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Samantha Ware reveals Glee co star Lea Michele threatened to have her fired; Details Lea’s alleged behaviour
Samantha Ware shared more details about her Glee co-star Lea Michelle’s alleged abusive behaviour. She claimed that Michele once threatened to have her fired from the show. Read on to know more.
Samantha Ware has claimed that her co-star Lea Michele threatened to have Glee creator Ryan Murphy fire her from the show. Ever since Ware exposed her Glee co-star Lea Michele’s alleged abusive and bullying behaviour, Michele has been the centre of attention. Backing Ware’s claims, in the last few days, many celebrities have opened up about how Michele mistreated the people around her, especially the ones working with her. In her latest interview with Variety, the actress further detailed her experiences with the Scream Queens star.
She mentioned that Michele once publicly embarrassed her during the filming of the show. “When you're shooting a scene, sometimes the camera is on you and sometimes it's not, but you still have to be in the scene. The camera wasn't on us, so it's not like we had to give a full-throttle performance, but apparently, I was goofing around when the camera wasn't on me, and she took that as me being disrespectful to her," the 28-year-old actress said.
Speaking about the particular incident, the actress said that Lea reprimanded her. "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. You need to come here right now,” Michelle said. When Ware refused to go to her, she threatened her job. “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,” she recalled.
According to Variety, Ware joined the show in Season 6, and at that time Murphy was not involved with the show. But the thought of losing her job left the actress scared. "It's scary. For the full week, I was thinking I'm probably going to get an email and I might not be able to do the last three episodes, or I might not be able to sing another song," Ware told Variety. When she tried to defend herself, Michele told her to shut her mouth and that she did not deserve the job.
She also reminded Ware that it was her show. "She talked about how she was the lead actress of the show. 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," she said.
It all started earlier this month, Michele, who played the role of Rachel Berry on the show, took to social media on Friday to pay tribute to George Floyd. “George Floyd did not deserve this. This was not an isolated incident and it must end,” she wrote. Reacting to Michele’s post about Floyd, Ware wrote, “Remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?” She further mentioned that the way Michele treated her, made her question whether to continue pursuing a career in Hollywood.
“I'll never forget... I believe you told everyone that if you had the opportunity you would s*** in my wig! amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood,” she added. After the tweet went viral, Melissa Benoist, Amber Riley, Kevin McHale and other Glee stars came out in support of Ware’s accusations. Following this, Michele's friend and Scream Queens co-star Ariana Grande and Glee co-star Keke Palmer unfollowed the actress on Instagram.
After being accused of making Glee a "living hell" for Samantha Ware, Michele issued a heartfelt apology for her behaviour. “One of the most important lessons of the last few weeks is that we need to take the time to listen and learn about other people's perspectives and any role we have played or anything we can do to help address the injustices that they face,” she wrote on Instagram.
Referring to her tweet about Floyd, the actress wrote, “When I tweeted the other day, it was meant to be a show of support for our friends and neighbors and communities of color during this really difficult time, but the responses I received to what I posted have made me also focus specifically on how my behavior towards fellow cast members was perceived by them.” In the statement, she said she did on remember the incident Ware was talking about.
"While I don't remember ever making this specific statement and I have never judged others by their background or color of their skin, that's not really the point. What matters is that I clearly acted in ways that hurt other people," the statement continued. She mentioned that she is a changed human being now. “Whether it was my privileged position and perspective that caused me to be perceived as insensitive or inappropriate at times or whether it was just my immaturity and me just being unnecessarily difficult, I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused,” she wrote.
Reflecting on her apology, Ware said that stated that her apology proved that she has not learned anything. “All that her apology did was affirm that she hasn’t learned anything. Am I calling Lea a racist? No. Does Lea have racist tendencies? I think Lea suffers from a symptom of living in this world in an industry that is tailored to white people," she asserted.
