Lea Michele Issues Apology To Glee Co-Stars For Her Past Behaviour

 

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A post shared by Lea Michele (@leamichele) on Feb 22, 2020 at 9:48am PST

Lea Michele was hit with backlash after she tweeted in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, following the death of George Floyd.

Explaining that George’s death wasn’t an isolated incident and that racial inequality must end, former Glee co-stars were less than impressed with Lea Michele’s approach to the matter, relaying how she made life for former co-stars a ‘living hell’ by using “traumatic microagressions” while on set for Glee.

Samantha Marie Ware who played Jane Hayward in 11 episodes of the hit TV show back in 2015, tweeted in response to Lea on Tuesday, relaying how she made her introduction to acting a horrific one.

LMAO REMEMBER WHEN YOU MADE MY FIRST TELEVISON GIG A LIVING HELL?!?! CAUSE ILL NEVER FORGET. I BELIEVE YOU TOLD EVERYONE THAT IF TOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY YOU WOULD “SHIT IN MY WIG!” AMONGST OTHER TRAUMATIC MICROAGRESSIONS THAT MADE ME QUESTION A CAREER IN HOLLYWOOD… https://t.co/RkcaMBmtDA

— SAMEYAAAAAA (@Sammie_Ware) June 2, 2020

Other former actors on the show then joined the conversation, with one explaining that the 33-year-old used to refer to the background actors as “cockroaches” on set, while another claimed she once lifted a colleague by their hair from “her seat” during takes.

And yesterday, after getting dropped from her sponsorship with food delivery company HelloFresh, who terminated the contract with “immediate effect”, Lea released a statement of apology.

Focusing on Samantha’s upset, Lea claims that she “doesn’t recall the specific statement” and continued by saying that she “never judged others by their background or color of their skin.”

 

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A post shared by Lea Michele (@leamichele) on Jun 3, 2020 at 4:03am PDT

However, many were unhappy with Lea’s apology, especially when the star apologised for being “perceived as insensitive or inappropriate at times” instead of just owning her actions.

Tweeting an indirect response yesterday evening, Samantha called on Lea and her followers to take further action and donate to a GoFundMe campaign for James Scurlock – a 22-year-old black man who was shot and killed in Omaha, Nebraska, while participating in a protest over the murder of George Floyd.

Using the word “perceived” which got everyone angry with Lea’s statement, Samantha wrote:

“Perceived? Purcieved? Purse? Open your purse??????????????”

Perceived? Purcieved? Purse?
Open your purse??????????????https://t.co/pQ71xtsyxD

— SAMEYAAAAAA (@Sammie_Ware) June 3, 2020

Glee star Heather Morris who played Brittany S. Pierce in the hit show also released a statement last night. Adding that Lea was “very unpleasant” to work with and “treated others with disrespect” for too long.

Heather also came under fire however, for her final sentiment, where she claimed that people were “assuming” Lea to be a racist instead of having facts.

pic.twitter.com/C9CZSZc6k5

— heather (@HeatherMorrisTV) June 3, 2020

Many were quick to respond to Heather, with one fan writing:

“A black woman said she was racist towards her. end of story.”

While another tweeted that we can’t discredit what’s going on because it makes us uncomfortable. It’s up to us to now listen and understand those who come forward.

i mean. no. heather, we as non-black people have no right to discredit a black woman being brave enough to come forward after all these years and accusing lea of racial microaggressions towards her simply because it makes us uncomfortable. doing that makes us part of the problem

— lauren (@lesbianflores) June 3, 2020

Lea Michele has not reacted to any individual messages since releasing her statement.

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• glee
• Lea Michele