Everything the ‘Glee’ Cast Has Said About Working With Lea Michele Over the Years

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Everything the ‘Glee’ Cast Has Said About Working With Lea Michele Over the Years

Getting real. Lea Michele’s behavior on the Glee set has been both praised and slammed by her costars over the years. The actress starred as Rachel Berry on the fan-favorite FOX drama for six seasons from 2009 to 2015. While her character was famously the New Directions glee club’s resident diva, it appeared that her onscreen personality allegedly reared its ugly head when the cameras stopped rolling. The Scream Queens alum assured fans during a 2012 interview with Marie Claire that rumors she was a diva “aren't real.” But that hasn’t stopped some of her past colleagues from speaking out about her alleged behavior. Michele faced backlash for how she acted on Glee in June 2020 after Samantha Marie Ware — who played Jane Hayward during the show’s sixth season — accused the “Cannonball” singer of making her time on the series “a living hell.” “I BELIEVE YOU TOLD EVERYONE THAT IF TOU [sic] HAD THE OPPORTUNITY YOU WOULD ‘S–T IN MY WIG!’ AMONGST OTHER TRAUMATIC MICROAGGRESSIONS THAT MADE ME QUESTION A CAREER IN HOLLYWOOD,” Ware claimed in a Twitter post at the time. [jwplayer epo9jqzP] Michele, for her part, responded after other Glee alums weighed in on the drama. “Whether it was my privileged position and perspective that caused me to be perceived as insensitive or inappropriate at times or whether it was just my immaturity and me just being unnecessarily difficult, I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused,” she shared via Instagram. “We all can grow and change, and I have definitely used these past several months to reflect on my own shortcomings.  … I listened to these criticisms, and I am learning and while I am very sorry, I will be better in the future from this experience.” While Amber Riley and Heather Morris, among others, responded to accusations of Michele’s negative on-set behavior, others have gushed about their time working alongside the former Broadway star. Darren Criss, for one, accompanied Michele on the road for a joint tour in 2018. “Lea and I have had a lot of fun the past few years,” Criss said during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in April 2018. “We’ve always played music together and every time we do, we’re like, ‘We should do this more and take this to more cities.’” Scroll through the gallery below to see everything the Glee cast has said about working with Michele over the years:

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Heather Morris

While appearing on the “Everything Iconic With Danny Pellegrino” podcast in May 2021, she alleged that Michele’s on-set behavior was “hush-hush” among the cast.

“Now you see all these things coming out with these bigger names who were very disrespectful and mistreated a lot of people,” the actress explained. “We absolutely could have stepped up and gone to the FOX execs and said how we felt about the situation, but no one did. … I think many people were very scared, and I know, genuinely, I felt like it wasn’t my place, and I don’t know why because I was a cast member.”

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Naya Rivera

“I think Rachel — erm, I mean Lea — didn’t like sharing the spotlight,” the late star claimed in her 2016 memoir, Sorry Not Sorry.

“On top of that, she had a hard time separating work from our outside friendship.” Rivera also alleged, “It seemed like she blamed me for anything and everything that went wrong. If I’d complained about anyone or anything, she assumed I was bitching 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 six.”

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Jonathan Groff

“I have a connection with Lea that I don’t have with anyone else in my life and don’t think I ever will,” he said during an interview with Teen Vogue in 2014. “I think we have a very specific relationship.”

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Iqbal Theba

"Lot of people r assuming that @LeaMichele mistreated me. Let me state it clearly that I was never mistreated by her. And if some of the cast were treated badly then she has apologized for it which is wonderful. But being called a racist is too heavy & unfair a burden 4 most of us, especially in these troubled times," the actor, who played Principal Figgins on the show, shared via Instagram in June 2020. "So, please be compassionate, careful & responsible before we accuse anyone of this horrible thing called racism. I love each & every one of my fellow cast members from our great show. Be safe & be well. Much love."

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Matthew Morrison

He addressed the controversy surrounding her alleged behavior in a June 2020 radio interview, saying, “I honestly think it’s a distraction of the bigger issues that are going on right now. It’s kind of like, ‘Ah.’ You want to be a good, pleasant person to be around. That’s about all I’m going to say on that.”

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Dean Geyer

“Lea is still one of my favorite costars that I have had the pleasure of working with. She is extremely hard working and super fun to be around,” the former Glee star told the Daily Mail in June 2020. “Her work ethic is so strong it forces you to always be on top of your game, and that's something I looked forward to every day on set. I definitely learned a lot."

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Dabier Snell

Responding to Ware’s June 2020 Twitter posts, he claimed Michele “WOULDNT LET ME SIT AT THE TABLE WITH THE OTHER CAST MEMBERS CAUSE 'I DIDNT BELONG THERE' F--K YOU LEA.”

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Amber Riley

The actress, who starred as Mercedes Jones, made it clear in June 2020 that she doesn’t “give a s—t” about the ongoing conversation surrounding Michele’s behavior.

“I'm not going to say she's racist. ... I wish Lea Michele well, I hope that she has an amazing pregnancy. I hope that she is grown and that she understands,” she said in an Instagram Live. “The apology she put out, I didn’t read it because I told y’all, I don’t give a s–t about it. She reached out to me, I responded to her. That’s where it ends for me. I ain’t talked to that girl in two years. I have no hatred or ill-will on that end."

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Alex Newell

The actor spoke about Michele on Twitter in June 2020 after a fan asked why he took a picture with her after she attended his Broadway show Once on This Island in 2018.

“She was there I was being polite!! Like I was with anyone that came to see my show!” he wrote. “Also I know youre not talking about the season I wasn’t in … until I had to ask to come back so I could pay my bills … since I was released mid season five … while being a series regular!”