Cory Monteith’s ‘Glee’ costars say overdose storyline ‘hit a little too close to home’

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — More than a decade after his death, some of Cory Monteith’s “Glee” castmates are talking about a storyline they say now affects them differently.

Jenna Ushkowitz and Kevin McHale talked about it recently in an episode of their podcast, “And That’s What You REALLY Missed.”

The pair, who played Tina Cohen-Chang and Artie Abrams on “Glee,” respectively, discussed a scene from Season 3 in which Monteith’s character, football player and Glee Club member Finn Hudson, is told by his mother Carole (played by Romy Rosemont) that his father had died of a drug overdose while serving in the US Army.

Monteith, who had battled substance abuse during his life, later died of an accidental overdose in 2013.

He was 31.

Ushkowitz and McHale said that in retrospect, the scene “hit a little too close to home.”

“We probably don’t remember it because we thought it was just another storyline for Finn that was really well done,” Ushkowitz said. “But in hindsight, the whole through line of this storyline, every line that he said about it, really just struck a different chord that resonated or mirrored his life too closely. It was just really sad to watch.”

McHale said, “It felt really dark and morbid watching it.”

“But obviously there was no way to know what the future was going to be,” he said. “It just felt very eerie.”

Soon after his death, the cast filmed a tribute episode in honor of Monteith, titled, “The Quarterback.”

“Glee” aired on Fox from 2009 to 2015.

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