Heather Morris says she got backlash last summer for calling out Lea Michele’s alleged bad behavior on the set of “Glee.”
Morris appeared on the most recent episode of the “Everything Iconic with Danny Pellegrino” podcast to promote a scripted, true-crime podcast she both appears in and produces titled, “The Bystanders.” In June 2020, “Glee” co-star Samantha Marie Ware accused Michele of creating a bad work environment on the set of the hit show, which led Michele to issue an apology on her verified Instagram account. At the time, there were several stories swirling on the internet alleging Michele had been less than a great coworker on the musical series, which ran from 2009 to 2015.
Morris said she caught flack for being “cryptic” last year after Morris tweeted, “was she unpleasant to work with? Very much so” about Michele. “And I’m like ‘Guys, she’s pregnant, and all this stuff is going around,'” Morris told Pellegrino. “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, which people were saying.” Michele was expecting her first child with husband, Zandy Reich, at the time. Morris said the stories about Michele were true, but “the only person who was honest about it was Naya (Rivera),” adding, “it was something that was very hush-hush on set” and that Morris didn’t feel it was her place to say anything at the time.
“We absolutely could have stepped up and gone to the Fox execs and said how we felt about the situation, and nobody really did,” Morris said. “And so now we are living in a culture where it’s acceptable to go do things like that, whereas I think many people were very scared.” Rivera died from drowning in July 2020 after going missing during a boat ride with her then 4-year-old son. She was 33.
