“Glee” star Samantha Ware has alleged her co-star Lea Michele once threatened to have her sacked from the comedy-drama show.
The 28-year-old actress recently claimed Lea made her life a “living hell” on the Fox show, and she has now alleged the 33-year-old star once warned she would call series creator Ryan Murphy in to sack her after she reprimanded her on set.
Samantha recalls “goofing around when the camera wasn’t on [her]” during a large scene in an auditorium, which she says Lea “took as me being disrespectful to her”.
She said: “She waited until the scene was over and she stopped in the middle of the stage and did a ‘come here’ gesture, like how a mother does to their child.
“I said ‘no’, and that’s when she decided to threaten my job, and said she would call Ryan Murphy in to come and fire me.
“It’s scary. For the full week, I was thinking I’m probably going to get an email and I might not be able to do the last three episodes, or I might not be able to sing another song.
“When I tried to speak up for myself, she told me to shut my mouth. She said I don’t deserve to have that job.
“She talked about how she has reign. And here’s the thing: I completely understood that, and I was ready to be like, ‘This is your show. I’m not here to be disrespectful.’ But at that point, we were already past the respect and she was just abusing her power.”Speaking to Variety, she added: “As soon as she decided that she didn’t like me, it was very evident.
“It was after I did my first performance, that’s when it started – the silent treatment, the stare-downs, the looks, the comments under her breath, the weird passive aggressiveness. It all built up.
“I remember the first day I actually spoke up and unfortunately no one did anything. They just shrugged it off, like ‘That’s her.’ No one was stopping these things, which is an issue because the environment was helping perpetuate this abuse.”
Samantha’s comments come after she took to Twitter to respond to a tweet Lea had written expressing her support for George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.
She replied: “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 “‘S** T IN MY WIG!’ AMONGST OTHER TRAUMATIC MICROAGRESSIONS THAT MADE ME QUESTION A CAREER IN HOLLYWOOD… (sic).”
Following the tweet, Lea – who starred as Rachel Berry on the hit show – has apologised to Samantha, admitting that while she doesn’t specifically remember making hurtful remarks towards her, it is “not really the point”.
She said in a statement: “What matters is that I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people.
“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.”