‘Glee’ Stars Reveal Their ‘Bratty’ Behavior Forced Ryan Murphy to Flee Set
Glee alums Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz have revealed how the cast’s “bratty” behavior resulted in show co-creator Ryan Murphy refusing to come to set after the third season.
Before he was known as the prolific producer-writer-director behind American Horror Story, Pose, American Crime Story, 9-1-1, Dahmer, and more, Murphy found one of his first major successes with Glee, the musical comedy-drama he co-created with Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan that aired for six seasons on Fox between 2009 and 2015.
However, the show was often the center of controversy and behind-the-scenes drama between its cast and crew. Things are said to have gotten so bad that Murphy walked out after a particularly tense shoot during the making of Season 3 – and didn’t return.
McHale and Ushkowitz detailed what happened on a recent episode of their Glee-based podcast series, And That’s What You REALLY Missed. The pair, who played Artie Abrams and Tina Cohen-Chang, respectively, starred in Season 3 alongside Jane Lynch, Jayma Mays, Dianna Agron, Chris Colfer, Darren Criss, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Heather Morris, Amber Riley, Naya Rivera, Mark Salling, and Harry Shum, Jr.
“We were shooting Black or White, it was taking a really long time, and a lot of us… none of us were acting the most professionally. For whatever reason, we were all tired and sort of had it,” McHale said when describing the shoot for Season 3’s eleventh episode, “Michael,” which saw the Glee Club performing Michael Jackson hits.
“It was a really hard shoot,” Ushkowitz added.
McHale continued, “It sounds so ungrateful and bratty, and I’m fully aware of that because some of it was. I think a lot of it was. You get used to your little bubble, and everything’s taken care of for us. So we’re shooting this episode, the cameras haven’t moved, we were shooting for eight hours, and we were all a little confused as to, like, this number isn’t that complicated, why’s this taking so long?”
He explained how the cast wanted to speed things up, so “as a group,” they decided to do something they would never normally do, and that’s get in touch with co-creators Murphy and Falchuk.
Alex Newell, Darren Criss, Chord Overstreet, Kevin McHale, Jenna Ushkowitz, Samuel Larsen, Melissa Benoist in Glee/ Photo: Adam Rose / © Fox / Courtesy: Everett Collection
“Somebody texted Brad, somebody texted Ryan, saying similar things of like, ‘Somebody needs to get to set because we don’t know what’s going on, no one’s spoken to us, we’re doing the same thing over and over,'” McHale recalled.
Murphy and Falchuk turned up on set, and McHale said the cast had to explain what was happening. But after the pair went to speak to the camera department, they came back and “sort of just lay into us.”
McHale shared, “They’re like, ‘Your job is not to be concerned about what the cameras are doing. And we heard your dance was sloppy and we had to call Zach [Woodlee, the show’s choreographer] in, and that’s why it’s been taking so long.”
The former Glee stars admitted that maybe that is what happened but described it as a “full breakdown in communication” between the cast and crew.
“And that was the last time Ryan ever came to set until the very end of the show,” McHale stated. “He stopped coming to set. Something had broken on so many different levels. He was done with us, like, ‘You guys are just sh***y and bratty and how dare you complain.’ And to a certain extent, I think he’s right. So that’s what was going on under this entire episode.”
Adam Rose / © Fox / Courtesy: Everett Collection
Ushkowitz agreed with McHale that the cast didn’t help the situation but explained how there was a “sense of ownership over our house and how things are done,” so it was hard for them when things weren’t been done in the usual way.
“When it’s not been done like that and things aren’t moving, there was that kind of mindset,” she said. “But I agree, it’s not our job, but in the way things had been handled previously with other directors, this felt kind of normal. Not justifying it, but you know.”
This isn’t the first time McHale and Ushkowitz have touched on the Glee cast’s bratty behavior. In another podcast episode, they explained how the cast approached Murphy over a song (“Loser Like Me”) they didn’t want to perform on the show. Murphy denied their request, and it ended up being one of the show’s biggest hits.
“[Murphy] sort of talked us off a ledge and also was like, ‘Well, that’s not up to you.’ He didn’t say that in so many words,” McHale remembered.
The pair also recalled the cast getting in trouble for drinking on set during a Season 2 shoot.
“We got caught having a dance party at base camp — where our trailers are — after going to lunch and having a little bit of some substances. And by substances I mean sake,” Ushkowitz said. “Then the producers came down and they partook in our dance party, [then] went back and snitched on us, and we got in trouble. And they wrote an episode about it.”
Speaking about a potential Glee revival earlier this month, Falchuk told The Hollywood Reporter, “Things went to hell, and then everyone got along again. It was chaotic. I’d never want to go back there, and then I’ll think, ‘Gosh, I’d love to go back there.’ But the biggest learning from that show? Taking the ego out of everything and being an adult.”
