What’s up guys, it’s Sussan Mourad with Clevver News, and after the unanimous agreement
that Lea Michele made basically all of Hollywood’s onset experiences a living nightmare, she’s
now forced to pick up the pieces and face the damage she caused.
Fans of the hit musical comedy-drama Glee were surprised and saddened to find out that
what happened on the show’s set wasn’t exactly all that it led viewers to believe.
It all started last week when Samantha Ware put the show’s lead actress, Lea Michele,
on blast after she tweeted in support of Black Lives Matter and the murder of George Floyd.
Samantha responded to Lea’s tweet, writing, “LMAO REMEMBER WHEN YOU MADE MY FIRST TELEVISION
GIG A LIVING HELL?!?! CAUSE I'LL NEVER FORGET. I BELIEVE YOU TOLD EVERYONE THAT IF YOU HAD
THE OPPORTUNITY YOU WOULD “SHIT IN MY WIG!” AMONGST OTHER TRAUMATIC MICROAGGRESSIONS THAT
MADE ME QUESTION A CAREER IN HOLLYWOOD.”
Come to find out, anyone who’s worked with Lea on any TV show or movie set seemed to
have very similar opinions about Hollywood’s resident Regina George.
The backlash has become so intense and wide-spread, that since Lea’s first public apology, which
was also met with its share of criticism, Lea has reportedly been battling the damaging
headlines about her behavior, and has been spending the last few days trying to make
amends.
A friend of Lea’s revealed to The Post saying QUOTE, “She’s had a real wake-up call.
It’s never easy to hear people speak about you this way. It’s a total shock.”
Another industry source who has previously worked with Lea also stated that, “Lea was
a bitch to a lot of people who are now taking the opportunity to come forward. She may not
be the nicest person, but she’s not racist, sexist or transphobic. I would say she has
behavioral issues that she’s dealing with.”
Although these allegations aren’t exactly an easy pill to swallow, the source added
that Lea is “emotional” and that “there have been a lot of tears.”
They said, “It’s a lot of stress. Sets are volatile places, but there’s no excuses
for her behavior and she knows that. She is listening, she hears what everyone says and
wants to apologize. This is her past and she wants to handle things responsibly.”
Lea, who is currently seven months pregnant, is reportedly using her resting time while
at home with her husband Zandy Reich, to actually speak with her former co-stars and make amends.
Another source who worked with Lea explained that she is doing the necessary work to learn
about the negative things she allegedly said.
The source claimed that she’s using this controversy as an opportunity to reflect on
the many instances where she was actually “horrible” to work with.
It seems Lea has a LOT of apologizing to do, which is clearly the first step, however,
her reputation is very well-known among all of Hollywood.
From former Glee regulars, including Heather Morris and Amber Riley, to some not-so-regulars
and extras, everyone seemed to have their own negative experiences of working with her.
Extras would be ignored, and if they were sitting in the “wrong place” according
to Lea, she would have producers tell them they needed to leave.
Some people might’ve even picked up on the red flags when Glee co-star Naya Rivera, who
played Santana Lopez, released her memoir in 2016 called, Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes
and Growing Up.
She wrote about her experience working with Lea, saying QUOTE, “As Santana moved from
a background character to one with bigger plot lines and more screen time, Lea didn’t
like sharing the spotlight. It got to the point where she didn’t say a word to me
for all of season 6.”
In another surprising turn of events, Lea’s former Ragtime understudy, Elizabeth Aldrich,
revealed that she was just as “horrible” back in 1998 as she was in 2009.
Elizabeth spoke out further on Lea’s behavior in a tweet, adding, “She was absolutely
awful to me and the ensemble. She demeaned the crew and threatened to have people fired
if she was in anyway displeased. I used to cry every night from the mean and manipulative
things she would do. She was 12. She was terrifying.”
The accusations became so damaging that Lea was also dropped from her HelloFresh sponsorship
following the backlash.
However, there were a few of Lea’s co-stars who have come to her defense, including Glee
creator Ryan Murphy, who even married Lea and Zandy last year.
She is said to be a “favorite” of Ryan’s, and he opened up about what went down on set,
saying, “Glee was just a s***storm of difficulty, largely because, what do you do when you’re
18 years old or 19 years old and you wake up one day and you’re world famous?”
He added, “There were many boys on our show that didn’t get along. And you never hear
about that. You never hear about that in our culture.”
Iqbal Theba, who played Principal Figgins on Glee, also came forward via Twitter to
respond to questions about whether he’d been mistreated by Lea.
He said, “Lot of people r assuming that Lea 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. So, please be compassionate,
careful & responsible before we accuse anyone of this horrible thing called racism. I love
each & everyone of my fellow cast members from our great show. Be safe & be well. Much
love.”
Lea is now forced to do some major damage control after negatively affecting many of
her castmates, so we can only hope she’s able to take full responsibility for her past
actions and use this time to really reflect and mature.
For details on Lea’s previous apology, and what her co-stars are STILL saying about her,
you can click right over here for another Clevver video.
And be sure to let me know down in the comments. if you think Lea really is trying to make
amends, or if the damage is already done.
I’m Sussan Mourad, see you next time.