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He'd rather stay at home.
By Nia Tipton — Written on Oct 14, 2022
Fellow "Glee" alum Chris Colfer won't be seeing Lea Michele star in "Funny Girl" anytime soon.
Colfer, who starred alongside Michele on the show, playing her enemy-turned-friend Kurt Hummel, turned down an invitation to watch Michele in "Funny Girl" during a recent interview.
While Colfer was on Michelle Collins' show on Sirius XM, the actor politely declined after Collins asked if he'd go see "Funny Girl" with her.
Colfer's former cast member, Michele, stars as Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl" on Broadway.
"Oh my God, you should come, if you're here," Collins said.
"Oh no, are you seeing Funny Girl?" Colfer asked.
After Collins confirmed she was indeed going to see the Broadway show, an extended pause ensued before Colfer rejected the invitation.
"My day suddenly just got so full," he joked.
Colfer then attempted to change the subject, talking about a performance of the new musical "Six," a modern retelling of the six wives of King Henry VIII, which he called "amazing."
However, Collins doubled down, asking Colfer point blank, "So you're not seeing it, is my guess, while you're in town?"
"No, I can be triggered at home," Colfer replied, causing Collins to laugh.
While the Glee stars still follow each other on Instagram and appear to be cordial with one another, it seems the former "Glee" star doesn't have any plans to reconnect with Michele anytime soon.
4 reasons why 'Glee' star Chris Colfer won't see Lea Michele in "Funny Girl."
1. Lea Michele was accused of being a bully.
In 2020, former 'Glee' star Samantha Ware accused Michele of making her time on the show a "living hell."
"LMAO REMEMBER WHEN YOU MADE MY FIRST TELEVISION GIG A LIVING HELL?!?!" Ware tweeted in response to Michele's support of Black Lives Matter. "CAUSE ILL NEVER FORGET. I BELIEVE YOU TOLD EVERYONE THAT IF TOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY YOU WOULD 'S--- IN MY WIG!'"
Ware said the incident was among "OTHER TRAUMATIC MICROAGRESSIONS THAT MADE ME QUESTION A CAREER IN HOLLYWOOD..."
In a subsequent interview with Variety after the accusations, Ware said that Michele told her, "I don't deserve to have that job."
After Michele's casting in 'Funny Girl' was announced in July 2022, Ware voiced her disapproval of the actress being allowed to continue her career in Hollywood.
"Yes, Broadway upholds whiteness. Yes, Hollywood does the same," Ware said in a tweet, referencing Michele replacing Beanie Feldstein. "Yes, silence is complicity. Yes, I'm loud. Yes, I'd do it again."
2. Michele was called out for alienating certain cast members.
Following Ware's accusations, other 'Glee' stars came out with their own experiences with Michele.
Actor Dabier Snell, who starred in one episode of 'Glee' in 2014, also called out Michele for her rude behavior.
"GIRL YOU WOULDNT LET ME SIT AT THE TABLE WITH THE OTHER CAST MEMBERS CAUSE “I DIDNT BELONG THERE” F--- YOU LEA," he wrote on Twitter.
3. Michele's behavior on the set of 'Glee' was reportedly "hush-hush."
During an interview on the “Everything Iconic With Danny Pellegrino” podcast in May 2021, Heather Morris alleged that Michele’s on-set behavior was kept a secret among the other 'Glee' cast members.
“Now you see all these things coming out with these bigger names who were very disrespectful and mistreated a lot of people,” the actress explained.
“We absolutely could have stepped up and gone to the FOX execs and said how we felt about the situation, but no one did. … I think many people were very scared, and I know, genuinely, I felt like it wasn’t my place, and I don’t know why because I was a cast member.”
4. Michele didn't like "sharing the spotlight."
In Naya Rivera's 2016 memoir "Sorry Not Sorry," the actress wrote that Michele wasn't good with "sharing the spotlight" with her other cast members.
“On top of that, she had a hard time separating work from our outside friendship.” Rivera also alleged, according to E! News.
“It seemed like she blamed me for anything and everything that went wrong. If I’d complained about anyone or anything, she assumed I was bitching about her. Soon she started to ignore me, and eventually it got to the point where she didn’t say a word to me for all of season six.”
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.