Glee’s Kevin McHale recalls ‘wild’ moment with an insensitive fan after Naya Rivera’s death

Glee star Kevin McHale has discussed having members of the public talk to him about his late co-star, Naya Rivera, recalling a particularly “wild” recent experience.

McHale starred as Artie Abrams on the musical-comedy series created by Ryan Murphy about a high-school show choir. Rivera starred as cheerleader turned Glee club member and all round badass, Santana Lopez. Glee also starred Lea Michele, Amber Riley, Jane Lynch, and the late Corey Monteith.

Joining the Zach Sang podcast recently, McHale discussed his time own the show, including acting in a wheelchair. He also touched on what it was like dealing with the loss of Monteith and Rivera while in the public eye.

Monteith passed away in July 2013 from a heroin and alcohol overdose. His death came as the show was filming season five resulting in the tribute episode, “The Quarterback,” which handled his character’s unspecified in-universe death. Rivera passed away in July 2020, after drowning in a California’s Lake Piru where she had been swimming with her son, Josey.

“I had never experienced death from anyone close to me until Cory [Monteith]” McHale told the podcast. What he found “comforting” was the support network within the Glee cast group chat, which he said continues to provide an “open floor” to share how they feel about losing their friends.

The actor shared some insight into the cast’s life after Rivera’s death mentioning the coordination of schedules and press statements. He also said members of the public would bring up Rivera if they met him out in public.

“I’m three days into this,” he said looking back at July 2020. “I don’t necessarily want to talk to a stranger about this right now. But I understand why you feel compelled to.”

These things still happen, he went on to say, commenting that “some people are better at broaching the subject than others.” He then recalled one situation “a couple of weeks ago” where someone said “some wild thing to me.”

“I don’t remember exactly how they phrased it but they brought up Naya and they said something. I’m like, ‘I’m just trying to get a coffee. It’s nine in the morning and you just said some wild s**t to me’. And I know, I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt, I know you probably did not mean it how it came out, but damn!” he shared.

McHale said the person in question was nice and complimented the show but they got “locked on” talking about Rivera.

The Glee star also said that other people bring it up in a “super respectful” way. “I love to hear people’s [stories] I genuinely do, how many people loved her if they had met her or just watching her on Glee,” he said.

The other member of main Glee cast who has passed away is Mark Salling. He took his own life in 2018 after pleading guilty to charges of possession of child pornography.

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