Lea Michele had 'healing and eye-opening' conversations after backlash from Glee co-stars

Lea Michele personally reached out to people and had "eye-opening" conversations after she was accused of bullying and diva-like behaviour on the set of Glee.

In June 2020, Samantha Ware accused Michele of acting in a rude manner and behaving with "traumatic microaggressions" on the set of Glee back in late 2014, leading others to share stories about the 36-year-old being unpleasant to work with.

During a chat with playwright Jeremy O. Harris for Interview magazine, Michele revealed she had to put her feelings "aside" and reflect on how she made others feel.

"I think these past two years have been so important for everybody to just sit back and reflect. I did a lot of personal reach-outs. But the most important thing was for everybody to just take a step back," she said. "At the end of the day, what matters the most is how you make people feel. And you have to put aside your feelings. The conversations that I've had behind the scenes with some people were incredibly healing and very eye-opening for me.

"I've been doing this for a really long time and I'm not going to ever blame anything on the things that I've been through in my life. But you also can't ignore those experiences or deny them. They are a part of the patchwork of my life."

Michele returned to the spotlight in September 2022 when she took over the starring role of Fanny Brice in the Broadway musical Funny Girl. When she was offered the job, the actress told herself she shouldn't do it "if I can't take my role as a leader offstage as important as my role as a leader onstage", something which was "always a struggle" for her.

She also saw it as an opportunity to "introduce people to who I am now" and show the public how she had evolved since the scandal.