Glee's Matthew Morrison explains why he tried to exit show early
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Glee star Matthew Morrison has revealed why he tried to leave the show early.
In a new interview, the actor – who played teacher Will Schuester throughout the show's six season run – explained that he wanted to hang up his microphone in favour of new projects.
"I was actually trying to get off the show," Morrison said on the And That's What You REALLY Missed podcast.
"In season 5, I asked to be off the show, just cause like, I'm no longer being used in the way I wanted to."
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He continued: "No disrespect to the show. We were at a high, I was like, 'Maybe if I get off the show, I could go do something else, go do a movie,' and they agreed to let me off the show."
Morrison's plans then changed following co-star Cory Monteith's tragic death in 2013.
"Cory passed, and then they said they couldn't do it. Because you can't have the two main guys on the show [leave]. So yeah, it was an interesting time," he said.
"Obviously I understood, I was like 'yeah, I get it.' You know, trying to reconcile my own wants and selfish needs with the grief of losing an amazing friend, you know, there's a lot of just mixed emotions.
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"But I'm a professional, I showed up, I did my job. And there was a good pay increase, so that worked, too."
The actor went on to explain how he struggled with the subsequent changes to his character, saying: "I think I took it personally, like I was bad, and that's why my storyline kinda went.
"But then I look at the demographic of what the show ended up being, you know, it's like, they don't wanna see Mr. Schuester, they wanna see all the kids. So that made sense to me."
Glee is available to stream on Disney+.
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