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Former Glee star Lea Michele has revealed how she first learnt about the “frustrating” internet rumour claiming she is illiterate, stating that it was showrunner Ryan Murphy who first broke the news to her.
The 38-year-old is best known for playing Rachel Berry in the popular Fox series about a high school glee club competing on the Ohio show choir circuit. Glee came to an end in 2005 after six seasons.
Although Michele was nominated for an Emmy and two Golden Globe awards for her portrayal as the overeager theatre-obsessed high schooler, the actor also became the subject of a baseless rumour about her ability to read and write.
Speaking on a new episode of Jake Shane's Therapuss podcast, Michele said that Murphy contacted her after seeing that the meme was trending online.
“I'll never forget, like the same day that all came out Donald Trump said he was going to punch John McCain in the face or something like that,” she said. “What was trending online more was: Lea Michele can’t read. Ryan Murphy called me and he was like, ‘Have you heard this rumour?’ And I was like, ‘No, what’s going on?’”
Earlier in the podcast, she pointed to her experience on the debate team in school as proof of her literacy, defiantly stating: “For everyone who thinks that I can't f***ing read, I was on the debate team.”
Shane, an American influencer and comedian, then asked her: “You must think that rumour is hysterical or does it actually p*** you off?”
“It really depends on the day,” Michele explained. “Like sometimes I think it's crazy that people care enough about me that they would make up something that someone has so little to do in their life and their day that they would waste it on like me is hilarious to me.”
Other times, she added, “there are moments where I f***ing get so frustrated by it because I'm one of the only women in my whole family to get accepted to college”.
Michele continued: “You know, my mother and my mother's whole family was extremely poor, from the Bronx, not very well educated. And my parents moved me from the Bronx to New Jersey to get a good education and to thrive. And I did. And my parents and my family are so proud of that. So for someone to like, minimise that it's so sad and so frustrating.”
The rumour was started by podcast hosts Jaye Hunt and Robert Ackerman who theorised that the actor couldn’t read or write based on a detailed analysis of the 2016 memoir by Michele's Glee co-star Naya Rivera
Rivera, who died of accidental drowning in 2020, wrote in Sorry Not Sorry that Michele refused to improvise scenes when filming Glee. Overanalysis of that claim soon spun out of control and became an internet meme.
Michele has addressed the accusations several times previously. In 2018, she wrote a tweet, stating: “Loved READING this tweet and wanted to WRITE you back. Literally laughing out loud at all this love you!!!”
In 2022, Michele told the New York Times that the rumour was “sad” and that “I think often if I were a man, a lot of this wouldn’t be the case”.
English (US) ·