Lea Michele: You cannot “ignore” the context of past behavior.

Lea Michele talks about how Funny Girl introduces the audience to who she is after a process of self-reflection.

Following allegations of toxic workplace behavior and racially insensitive bullying on the “Glee” set, Michele replaced Beanie Feldstein in the lead role of “Funny Girl” on Broadway in July 2022. Michele admitted she has “an edge” because of her need for perfect performances, but added more context in a recent interview with Jeremy O. Harris for Interview magazine.

“I think the last two years have been so important for everyone to just sit back and reflect. I did a lot of face-to-face contact,” Michele said. “But the most important thing was that everyone just took a step back. Most of all, I’m so grateful to have this opportunity to positively apply the things I’ve learned over the last 10+ years. Stepping into Funny Girl, I said to myself, “If I can’t take my role as a leader offstage as seriously as I do as a leader onstage, then I shouldn’t be doing this show.” Because I always have been a fight for me.”

Michele added: “So to have this opportunity now at the age of 36 as a wife and mother – to step into this job that comes with so much pressure and enormous responsibility – was a very, very big achievement for me.”

The Spring Awakening alum continued, “At the end of the day, what matters most is how you make people feel. And you have to put your feelings on hold. The behind-the-scenes conversations I’ve had with some people have been incredibly healing and very enlightening to me. I’ve been doing this for a very long time and I will never blame anything I’ve been through in my life. But one cannot ignore or deny these experiences either. They are part of the patchwork of my life. When I got the call that I was going to play Fanny Brice, I said, ‘Okay, this could be very important for my career, but it’s also helpful to have this opportunity to introduce people to who I am now.'”

Michele shared that she suffers from “a lot of anxiety,” but “I never want to use what I’m going through as an excuse for anything, but it’s part of my journey.”

She added: “I’m very hard on myself. The more these positive things happen, the more nervous I get. It’s nice to take little moments to say, ‘You fucking did that.’ It’s also nice to let the others go and just keep an eye on the price. Look, my alarm goes off at 6am, I drop my son off at school, I spend the day setting up my house and my life for him. I’m a mom all day and then I go to work at night and do my show. Those are the two things that are most important to me.”

Similarly, Michele told The New York Times in September 2022 that she is now addressing her emotional “blind spots” when it comes to being part of a cast.

“I really understand now how important and valuable it is to be a leader,” the actress said. “It means not only going in and doing a good job when the camera is on, but also when it’s not. And that wasn’t always the most important thing for me.”

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