Samantha Ware has slammed the Broadway production of ‘Funny Girl’ for casting her Glee co-star Lea Michele.
The news that the 35-year-old would be replacing Beanie Feldstein as Fanny Brice in the stage show circulated on Monday.
The actress, who appeared as Jane Hayward on the sixth season of Glee, has since hit out at the casting decision on Twitter.
Samantha tweeted: “Yes, I’m online today. Yes, I see y’all. Yes, I care. Yes, im affected. Yes, I’m human. Yes, I’m Black. Yes, I was abused.”
“Yes, my dreams were tainted. Yes, Broadway upholds whiteness. Yes, Hollywood does the same. Yes, silence is complicity. Yes, I’m loud. Yes, I’d do it again.”
Samantha swiftly followed the tweet with another, which read, “Also. My name is not Amber Riley or Alex Newell. Their experience was not mine and mines was not theirs.”
Samantha’s bullying allegations against Lea first surfaced in 2020, after the actress took to social media to pay tribute to George Floyd.
Yes, I’m online today. Yes, I see y’all. Yes, I care. Yes, im affected. Yes, I’m human. Yes, I’m Black. Yes, I was abused. Yes, my dreams were tainted. Yes, Broadway upholds whiteness. Yes, Hollywood does the same. Yes, silence is complicity. Yes, I’m loud. Yes, I’d do it again.
— SAMEYA (@Sammie_Ware) July 11, 2022
“George Floyd did not deserve this. This was not an isolated incident and it must end,” she tweeted at the time.
Samantha swiftly hit back at Lea, as she tweeted, “Remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?!?!…”
“Cause I’ll never forget… I believe you told everyone that if you had the opportunity you would ‘s*** in my wig!’ amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood.”
Lea subsequently issued a public apology to her Glee co-star and vowed to “be better in the future.”
Her lengthy statement read, “One of the most important lessons of the last few weeks is that we need to take the time to listen and learn about other people’s perspectives and any role we have played or anything we can do to help address injustices they face…”
“When I tweeted the other day, it was meant to be a show of support for our friends and neighbours and communities of colour during this really difficult time…”
“But the responses I received to what I posted have made me also focus on how my own behaviour towards fellow cast members was perceived by them,” she continued.
“While I don’t remember ever making this specific statement and I have never judged others by their background or color of their skin, that’s not really the point, what matters is that I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people.”
“Whether it was my privileged position and perspective that caused me to be perceived as insensitive or inappropriate at times or whether it was just my immaturity and me just being unnecessarily difficult. I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused.”
“We all can grow and change and I have definitely used these past several months to reflect on my own shortcomings,” Lea explained.
“I am a couple of months from becoming a mother and I know I need to keep working to better myself and take responsibility for my actions, so that I can be a real role model for my child and so I can pass along my lessons and mistakes, so that they can learn from me.”
“I listened to these criticisms and I am learning and while I am very sorry, I will be better in the future from this experience.”
