Despite being off the air for five years after its six-season run, the smash hit series and pop culture-defining Glee series is still making headlines. This time, however, the show isn’t making news for its boundary-pushing work. Instead, it’s because former cast members on the show are calling out the series’ star, Lea Michele, for abusive behavior on the set.
Lea Michele, the actress who played Rachel Berry on the show, has been called out by many of the show’s former cast.
The drama began when Lea Michele tweeted out her support for the Black Lives Matter initiative. Former cast member Samantha Ware, who played Jane Hayward in the final season of the show, took the opportunity to call attention to Lea’s mistreatment of her during the show’s filming.
Fellow cast members took to social media to confirm Samantha’s story.
Alex Newell, who played Unique on the show, replied to Samantha’s tweet, adding that “Child we ain’t got not a damn thing to lie about 6 years later!” when a fan questioned whether the story was true.
Alex also expressed that he was sticking up for his friends regardless of his personal experience.
When someone asked why Alex would not take a stand during the filming of season 6, he replied, “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!”
Jeanté Godlock, who now stars in *Daybreak*, tweeted that Lea used to refer to background actors as “cockroaches.”
Glee cast member Dabier Snell also tweeted, “Girl, you wouldn’t let me sit at the table with the other cast members cause ‘I didn’t belong there’, [expletive] you Lea,” in reply to Lea’s original tweet.
Others also backed up the claims made by cast members.
“Been telling people this for years. I worked with her once. She literally would only speak to me through her assistant. Just not addressing my presence. She was two feet away,” another fan tweeted .
Amber Riley, who played Mercedes on the show, also appeared to comment on the drama as it unfolded.
While she didn’t directly address the drama itself, Amber shared a few gifs of herself drinking tea and looking amused.
Lea has not publicly commented on the accusations at the time this article was written.
Linux, an entertainer who used to be an extra on *Glee* also confirmed these reports.
Linux alleged that Lea once had an extra fired, but decided to reverse the decision when it was revealed that the extra was related to Barbra Streisand, whom Lea wanted to be put in contact with.
Linux shared that the crew was “so happy” to film a scene in the final season where Lea’s character was egged.
Linux expressed that “the entire crew” got to “finally” watch Lea get hit by eggs for seven hours of filming.
“Thank a screenwriter…. sometimes we make “things” happen to a character if we don’t like the actors playing them,” one fan suggested .
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These claims have since cost Lea a sponsorship with the company HelloFresh.
“HelloFresh does not condone racism nor discrimination of any kind. We are disheartened and disappointed to learn of the recent claims concerning Lea Michele. We take this very seriously and have ended our partnership with Lea Michele, effective immediately,” the company tweeted .
All of this is also in line with what Naya Rivera, who played Santana, wrote about Lea in her memoir, *Sorry Not Sorry*.
In her memoir, Naya wrote that, “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 6.”
What do you think about these claims? Let us know your opinion in the comments!
