Matthew Morrison says discussing Lea Michele’s alleged behaviour on the ‘Glee’ set is a "distraction of the bigger issues".
The 33-year-old actor – who played Mr Schuester on ‘Glee’ alongside Lea as Rachel Berry – refused to comment on multiple allegations of bullying from former co-stars, including Samantha Ware claiming that Lea threatened to have her fired.
Speaking on FUBAR Radio’s ‘Access All Areas’, he said: "I honestly think it’s a distraction of the bigger issues that are going on right now. It’s kind of like, ah.
"You want to be a good, pleasant person to be around. That’s about all I’m going to say on that."
Samantha – who starred as Jane Hayward in the musical comedy-drama series – recently took to Twitter to respond to a tweet Lea had written expressing her support for George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.
She replied: "LMAO REMEMBER WHEN YOU MADE MY FIRST TELEVISON GIG A LIVING HELL?!?! CAUSE ILL NEVER FORGET. I BELIEVE YOU TOLD EVERYONE THAT IF TOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY YOU WOULD "’S**T IN MY WIG!’ AMONGST OTHER TRAUMATIC MICROAGRESSIONS THAT MADE ME QUESTION A CAREER IN HOLLYWOOD… (sic)."
Alex Newell, Amber Riley and Dabier Snell – who all co-starred in ‘Glee’ – reacted to the tweet in support of Samantha.
Alex and Amber shared gifs, with Alex posting the "Get her, Jade" meme from RuPaul’s ‘Drag Race’, while Dabier wrote: "GIRL YOU WOULDNT LET ME SIT AT THE TABLE WITH THE OTHER CAST MEMBERS CAUSE ‘I DIDNT BELONG THERE’ F**K YOU LEA (sic)."
‘Community’ actress Yvette Nicole Brown showed her support for Samantha by writing: "I felt every one of those capital letters."
And Alex replied: "Felt like claps!!"
Following the tweets, Lea said issued an apology and said that while she doesn’t specifically remember making hurtful remarks towards her, it is "not really the point".
She said in a statement: "What matters is that I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people.
"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."