Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz Recall Filming Cory Monteith’s FinalGleeEpisode, Remember It as a 'Weird Day'

Mar. 15, 2025

Kevin McHale, Chris Colfer, Jenna Ushkowitz, Amber Riley, Cory Monteith and Lea Michele in a 2013 episode of ‘Glee’.Photo:FOX Image Collection via Getty

FOX Image Collection via Getty

GleealumniKevin McHaleandJenna Ushkowitzsay the vibes on set were “off” during the filming ofCory Monteith’s final episode of the hit musical series.

On the most recent episode of their rewatch podcastAnd That’s What You Really Missed, the host revisited the 19th episode of the show’s fourth season, “Sweet Dreams,” which marked Monteith’s final appearance onGlee. His character, Finn Hudson, did not appear in the remaining three episodes of the season, which aired between April 25 and May 9, 2013, and the 31-year-old actordied from a “mixed drug toxicity” of heroin and alcoholthe following July.

“Sweet Dreams,” which originally aired on April 18, 2013, also features the original six members of the show’s glee club — including McHale, Ushkowitz and Monteith alongsideLea Michele,Chris ColferandAmber Riley— once again reprising their performance of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” from the pilot episode. That scene in particular brought back a lot of memories for Ushkowitz, 38, and McHale, 36.

Cory Monteith on his last episode of ‘Glee’ in 2013.FOX Image Collection via Getty

“The vibes weren’t great,” McHale admitted. “It was just a weird day. Nothing, like, necessarily happened that was bad. Like, the vibes were just strange.”

McHale remembered Monteith, who hadstruggled with substance abusefrom an early age, being “distant” on set that day.

The actor also said he remembered the cast “being insane” on set and “making Cory laugh.”

Kevin McHale, Jenna Ushkowitz, Cory Monteith, Lea Michele and Chris Colfer performing in 2010.Kevin Winter/Getty

Kevin Winter/Getty

“Everyone was sort of very separate and it felt strange,” McHale explained.“We hadn’t worked with Lea in a in a long time.”

Ushkowitz added that the scene, which saw Michele’s character imagining the show’s original glee club performing “Don’t Stop Believin’” with her during an audition forFunny Girl, as strange to film. “Itwas, like, being time-warped, like, teleported, but not,” she said.

Jenna Ushkowitz, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, Lea Michele and Chris Colfer in the pilot episode of ‘Glee’ in 2009.FOX Image Collection via Getty

“I don’t think anybody was super excited to be doing ‘Don’t Stop’ again,” McHale said.

“We also hadn’t seen Amber. We hadn’t seen Chris. We hadn’t seen Lea,” Ushkowitz recalled. “Lea and Cory were dating at the time. So, separated also was this couple that was kind of doing their thing. And Kevin and I had been — you and I were in a different world with new people living this show.”

“And so when you interact with people that like, everyone’s been doing their own thing and you show up to do this old thing you’re like, ‘This isn’t — this doesn’t feel great,’ ” McHale said. “We were fully clocking in and clocking out that day. Like, we were all a bit removed, I think, is what it felt like.”

McHale added that the vibes on set “were off, hard."

“It’s crazy that we both have the same feeling, but can’t necessarily pinpoint what was going on,” he told Ushkowitz.

“I honestly feel like there was a lot, obviously, happening behind the scenes, a lot of drama, a lot of things that were in the works,” she replied.

“Serious things,” McHale agreed. “I think things happening with Cory that we didn’t really …”

“We weren’t privy to,” Ushkowitz agreed.

Cory Monteith in June 2013.Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

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TheAnd That’s What You Really Missedhosts previouslymarked the 10th anniversary of Monteith’s tragic deathin July 2023, explaining how they use humor to cope.

“We make a lot of dark jokes about it because if you don’t, you’re just gonna cry,” McHale said, while admitting that the cast’s jokes don’t necessarily play well with fans. “I realized it only works amongst us experienced in this very peculiar specific thing.”

“We’ve all worked through it in therapy,” Ushkowitz noted.

source: people.com