Lea Michele’s Former Onscreen ‘Glee’ Boyfriend Defends Her: She Was ‘Awesome’ & ‘Friendly’
Lea Michele’s workplace behavior on ‘Glee’ got a positive thumbs up from her on-screen boyfriend. Despite a number of co-stars claiming she was ‘difficult,’ Dean Geyer says she was ‘openly friendly.’
This should be good news for Lea Michele. After several former Glee co-stars called her out for being a diva and “unpleasant” to work with, actor Dean Geyer says he had a great experience starring alongside Lea. He played her character Rachel Berry’s boyfriend Brody Weston during season four of the Fox musical show. Dean tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY that despite what others have said about their negative working relationships with Lea, 33, his was “really positive.”
“I am not negating or questioning the validity of the experiences people have had and spoken out about. I can only share my opinions from my personal time on set with pure transparency. I am truly saddened to hear that there are people out there who were uncomfortable and negatively affected by the things they heard,” Dean explains to us.
“The reason I liked being on [Glee] is because of the inclusivity and diversity among the cast members and their characters that Ryan Murphy brilliantly created. Personally, my interactions with Lea [Michele] were really positive. She was awesome to be around and was openly friendly to everybody I witnessed,” the 34-year-old Australian continues.
“I never saw another actor, crew member or anyone else on set complain about her. If there were comments or actions made by Lea that left others feeling hurt or offended, no one said anything to my knowledge,” Dean reveals. Two of Lea’s longtime former Glee co-stars have recently spoken out about her behavior, including Heather Morris and Amber Riley. Season six actress Samantha Marie Ware was the first to call Lea out for making her life a “living hell” on the show.
After Lea tweeted “George Floyd did not deserve this. This was not an isolated incident and it must end #BlackLivesMatter,” on May 29, Samantha — who is black — retweeted it on June 1 and wrote in all caps, “Remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?!?! Cause I’ll never forget. I believe you told everyone that if you had the opportunity you would ‘sh*t in my wig!’ amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood.”
Amber, 34, quickly replied with a GIF of her sipping tea about Samantha’s statement, as Dabier Snell, an actor who appeared on the show in 2014 tweeted about Lea, “Girl you wouldn’t let me sit at the table with the other cast members cause ‘I didn’t belong there.’ F**k you Lea.” Amber later said on the Real Quick with Danielle Young podcast that, “I’m not going to say that Lea Michele is racist. That’s not what I’m saying…But at the same time, in my inbox there are a lot of Black actors and actresses telling me their stories and letting me know they have dealt with the same things on set, being terrorized by the white girls that are the leads of the show.”
Heather, 33, tweeted both a condemnation and defense of Lea on June 3. “Let me be very clear, hate is a disease in America that we are trying to cure, so I would never wish for hate to be spread to anyone else,” she wrote. “With that said, was she unpleasant to work with? Very much so; for Lea to treat others with the disrespect that she did for as long as she did, I believe she should be called out.”
“And yes, it’s also on us because to allow it to go on for so long without speaking out is something else we’re learning along with the rest of society. But, at the current moment its implied that she is a racist and although I cannot comment on her beliefs, I think we’re assuming, and you know what happened when we all assume,” Heather added. That same day, Lea issued an apology for how she was “perceived,” which did not go over well with Samantha.