Idina Menzel says 'Glee' role wasn't great for her ego
Idina Menzel was only 15 years older than Lea Michele when she played her mother on "Glee." Credit: Getty Images / Arturo Holmes
Idina Menzel says playing the mother of Lea Michele’s character on TV’s “Glee,” though being only 15 years older than the series' star, tapped into her feelings of career vulnerability.
The Syosset-raised music star said on the “Something to Talk About” podcast of the Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph that her initial guest appearance on the high school musical series co-created by Ryan Murphy came shortly after the September 2009 birth of her and first husband Taye Diggs’ son, Walker.
“I think when you’re an actor and you get pregnant, you worry you’re not going to work again,” Menzel, 52, explained. “So I had my son Walker, and then three months later, I got the call [to guest on “Glee”] and so I said yes. But I was still breastfeeding and storing breast milk in refrigerators and little frozen lunchboxes, and I couldn’t fit into any of the costumes.”
Compounding this was the fact that, at 38, she was only 15 years older than the 23-year-old Michele.
“You know,” the "Wicked" Tony Award winner and “Rent” Tony nominee continued, “you’re worried you’re not going to work again, and then people hire you to be someone’s mother when you probably should be their older sister. It just wasn’t great for the ego. But I sucked it up and sucked myself into my clothes,” she added with a laugh, “and was excited to work with Ryan Murphy and be a part of that hit show.” "Glee" ran from 2009 to 2015 on Fox and was nominated for outstanding comedy series in 2010 and 2011.
Menzel, who was born in Manhattan and raised in Queens and New Jersey until about age 3, when her family moved to Syosset, appeared in a dozen “Glee” episodes in seasons 1, 3 and 4. Her character, Shelby Corcoran, was introduced as the vocal director of Vocal Adrenaline, a rival high school’s glee club. Her character later took on that position with The Troubletones, a sister glee club to the show’s central group, New Directions.
Syosset High School alumna Menzel's new album, “Drama Queen,” drops Friday.
