The Quinn Fabray actress shares “tenderness” she feels for late co-stars like Naya Rivera and Cory Monteith, “vivid” memories of who they were “as people, as cast members, as our friends and family.”
Gleeks have had to suffer big shocks and the tragic losses of several cast members since the show first launched in 2009, and those blows still resonate through Glee cast members, as well. Dianna Agron, who portrayed Quinn Fabray through all six seasons, opened up about how they still live within her.
The actress was the latest guest on the And That’s What You REALLY Missed rewatch podcast with Jenna Ushkowitz and Kevin McHale, sharing how their memories of the show are always intermixed with the melancholy of those they’ve lost along the way.
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“It’s hard to think of our loved ones from the show not being present with us anymore because they feel so present in my heart, body, mind, soul, all of it,” said Agron.
“I think that tenderness I feel and the memories that I have [of] who Cory, Naya and Mark were as people, as cast members, as our friends and family [are] just so vivid,” she continued. “That will never dissipate for me, ever. I think there’s beauty in that. I could replay memory after memory after memory.”
Cory Monteith was the early male lead, portraying football superstar and reluctant Glee Club member Finn Hudson, while Naya Rivera was bad girl Santana Lopez and Mark Salling portrayed the gruff Noah “Puck” Puckerman.
Monteith died during the show’s run from an accidental drug overdose in July 2013, followed by Salling’s suicide in 2108 after he’d been arrested for possession of child pornography. Rivera tragically died while swimming with her young son in a boating accident in 2020.
Agron went on to remember how Monteith acted as a leader on the show when the cameras weren’t rolling, as well. “He was a teddy bear, and I mean that in a way of his kindness and groundedness in himself was so perfect,” the actress recalled. “He was this tall, big brotherly presence in all of our lives.”
The actress was part of an on-screen love triangle that involved Monteith’s Hudson and Lea Michele’s Rachel Berry, turning from a “mean girl” archetype into a richer and more complex character as the series progressed.
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Recalling sharing those pivotal scenes with the show’s leads, Agron said of Monteith, “There was not an ungenerous bone in his body.”
Even when they weren’t filming, the cast developed a close bond that remains strong to this day. Remembering Monteith’s generosity both as a leading man and actor, as well as a friend, Agron shared a story of a time he was hosting people at his house for a pool party.
“My brother had come down and he said, ‘Oh, you’re squinting a lot. Do you not have a pair of sunglasses?’” she remembered. When he found out her brother didn’t have any, Agron says Monteith took him into his house and showed him his collection. “These are all my sunglasses. Just take a pair,'” she says Monteith told her brother.
“That’s who he was always,” she said. “It was so amazing to have.” As she talked about her former co-star, Agron said it gave her “goosebumps.”
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McHale and Ushkowitz opened up about how the losses of co-stars Monteith and Rivera really impacted them, with the latter resulting in the decision to end their first attempt at a Glee rewatch podcast.
“When Naya passed away, we were like, ‘We can’t do this anymore.’ We just ended the show,” said McHale, before adding that rewatching episodes for the first time for that podcast had helped him begin to process and work through Monteith’s death.
After a little time from the loss of Rivera, McHale said that he and Ushkowitz connected to talk about their “intentions” behind a rewatch podcast, before launching And That’s What You REALLY Missed.
“I think the overwhelming sense for me was that it really is a gift that we get to watch this and we got so many moments of how great they are as people shine through as in their performances as characters,” he explained. “Obviously it’s hard, some episodes are easier than others, but it has been another really nice surprise of doing all of this.”
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As Agron shared that she really couldn’t remember many of the specific scenes they’d filmed across the series — it was more about the relationships and friendships, Ushkowitz said that rewatching the show for this podcast allows her to “appreciate their talent more in addition to loving the humans that they were.”
She and McHale feel that the podcast gives fans “a new place of healing.” And it’s especially healing for them as they work through the loss of Monteith in a way they really couldn’t at the time.
“We had to mourn all that in the show, like while we were filming it and move on without him in the show,” Ushkowitz explained. “So it is very difficult.”
You can check out both episodes with Dianna Agron below.
