'Glee' Star Matthew Morrison Breaks Silence Over Lea Michele Accusations by Past Co-Stars
Actor Matthew Morrison has addressed the complaints about Lea Michele, but not how you'd think. [...]
Actor Matthew Morrison has addressed the complaints about Lea Michele, but not how you'd think. The former Glee star, who played teacher Will Schuester, didn't so much as speak about the accusations against Michele, but called it a distracting topic in a world ravaged by a global pandemic and civil rights protests.
"I honestly think it's a distraction of, you know, the bigger issues that are going on right now," Morrison told E! Online. "I'm just kind of like, eh." He also made it clear that he didn't "want to comment too much on it." He then added that "going back to what I was saying, you know, you want to be a good, pleasant person to be around."
The incident with Michele began after she tweeted about George Floyd, the 46-year-old Black man who was killed by police during his arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25. "George Floyd did not deserve this," she tweeted at the time. "This was not an isolated incident and it must end." However, this caught the attention of Glee alum Samantha Marie Ware, who candidly responded to Michele's tweet.
"LMAO remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?!?! Cause I'll never forget," Ware replied. "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." Ware's tweet caught the eye of some of Michele's other co-stars, who each weighed in with their unique experiences of working with her.
By June 4, Michele had lost her endorsement deal with HelloFresh but had issued an apology on social media. "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. "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 own behavior towards fellow cast members was perceived by them." Michele went on to claim that she didn't recall the incident specifically, however, she wrote that "I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused."