We all have that one coworker.
Even though Glee has been off the air for seven years at this point, its former stars cannot escape its gravitational pull, doomed forever to orbit around the black hole that the massively popular musical TV show has become. It doesn’t help, of course, that the show’s controversial star Lea Michele is currently playing Fanny Brice in Broadway’s first-ever revival of Funny Girl. This was a feat that bent the laws of space-time itself to merge the Glee universe with our own: in the show, Michele’s character, Rachel Berry, was ultimately cast in Funny Girl after spending basically her whole high school career auditioning for the part.
Now, former Glee star Chris Colfer, who is a massively successful children’s author and is definitely tired of all this, has been sucked back into the Murphyverse vortex. In a recent appearance on the Michelle Collins Show on Sirius XM, Colfer demonstrated that he would very much like to be excluded from this narrative.
The host, referring to Colfer as “Chrissy,” told the former actor to guess what she was doing tonight, and implored him to come.
“Oh, no, are you seeing Funny Girl?” Colfer asked. When Collins confirmed that she would indeed be seeing the musical, Colfer responded, “Oh… my day suddenly just got so full.”
After bursting into laughter, Collins explained that she had seen Beanie Feldstein’s turn as Fanny Brice, so it was only right that she go see Michele’s take on the iconic character, as though that’s not something you can already do by watching all six seasons of Glee on Disney+.
Clearly trying to dodge a bullet, Colfer told Collins that he had seen the Broadway musical Six last night, which was “amazing.” Not letting him slip away, Collins directly asked, “So you’re not seeing it, is my guess, while you’re in town.”
“No, I can be triggered at home,” Colfer responded nonchalantly.
Collins, laughing, responded, “Go get triggered in your Queen Elizabeth” — I’m not sure if she said “toilet” or “toyland” but either way, Collins’ comment alerted me to the existence of Colfer’s Queen Elizabeth II shrine. “That’s the perfect place to be triggered,” Collins added. “Have her soothe you.”
Colfer has been relatively low-key about his own relationship with Michele as compared to the other Glee alumni, who have been speaking out about her alleged behavior for years. In 2020, former Glee star Samantha Ware said that Michele had behaved poorly on set, tweeting, “Remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?!?! Cause I’ll never forget.” She also alleged that Michele had even told her that, if she had the opportunity, she would “shit in her wig, amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood.”
Co-star Dabier Snell additionally tweeted an allegation that Michele literally would not allow him a seat at the table with the other cast members because he “didn’t belong there.” Although Amber Riley did not specify whether she felt Michele had ever personally been racist toward her, she voiced her support for those who had spoken up in a 2020 interview.
When the news of Michele’s casting in Funny Girl broke in July, Ware tweeted, “Yes, im affected. Yes, I’m human. Yes, I’m Black. Yes, I was abused. Yes, my dreams were tainted. Yes, Broadway upholds whiteness. Yes, Hollywood does the same.”
On top of Michele’s anti-Black behavior, other former coworkers have spoken out about how generally unpleasant she was to work with, including Heather Morris and, famously, Naya Rivera. Although Colfer was sparse on the details, this is just another anecdote to add to the absolutely gargantuan heap of evidence that Lea Michele might not have been everyone’s favorite costar.
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