Broadway star Idina Menzel says playing Lea Michele’s mom on Glee ‘wasn’t great for the ego’
Idina Menzel has revealed that her time on Glee wasn’t exactly a flattering experience.
The Broadway superstar, 52, was humbled by playing the mother of Lea Michele, 36, despite the couple having a 15-year age difference.
‘If you’re an actor and you get pregnant, you’re afraid you won’t be able to work anymore’ she says in this week’s issue Stellar magazine.
“So I had my son Walker, and three months later I got the call (to be on Glee) and so I said yes”
Idina continued, “But I was still breastfeeding and storing breast milk in refrigerators and little freezer lunch boxes, and I didn’t fit into any of the costumes.”
Idina Menzel has revealed that her time on Glee wasn’t exactly a flattering experience. The Broadway superstar, 52, was humbled by playing the mother of Lea Michele, 36, despite the couple having a 15-year age difference. Taking a picture together
“You know, you’re afraid you’re not going to work anymore, and then people will hire you to be someone’s mom when you probably should be their older sister,” she said.
It just wasn’t good for the ego. But I sucked it up and sucked myself into my clothes, and was excited to work with (creator) Ryan Murphy and be a part of that hit show.”
Idina appeared in the musical TV series between 2010 and 2013 as Shelby Corcoran, the mother of Lea’s character Rachel Berry.
It comes after Idina described her exhausting battle with in vitro fertilization (IVF) while trying to conceive a baby with husband Aaron Lohr, whom she married in 2017.
“You know, you’re afraid you’re not going to work anymore, and then people will hire you to be someone’s mom when you probably should be their older sister,” she said. Pictured on Glee
It just wasn’t good for the ego. But I sucked it up and sucked myself into my clothes, and was excited to work with (creator) Ryan Murphy and be a part of that hit show,” she added
A year after she tied the knot with her husband, whom she first met on the set of the 2005 film adaptation of Rent, more than a decade before they started dating, the Broadway legend began her 2018 national tour with multiple rounds of IVF.
The star, who shares her 13-year-old son Walker with ex-husband Taye Diggs, further revealed that seeing her husband become the “most amazing” stepfather made them want a child of their own.
“Maybe before he met me (Lohr) didn’t think he wanted to have kids, and then he sees how good a father he can be,” the Tony winner shared People. “So that’s what I wanted for him.”
Despite their efforts, Menzel said getting pregnant again “wasn’t meant to be.”
“So I had my son Walker, and three months later I got the call (to be on Glee) and so I said yes,” she explained
“I have this amazing son and I was lucky enough to have him,” the Let It Go hitmaker said.
“And the pregnancy was pretty easy and I got pregnant easily, and there are a lot of people who don’t even get that.”
Menzel also gushed that her husband “feels really loved” that she’s put her “body through that.”
In addition, she says Lohr “sees Walker as his own child anyway” and that they are “both content and happy with what” they have.
Pictured with husband Aaron Lohr, whom she married in 2017