‘Glee’ Alums Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz Say the Show ‘Died With’ Cory Monteith
usmagazine.comGetting honest about their loss. Glee alums Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz opened up about how the death of their costar Cory Monteith altered the show’s dynamic permanently.“I feel like when Cory died, the show died with him in many ways,” Ushkowitz, 36, who played Tina in all six seasons of the musical comedy series, exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, October 31. “It became a different show … it was really hard to do and it was never the same, for me at least.”McHale, 34, who portrayed Artie Abrams, agreed with his fellow Fox alum and said that he once received “flack” for saying so in another interview. “People on Twitter and all these things were saying that I was, like, talking crap about the show.
I’m like, ‘No, no, no. I just said the show was never the same after Cory died because obviously it was not,’” he explained.
In July 2013, Monteith died of a heroin and alcohol overdose at age 31 after struggling with substance abuse for much of his life.
He was dating his Glee costar Lea Michele at the time of his death.“He was the heart of our show. [Monteith’s character] Finn was the heart of the show and Cory was the heart of our group,” Ushkowitz told Us.McHale added that the cast didn’t talk openly about the grief they were all experiencing after the Canada native’s untimely death. “When you’re in the middle of it, I think everyone, it’s just, you’re barely hanging on [but] keeping it together, being professional and just, you know, keeping your head down,” he said.The Boy musician explained that it wasn’t until the Glee family experienced another loss — Naya Rivera’s death in July 2020 — that they began to communicate openly with each other.“It was weird timing.
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