‘Glee’ Star Kevin McHale: Cory Monteith Tribute Episode Is ‘Extremely Emotional’

Glee star Kevin McHale said that filming the series’ upcoming tribute episode to Cory Monteith has been “extremely emotional.”

The 25-year-old, who plays Artie on the show, said the shoot has been “hard to get through,” but that he was amazed by the episode’s script.

“There are so many incredibly well written and powerful scenes,” he said. “When [the cast] got the script, we were all reading it together and we were like, ‘Did you get to that one scene.’ And when you see it everyone will know what that one scene is.”

McHale also said that reactions to the death of Monteith’s character, Finn Hudson, are varied.

“[Some cast members] are having to play reactions that they obviously would not feel in real-life, and that’s a weird thing to play,” he said. “Because you want people to know how you actually feel. But [Ryan Murphy & Co. are staying true to] the characters, and that’s the smart thing to do.”

McHale said some of the characters are in denial over Finn’s death, but wouldn’t say who.

“Some people aren’t dealing with the loss of Finn, and it’s a difficult thing because in real life none of us were like that,” he said. “We were all very much dealing with it.”

Kevin McHale isn’t the only star to comment on the difficulty of filming Glee without Cory Monteith. Last month, Harry Shum Jr., who plays Mike Chang, said the cast has been relying on each other to deal with the loss.

“We’ve all been leaning on each other. It’s been a rough patch and a rough time. I don’t know when that will ever end, that rough patch of losing a friend like that,” he said. “It’s so unexpected, but we’re all leaning on each other.”

Jane Lynch, who plays Sue Sylvester, also opened up about Monteith’s death, saying that everyone has been handling it differently.

“Everybody’s doing differently. You know, it’s tough. Everybody had a relationship with him and we all express our grief in different ways so I’ll only speak for myself,” she said. “I love him and I honor (him), and every day I go to work, I walk by his trailer and I go, ‘He should be in there.'”

Lynch also recently said that the tribute episode was the “most beautiful thing” and thanked series creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk and writer Ian Brennan.

Cory Monteith was found dead in his hotel room in Vancouver on July 14 of an apparent drug overdose. He was 31. The Cory Monteith tribute episode of Glee airs October 10.

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