Lea Michele has opened up about the difficulties of filming Glee’s tribute episode to the late Cory Monteith.
The Canadian actor died on 13 July 2013 from an alcohol and heroin overdose at the age of 31.
Monteith and Michele starred together as on-again-off-again lovers Rachel Berry and Finn Hudson on the hit musical series. The two also began dating off-screen in 2012, up until his death.
On 20 July, Michele – who is currently on tour performing songs from Glee, her own albums, and her Broadway repertoire – recounted the emotional challenges she faced while filming the episode in honour of both Monteith and Finn.
The episode, titled “The Quarterback” – which aired on 10 October 2013 in the series’ fifth season – featured emotional personal ballads from each character dedicated to Finn.
“A lot of what I say in that episode to Matt’s character (Will Schuester), in that classroom, were exact words that I said to Ryan [Murphy] after everything,” she told the audience, tearfully.
“I said, ‘I don’t want to be treated with kid gloves, I want to just come back to work, and be with everyone because this is the only way I’m going to feel better.’
“I got to sing this song, and I remember filming it. It was really hard, really hard,” Michele remembered. “I would film it and then I would run off and then I would come back.”
“We healed together and this song helped. I have never watched the episode. It’s the only one I have not seen because I think if I don’t watch it, it just kind of feels like Finn is still there,” she explained before performing “Make You Feel My Love”.
The 35-year-old actor married Zandy Reich in 2019, and they welcomed their son, Ever Leo, in 2020.
However, Michele recently honoured Monteith in a subtle Instagram story on the ninth anniversary of his death.
