Lea Michele is getting very real about the major backlash directed her way over the past two years about her behavior on set.
The 36-year-old Glee alum candidly spoke about the stories about negative experiences with her that came out from her former co-stars on the hit show.
In a new interview with Jeremy O. Harris for Interview Magazine, Lea said this about cast and crew coming forward about their negative experiences with her on Glee:
“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. What I told myself stepping into Funny Girl was, ‘If I can’t take my role as a leader offstage as important as my role as a leader onstage, then I shouldn’t do this show.’ Because that was always a struggle for me.
So to have this opportunity now at 36 years old as a wife and a mother— to step into this job that comes with so much pressure and a huge amount of responsibility—was a very, very big achievement for me.”
She also shared a glimpse into what those behind-the-scenes conversations have been like, saying:
“At the end of the day, what matters the most is how you make people feel. And you have to put aside your feelings. The conversations that I’ve had behind the scenes with some people were incredibly healing and very eye-opening for me. 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. They are a part of the patchwork of my life. 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.’”
