Lea Michele On Cory Monteith: ‘I Consider Myself Very Lucky’

It’s been two months and some change since Glee’s Cory Monteith was found dead in his Vancouver hotel room of a mixed toxicity overdose. For the first time, Monteith’s girlfriend and co-star Lea Michele has opened up about the devastating time, and the upcoming tribute episode to Cory and his character Finn Hudson.

The tribute episode, which is titled “The Quarterback” is set to air on FOX this Thursday. The episode will act as a way for fans to mourn the loss of both Cory Monteith and Finn Hudson. Of the experience of filming, Michele told TV Week that it was difficult but therapeutic.

“We had a beautiful memorial for Cory in the auditorium and some of the cast members sang and people spoke about him. It only felt right that we would do the same thing for Finn, so I felt it was very therapeutic.”

Since Monteith’s tragic passing, members of the press had questioned how Lea Michele could go on with the show, as it would only act as a constant reminder that her boyfriend was no longer there. Creator Ryan Murphy had told TV LINE days after Monteith’s death that he had given Lea Michele a choice of whether or not she wanted to continue on with the show.

Michele addressed the difficult decision to carry on with the show, and it seems like an obvious no-brainer to the actress, who was the closest to Monteith.

“Everyone is asking: ‘Is it hard to do this? Is it hard to be back at work?’, but the truth is it’s no harder at work than it is in life so we might as well all be together as a family supporting each other to get through this together. I feel like, for me personally, I’ve lost two people: Cory and Finn.”

In the tribute episode Lea Michele sings Bob Dylan’s “To Make You Feel My Love,” and just from the 30-second promo we received it looks to be a heartbreaking experience to have filmed. Lea’s co-star Matthew Morrison spoke about the scene which Michele had to film, having said:

“She had one of the first songs we filmed for the episode and she did it so beautifully and after, she said something like, ‘It can’t be harder for anyone else than it was for me. So, we knew we had to show up because our leader stepped forward and kind of gave permission to all of us to do it. I don’t think we could have done it without her.”

Lea Michele’s interview with TV Week marks her second time speaking about Cory Monteith, and the first in relation to his death since his passing. Michele appeared at the Teen Choice Awards back in August to accept an award for TV Comedic Actress, and at the time, eulogized Monteith.

The actress also took to Twitter to tweet about Monteith, but had never addressed his death. Understandably so it took Michele some time to tweet following Monteith’s death. In response to all the support she received following Monteith’s death Michele tweeted a photo of her and Monteith in a fun embrace with a caption that read, “Thank you all for helping me through this time with your enormous love & support. Cory will forever be in my heart.”

Since then Michele has tweeted little reminders that she’s mourning her boyfriend Cory. Michele had tweeted a photo of a gold-plated necklace that says “Finn” during the filming of the tribute episode. In real life Michele wears a gold-plated necklace with Cory’s name, which was a present that was given to her by the late actor.

The last tweet that Michele had made about Cory was on September 23 of an image she seemed to be inspired by:

Of her time with Monteith, Lea Michele told the magazine:

“I feel like what happened with Cory (the cause of his death) was this big, [she says, holding her fingers together to reflect a miniscule amount], in the scheme of who he was and his life. There was no greater man than Cory, so for the time we spent together I consider myself very lucky.”

Will you be watching the tribute episode to Cory Monteith and Finn Hudson on Thursday?

[Image credit: s_bukley / Shutterstock.com & @msleamichele]