collaboration with HelloFresh has come to an end. And Ware spurred other former Glee cast members to come out against the actress, including Morris, who tweeted, “To be clear, hate is a sickness in America that we are attempting to treat, and I would never desire for that hatred to spread to others. Was she, however, difficult to work with? Very much so; for Lea to treat others with such contempt for so long, I feel she SHOULD be called out.”
Morris went on, “But it’s also on us because allowing it to continue for so long without speaking up is something else we’re learning alongside the rest of society. However, it is now inferred that she is a racist, and while I cannot comment on her opinions, I believe we are assuming, and you know what happens when we all assume…”
Morris revealed on Wednesday’s Everything
Lea Michele Controversy: Morris revealed on Wednesday’s Everything Iconic with Danny Pellegrino that she was chastised for her comments on Michele. “I remember getting so much heat because people were like, ‘This is so f—king cryptic,’ like, ‘Why don’t you just go and say it?'” she remarked on the program.
“I’m like, ‘Guys, she’s pregnant, and all this crap is going around, and,” Morris added, stopping before adding, “It’s real.” She didn’t go into detail.
“And I’m not sure if we were victims of bullying, and that’s a normal victim thing to do, which is to blame oneself,” the actress continued. “But it’s also really accurate, and the only person who admitted it was Naya [Rivera]. And that was something that was kept extremely quiet on set. And now you see all of these things with these bigger personalities, who were incredibly nasty and abused a lot of people, and people let it happen.”
In her 2016 memoir Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up, the late actress claimed that Michele “blamed me for anything and everything that went wrong” on set and that later, “she started to ignore me, and eventually it got to the point where she didn’t say a word to me for the entire season six.”
Morris stated on the Everything Iconic with Danny Pellegrino podcast, “We were all close to Lea at different periods in time, and then we weren’t. So there’s that human element to it, to knowing who this person is, to growing with that person, to seeing her want to be better and, you know, to taking care of herself after Corey [Monteith] died away.” Monteith, who dated Michele both on the show and in real life, died in 2013 of heroin and alcohol intoxication. He was 31.
Rivera was asked about her previous connection with Michele on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen in 2019. “I don’t think there was any meat,” she remarked.
Rivera drowned in June at the age of 33, less than two weeks after Morris and other former Glee cast members made their charges against Michele. Days before her death was discovered, when she was reported missing while boating with her son, several admirers vented their frustrations on Michele on Twitter, causing the actress to suspend her account.
Michele apologized on Instagram
Lea Michele Controversy: Michele apologized on Instagram after the charges were made against her in June. “When I tweeted the other day, it was meant to be a show of support for our friends and neighbors and communities of color during this really difficult time,” she wrote. “However, the responses I received to what I posted have made me specifically focus on how my own behavior towards fellow cast members was perceived by them.” “While I don’t recall ever making this precise phrase, and I’ve never judged anybody based on their heritage or skin color, that’s not really the issue. What matters is that I plainly acted in ways that harmed others.”
“If it was my privileged position and viewpoint that led me to be regarded as insensitive or improper at times, or whether it was simply my immaturity and me being needlessly difficult,” she wrote, “I apologize for my actions and for any hurt which I have caused.” “We can all grow and develop, and I’ve certainly used the last several months to reflect on my own faults.”
Lea Michele Controversy: Michele, who was in the third trimester of her son’s pregnancy at the time, also wrote, “I know I need to keep striving to better myself and accept responsibility for my acts in order to be a true role model for my kid and to pass on my lessons and errors for them to learn from. I listened to these concerns and am learning; while I am very sorry, this experience will make me a better person in the future.”
Despite the uproar, Michele maintains contact with at least two of her former co-stars. She is friends with Jonathan Groff, who played her love interest Jesse St. James and co-starred with her in Spring Awakening on Broadway years before Glee premiered in 2010. On Thursday, May 27, she posted a photo of Darren Criss, who portrayed Blaine Anderson, cradling her 9-month-old son Ever on Instagram.
View this post on Instagram
