‘Glee’ Star Heather Morris Was ‘Scared’ to Speak up About Lea Michele’s Bullying

Heather Morris is opening up about her negative experience with Lea Michele on the set of Glee, revealing she and her co-stars were “scared” to report the actress’ “bullying” to executives in a new interview on Danny Pellegrino’s Everything Iconic podcast Wednesday. Morris, who played Brittany on the hit show shared that while everyone “absolutely” could have told FOX higher-ups how the situation had taken a turn for the worse, “nobody really did.”

“I think many people were very scared,” she explained. “I know, genuinely, I didn’t feel like it was my place. And I don’t know why, because I was a cast member just like everybody else, and we all deserve to feel comfortable on a set.” Morris eventually would call Michele “unpleasant to work with” back in 2020 after the Scream Queens star was accused by co-star Samatha Ware of making her life “living hell,” but told Pellegrino she didn’t feel comfortable being more direct at the time.

“I’m like, ‘Guys, she’s pregnant, and all this stuff is going around, and… it’s true’ — and I don’t know if maybe we were victims of bullying and that’s a typical victim thing to do is to blame yourself,” she said. “But it also is very true, and the only person who was honest about it was [late co-star Naya Rivera]. And it was something that was very hush-hush on set.”

The professional dancer added that being close with Michele during the course of filming Glee added more hesitation for her, especially after the death of co-star Cory Monteith, whom Michele dated. “And so there’s a human element to it to understanding who this person is, growing with that person, seeing her try to become better,” Morris shared. “And, you know, taking care of herself after Cory passed. You know, it was just the elephant in the room.”

After Ware’s accusations that she threatened to “s—t” in her wig “amongst other traumatic microaggressions,” Michele apologized over her “perceived” behavior in a statement. “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 which hurt other people,” she wrote. “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 being unnecessarily difficult, I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused.”