‘I Was Losing My Mind’: Kevin McHale Says Glee Costars Naya Rivera and Jenna Ushkowitz Confronted Him About Steroid Use

usmagazine.com:

The New Directions stuck together in real life too, with Glee alum Kevin McHale revealing Naya Rivera and Jenna Ushkowitz once held an intervention to address his use of steroids.The 35-year-old actor, who played Artie Abrams on the hit Fox series, revealed his costars confronted him about his drug use while having dinner with Cory Monteith in 2010.“I think we were filming two episodes [of Glee] at the same time [and] in the middle of it, flying to England to [perform on X-Factor],” he recalled on his and Ushkowitz’s “And That’s What You REALLY Missed” podcast on Monday, June 26. “And I was sick as a dog on all kinds of medicine including prednisone, which is a steroid, and it turned me into a monster.”While the prescription gave him the “courage” to “fight” for his solo in the show’s season 2 “Thriller/Heads Will Roll” mashup, Ushkowitz, 37, and Rivera noticed that the medicine was changing his behavior for the worse.“You were all like, ‘So, hey, so why are you taking these steroids?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, ‘cus I’m sick.

I’m supposed to take them,’” McHale noted. “[You’re] like, ‘But it’s not the antibiotic, right?’ And I’m like, ‘No.’ You’re like, ‘OK, I think you should stop taking them.’”Despite having a few steroids left to take, the Texas native took his castmates’ advice and laid off the prescription. “[Jenna said], ‘Yeah, you’re not sleeping.

You’re acting crazy. You need to stop taking them.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I think you’re right,’” McHale added. “I hadn’t slept in days.

I was losing my mind.”While he is still close with Ushkowitz — they launched their podcast in October 2022 — Rivera died at the age of 33 in July 2020 after saving her son, Josey, from drowning during a boating trip in Lake Piru,