There isn’t a rule book on how to handle grief, and that’s likely amplified when you’re the star of a high-profile series who not only lost a co-star and friend, but a significant other. Lea Michele, who portrayed Rachel Berry on the hit Fox series Glee for six seasons, was in a loving and committed relationship with her co-star Cory Monteith, who portrayed Finn Hudson on the show. Monteith, who had struggled with drug abuse in the past, was said to be clean and sober during his time on the show, but he sadly relapsed at the end of Season 4 and tragically died from an accidental overdose of heroin and alcohol in 2013. The series had to find a way to soldier on without him, and Michele admits that his death fractured the relationships between her and the rest of the cast.
During an appearance on Therapuss with Jake Shane, Michele revealed that dealing with her grief in such a public way wasn’t something that she was prepared for. The actress said, “I was 26 and no handed me a guidebook. It was a fast education on more stuff than I could ever even process.” Michele was in a relationship for more than a year when Montieth passed away, and everyone had to get back to work a mere month following his death. She continued by saying, “If we didn’t show up for work then people wouldn’t have work to go to, and that was a lot of pressure for me, so I had to put my stuff aside and just show up, so that everybody could continue to work.” When asked if this made the bonds stronger with the cast, she admitted that it wasn’t the case.
“No. I think it really fractured so much. I mean, I can’t speak for everyone. I think that maybe, in some ways, it did for certain people. But I think that for me, it was so hard to. I just completely broke.”
‘Glee’ Cast Worked Together To Pay Tribute to Cory Monteith
Glee Episode 3 of Season 5, “The Quarterback,” was a tribute not only to Finn on the show but to Cory Monteith as well. The episode focused on the impact that Finn’s death had on the various characters on the show, with Lea Michele’s Rachel Berry appearing towards the end of the episode to perform “Make You Feel My Love” as a tribute to her boyfriend. Emotions were very raw during the episode, with many of the cast’s reactions being very real and clearly on display for their friend and co-star. The episode was well-received by critics and pulled in 7.40 million viewers with a strong 2.9 rating in the 18-49 demo, making it the highest-rated episode of Season 5 and the highest-rated showing for the series since the second episode of Season 4.
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Much has been made about Michele’s relationships with her fellow cast members as stories emerged following the conclusion of the show that she exhibited diva behavior that led to feuds with the late Naya Rivera, who portrayed Santana Lopez on the show, and Samantha Ware, who accused her of several “microaggressions” that made her life a “living hell.” Michele recently reunited with her co-stars Darren Criss and Dianna Agron, whom she says she’s still close to, and she admits that during the time of Monteith’s passing, the crew was very supportive of her.
“I’m very grateful for everyone there, whether or not they know it. I personally felt a lot of support from everybody in the building, helping me to get through. Especially from the crew. The people that would be behind the camera every day. I would be looking at the camera but looking at the person behind it…I was looking at those people like they were holding me up, as well as the people who were on the show.”
Source: Therapuss
