Last week, former Glee actress Samantha Ware publicly called out her former co-star Lea Michele on Twitter. She accused the actress of making the gig “a living hell”, threatening to “shit in (her) wig” and additional microagressions. The story led to many others associated with Glee or with Michele via other projects to speak out and talk about the issues they had working with the actress. She quickly released an apology, and now, Ware has come forward with more detail surrounding what happened.
Apparently Michele, Ware and several other cast members and dancers were filming a large scene. The camera wasn’t on Ware for much of the filming, but Michele allegedly was bothered by a lack of focus. The director didn’t say anything, but after the scene, Michele supposedly tried to give her co-star a piece of her mind. Here’s a portion of Ware’s interview with Variety…
“She waited until the scene was over and she stopped in the middle of the stage and did a ‘come here’ gesture, like how a mother does to their child… (She said), ‘You need to come here right now.’… I said ‘no,’ and that’s when she decided to threaten my job, and said she would call Ryan Murphy in to come and fire me.”
Conflicts like this sometimes happen on movie sets, especially if there are a lot of takes that need to be shot, but it seems like from Ware’s account and what others associated with Glee have said, this wasn’t an isolated incident but more a pattern of unwelcoming and sometimes mean behavior. Heather Morris called her unpleasant. Naya Rivera said she had troubles sharing the spotlight. Amber Reilly and others spoke up to defend Michele against claims she is a racist, but almost all seemed to at least hint they had their own issues with her on the show. Here’s some more from Ware’s perspective…
“When I tried to speak up for myself, she told me to shut my mouth. She said I don’t deserve to have that job. She talked about how she has reign. And here’s the thing: I completely understood that, and I was ready to be like, ‘This is your show. I’m not here to be disrespectful.’ But at that point, we were already past the respect and she was just abusing her power.”
As for the now infamous shit in the wig comment, it apparently happened during a lunch break on set and happened in front of a lot of cast members and people who worked on the show. Ware says some chuckled and some gasped, but for her, none of this is about trying to get someone cancelled. She told the outlet she doesn’t believe in cancel culture and thinks people deserve second chances, but she felt the need to come forward and say something so things can start changing.
