Life imitating art? Elle Fanning‘s Hulu series features a shocking connection to Glee‘s Rachel Berry, played by Lea Michele.
In The Girl From Plainville — which is based on the case of Michelle Carter, a teenager who allegedly urged her boyfriend to commit suicide via text message — Fanning, 23, rehearses a monologue that Rachel Berry gave her fellow Glee Club members in the season 5 episode “The Quarterback.” The episode of the Fox show was inspired by the 2013 death of Cory Monteith and features several nods to his real-life romance with Michele, 35, who he was dating at the time.
“I loved him and he loved me,” the fictional Michelle says tearfully into the mirror. “He loved all of you guys. I know he did. I love to sing in the car, and before Finn, I used to sing alone. This was the first song that we would sing together when we used to drive around together.”
After her first performance of the speech, she pauses and replays the scene on her tablet so that she can recite it alongside the episode. Carter then sings Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love” — just like Rachel does on Glee — while crying before the episode ends with her taking a deep breath and staring calmly ahead at her reflection.
Carter, now 24, made headlines in 2014 after her then-boyfriend, Conrad Roy, died by suicide after poisoning himself with carbon monoxide fumes in his truck. In the wake of his death, authorities discovered texts from the Massachusetts native on his phone, in which she encouraged him to stay in the car even though he wanted to leave and not carry out his plan to take his own life. Carter also made several phone calls to Roy at the time of his death, which a judge ruled was evidence that she convinced him to go through with it.
In June 2015, Carter’s lawyers argued that Roy had a history of suicidal ideation and that through most of their relationship, she had encouraged him to seek help. “Taking all the texts in context, she tried to talk him out of it,” Attorney Joseph Cataldo told The Sun Chronicle at the time. “Michelle Carter did not cause his death.” Two years later, however, Carter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 months in prison and 5 years of probation. She was released early in January 2020 due to good behavior.
Throughout their tumultuous relationship, which took place primarily through texts and emails, Carter frequently sent Roy quotes from Glee, which she passed off as her own words.
“She was a huge Glee fan,” Fanning told Variety on Tuesday, March 29, about her character’s connection to the hit series. “I had seen the show, but I watched a lot of it on set. Reading the pilot, in the last scene she’s singing ‘Make You Feel My Love,’ mimicking Lea Michele’s grief. Lea’s grief was real in the show; she’s also mourning her real-life boyfriend.”
She continued: “I’ve never met [Michele], but I know every mannerism that she does in that scene. I have a legal pad of notes. I wrote down every time she blinked, every time she moved her hand with each word to mimic the emotion. It was a real exercise. I felt really connected to her, because I feel like I’ve seen her grieve. It was very meta.”
The first three episodes of Girl From Plainville are currently streaming on Hulu, with subsequent episodes premiering Tuesdays.
