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In response, actress Samantha Ware, who had co-starred opposite Michele in the final season of “Glee,” accused the actress of racism and bullying.
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“Remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?!?! ‘Cause I’ll never forget. I believe you told everyone that if you had the opportunity you would ‘s–t in my wig!’ amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood,” Ware tweeted all caps in response to Michele’s earnest BLM statement.
Former co-stars of Michele piled on, including former “Glee” castmate Heather Morris, who played Brittany Pierce.
“With that said, was she unpleasant to work with? Very much so; for Lea to treat others with the disrespect that she did for as long as she did, I believe she SHOULD be called out,” the dancer tweeted.
Shortly after, Amber Riley, who played Mercedes Jones on the Fox sitcom, joined in the discourse. However, she was a little more diplomatic.
“I’m not going to say that Lea Michele is racist. That’s not what I’m saying,” she said on an Instagram Live chat. “But at the same time, in my inbox there are a lot of Black actors and actresses telling me their stories, and were letting me know they have dealt with the same things being on set, being terrorized by the white girls that are the leads of the show.”
Soon after losing a partnership deal with HelloFresh, Michele issued a contrite statement, profusely apologizing for “any pain” she may have caused and emphasizing that she’s “never judged others by their background or color of their skin.”
In December 2022, Fumudoh questioned Riley about the comment on her Showtime chat show.
“You said that one of your famous coworkers wasn’t racist, did you mean that she was?” Fumudoh asked to which Riley nervously laughed and replied, “I don’t know which coworker you’re talking about, I’ve had so many.”
Eventually, Riley said of Michele, “I think that she would probably say she doesn’t see race. But as we discussed earlier, everyone does.”
Later, Michele — who recently finished a critically acclaimed run starring in “Funny Girl” — blamed her past problematic behavior on a ferocious work ethic.
“I have an edge to me. I work really hard. I leave no room for mistakes,” she told the New York Times. “That level of perfectionism, or that pressure of perfectionism, left me with a lot of blind spots.”
