Fed up Lea Michele reacts to rumor that she can't read: ‘I f—ing get so frustrated'
Lea Michele is fed up with the theory that she can't read.
The 'Glee' alum, 38, appeared on Thursday's episode of the 'Therapuss' podcast and clapped back at the internet for their long-standing theory that she is illiterate.
'For everyone who thinks that I can't f–ing read, I was on the debate team,' Michele told host Jake Shane. 'I would write speeches.'
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9 Lea Michele on the 'Therapuss' podcast.
Jake Shane/Youtube
'You must think that rumor is hysterical, or does it actually piss you off?' Shane asked the actress.
'It depends on the day,' Michele replied. 'Sometimes I think it's crazy that people care enough about me that they would make up something. That someone has so little to do in their life in their day that they would waste it on me is hilarious to me.'
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9 Lea Michele at the 'Just In Time' opening night on Broadway on April 23.
Bruce Glikas/WireImage
The 'Funny Girl' star continued, 'And then there are moments where I f–ing get so frustrated by it because I'm one of the only women in my whole family to get accepted to college. You know, my mother and my mother's whole family was extremely poor from the Bronx, not very well educated, and my parents moved me from the Bronx to New Jersey to get a good education and to thrive. And I did.'
'My parents and my family are so proud of that and it really was so important for my grandmother to see me,' Michele added. 'So for someone to minimize that is so sad and so frustrating. But, yeah, I don't know it's wild. It's a crazy thing.'
9 Lea Michele at the 'Wicked' premiere in New York in Nov. 2024.
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The Emmy nominee recalled learning of the rumor in 2015 from the creator of 'Glee.'
'Ryan Murphy called me and was like, 'Have you heard this rumor?' And I was like, 'No, what's going on!'' Michele remembered.
9 Lea Michele as Rachel Berry in 'Glee.'
AP Photo
Michele then snatched Shane's flashcards out of his hands and declared that she was going to read them herself to prove her haters wrong.
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'Jonathan [Groff] isn't here to read me this s–t,' she said, referring to her best friend and 'Glee' co-star.
9 Lea Michele proves she can read on the 'Therapuss' podcast.
Jake Shane/Youtube
9 Lea Michele and Jake Shane.
Jake Shane/Youtube
'I placed first in my debate competition and qualified for nationals,' she read on the card. 'But after seeing the score sheets, I don't think I actually won. Should I speak up or just take the win?'
Michele then joked that the internet will come up with 'theories' about how she was able to read Shane's cards.
'They're going to be like, 'Jake called her in advance. This doesn't prove anything. She memorized it. She saw the cards in advance. This proves nothing,'' she said in a mocking tone.
9 Cory Monteith, Lea Michele, and Ryan Murphy at an event in 2012.
Getty Images For Chrysalis
Michele went on, 'Jonathan did a podcast that someone was like, 'Can Lea read?' and his response to me was so funny,' she recalled. 'He was like 'Do you really think she can't? What the f–k does that say about you?''
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'I have photographic memory, too,' Michele stated. 'How do you think I memorized all those Rachel Berry speeches?'
9 Lea Michele, Cory Monteith in 'Glee.'
Michele previously addressed the theory that she can't read on 'Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen' in 2018.
She pointed out that the theory is so inaccurate especially because she had to 'memorize pages and pages' of scripts when she starred on 'Glee.'
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9 Lea Michele seen in Tribeca in NYC on Feb. 12, 2025.
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'By the way, they said that Ryan Murphy would have to read the lines to me,' Michele added. 'Ryan called me and was like, 'Do people think I have the time in my life to come do this?''
In a 2022 interview with the New York Times, Michele called the rumor 'sad.'
'It really is. I think often if I were a man, a lot of this wouldn't be the case,' she said.
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