Even more information about what a turbulent time it was filming Glee has come out, with actor Kevin McHale revealing that while filming the show, his co-stars Naya Rivera and Jenna Uskowitz staged an intervention for him about his steroid use.
On the latest episode of the And That's What You Really Missed podcast, McHale revealed that around the time of the show’s huge Super Bowl follow-up episode where they performed a mashup of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s “Heads Will Roll,” he was abusing prescribed steroids.
While he said the drugs gave him the “courage” to perform his big number, he was “on all kinds of medicine, including Prednisone, which is a steroid and it turned me into a monster.”
He then said that while on a flight to London, Naya Rivera and Jenna Ushkowitz approached him to start a conversation, asking if he was taking steroids.
At first, McHale replied he was sick and prescribed the drugs, but his friends asked if it was the antibiotic and recommended he stop taking them if not.
“You’re not sleeping. You’re acting crazy. You need to stop taking them,” they said to him. “I was like, ‘You’re right.’ I hadn’t slept in days. I was losing my mind.’”
McHale said it was a good lesson, but “a hard lesson to learn.”
Previously, another Glee co-star Heather Morris, had said that Rivera had also had a tough conversation with her that helped save her life. She previously discussed how Rivera talked to her about her struggles with an eating disorder.