Lea Michele accused of 'loudly burping in extra's face'

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief

Published: June 4 2020 | 21:10

Last updated: July 13 2020 | 22:42

An extra who worked on Glee's sixth season alleges that Lea Michele once burped loudly in her face between takes.

An actress who worked as an extra in Glee has alleged that under-fire star Lea Michele burped in her face on set.

The 33-year-old has been subject of multiple accusations of bad behaviour behind-the-scenes from former colleagues in recent days, prompted by Glee co-star Samantha Marie Ware saying that she had made her time on the show "a living hell".

In an episode of the show's sixth season, Imia Edwards, an African-American actress, played a dancer waiting to audition for a part in a scene where Michele's character Rachel walked past her while having a tantrum.

"Take after take she had to walk by me in a huff, but in between certain things would just happen," Edwards recalled in an interview with The Sun. "She walked by me and burped in my face, this loud burp, directly almost face-to-face, it wasn't even like, 'oh she wouldn't have known...' she knew she burped in my face!

"Two other people saw it and an operator said, 'Oh my God, I'm so sorry she did that.' I was just like, 'Yeah, whatever,' you're on set trying to be professional, you're not trying to make a huge deal about things.

"[After] the second or third take she walked by me and stepped on my foot really hard. You know when you bump into someone you can feel it, again nothing, no reaction, like I wasn't there."

Edwards went on to allege that Michele had a reputation among extras across the industry for bad behaviour on set.

"I've never really seen anyone treat extras like that, to that level of, 'Ugh, don't look at me, don't make eye contact, ugh cockroaches, there they are,'" she said. "Dude, we're still coworkers, we're still people, all trying to get this episode done as a group.

"I think I was even on a different show and someone was like, 'Oh, you know Lea's a bitch, right? She calls the extras cockroaches."

Michele has received some backing following the allegations, with Glee co-star Dean Geyer describing her as "friendly" and "super fun".