Lea Michele has issued an apology after being accused of bullying one of her former co-stars, Samantha Ware, on the set of Glee. After Lea tweeted her support for the current protests in the US earlier this week, writing: "George Floyd did not deserve this. This was not an isolated incident and it must end. #BlackLivesMatter," Samantha replied: "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 should '[expletive] in my wig!' amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood." Fellow castmates Amber Riley, Alex Newell and Dabier all showed their support for Samantha on Twitter.
Samantha spoke out about her experience on Glee
Lea responded to the message on Wednesday in a statement to People which read: "One of the most important lessons of the last few weeks is that we need to take the time to listen and learn about other people's perspectives and any role we have played or anything we can do to help address the injustices that they face. When I tweeted the other day, it was meant to be a show of support for our friends and neighbours and communities of colour during this really difficult time but the responses I received to what I posted have made me also focus specifically on how my own behaviour towards fellow cast members was perceived by them."
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Lea on set with her co-star Naya
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She continued: "While I don’t remember ever making this specific statement and I have never judged others by their background or colour of their skin, that’s not really the point. What matters is that I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people. Whether it was my privileged position and perspective that caused me to be perceived as insensitive or inappropriate at times or whether it was just my immaturity and me just being unnecessarily difficult, I apologise for my behaviour and for any pain which I have caused. We all can grow and change and I have definitely used these past several months to reflect on my own shortcomings."
