Lea Michele covers the September issue of Harper’s Bazaar. The photo shoot is super-boring, and I kind of wonder if A) Bazaar regrets the choice of Lea as their September cover girl and B) Bazaar needs new editorial leadership. You can read the full cover story here, at Bazaar – Lea is full of herself, of course, but I don’t really hate the girl for being ambitious or for setting goals. It’s somewhat refreshing to see someone who doesn’t know how to feign humility or act like awards don’t matter. Awards matter to Lea. Attention matters to Lea. Lea wants to be the center of attention at all times. She’s a diva looking for a medium, any medium you’ve got. Here are some highlights:
She’s got no plans to take a break. “I don’t stop,” Lea says. “It’s my nature. People have to tell me to slow down. I plan on playing every role on Broadway. I want to do Evita. I want to do Sweeney Todd with [Glee costar] Chris Colfer. We want to do Wicked. I’ll be Elphaba and he wants to play ‘Guy-linda.’ I want to do movies, make music. Glee is only the beginning.”
Not being nominated for a Tony for Spring Awakening: At 19, with a role in the rock musical Spring Awakening, she and her costars became the toast of New York. (“I didn’t get a [Tony] nomination like the boys did, which was a big learning experience for me,” she says, still disappointed.)
Lea looks different: “I’m five foot three. I don’t look like a lot of other people, you know what I mean? I look like I’m 12,” says Lea, who’s wearing a cream top she found at Anthropologie the day before and matching shorts. (Those sunglasses are from Urban Outfitters. “I’m not a big spender.”) She gets called out for her unconventional features all the time, but Lea doesn’t let it bother her; if anything, she’s used to it. “How many managers told me, ‘Get a nose job. You’re not pretty enough’? But I proved them wrong.”
Now she admires the popular girls in Hollywood: Penélope Cruz (who Lea thought wouldn’t recognize her but who countered, “Do you think I don’t have a TV?”), Blake Lively, Jennifer Aniston (especially for posing as Streisand in Bazaar: “It was awesome; I really wanted to do that”), and her sometime costar Gwyneth Paltrow, who “never gets it wrong.”
More on Gwyneth: “I am obsessed with Gwyneth Paltrow,” Lea says. The day they met, they were rehearsing a Chicago routine for Glee. “I was nervous and said, ‘I don’t think I can do that dance move.’ She said, ‘You can do it.’ She wasn’t afraid of anything. I love talking with Gwyneth. She just gives good advice. She said, ‘Don’t ever read anything about you.’”
Lea recently had to kiss Ashton Kutcher in the upcoming romantic comedy New Year’s Eve. “It wasn’t enough,” she says. A practical joke he played involved him opening the door naked save for a towel. If he’d dropped it, “I might have blacked out.”
On eating: It would give the tabloids something to write about other than saying she’s too skinny, which she chalks up to her vegetarianism and “the Glee diet”: “My schedule is insane, but I can out-eat you.” (This over oatmeal.)
Lea is new to the game: “People have to remember this is all new for us,” Lea says. “We’re all reasonably young, except for Cory [Monteith], who’s old.” (He’s 29.) “I’ve learned some lessons,” she continues. “But people are going to say what they want to say. I know who I am, and I’m not perfect.”
[From Harper’s Bazaar]
It’s weird, but I could totally hear her crazy, high-pitched breathless voice through all of those quotes. As for Lea’s ambition and what she’s actually saying – I don’t know. It will be interesting to see how much of a Hollywood career Lea has post-Glee. I suspect that she will go back to Broadway because that’s what she and her frenetic energy are best suited for. But as for more TV shows and movies… poor Lea.
Photos courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar.
I know she is NO Barbara, but she may have a career a la Barbara. If she’s lucky. Some musical talents/broadway types make it in the mainstream.
Guess I am in a negative mood today – but I do not think she is attractive. I find those dresses to be ugly and so overwhelming that they are suffocating.
Guess I better try and find some source of positive thinking for today!
Nope. Still rubs me the wrong way. Few things more shameful than an actually talented person (sans Glee, that show is pure worthless Sh*t) evoking an air of self-entitlement and narcissism.
You don’t look like other people at 5’3?
What the hell am I, a freak from Mars with my 5’2? Plenty of short girls everywhere.
I somehow doubt her tv shooting schedule is more hectic than Broadway was. Broadway is absolutely grueling on actors.
Just ask Jeremy Piven.
I think Lea has a pleasant voice and a great career on Broadway. She wouldn’t bother me at all if she didn’t try to be a sex kitten or act like she is more special than she is. Sorry, Lea, but if it weren’t for Glee, nobody outside of NY would know who you are.
…her face.
her managers were on to something…
Here we go again with the nose jobs garbage. I don’t really care for LM, but if she changed her nose, she could very possibly change her voice. LM is correct to keep her nose the way it is. Why do folks think Barbra never got one. And, yes, I agree with gee, she ain’t no Barbra.
She sounds a bit… snotty
What an awkward, awkward shoot. I blame Harper’s although she can’t pose worth a damn.
That first photo is absurd, she’s the only human in the shot but it still takes three minutes to locate her.
Is the florist a relative of one of the editors??
Poor Lea is right. Don’t take Goop’s advice! Ever!
She didn’t “prove them wrong.” She isn’t very pretty. She is lucky. Time to thank your lucky stars, chicky.
I agree sounds snotty!
All I needed to read was “I am obsessed with Gwyneth Paltrow.” Wow, I guess she could get more annoying. And sorry, she’s complaining about her height at 5’3″? Doesn’t look like other people? a 12 year old? The average height for a woman is 5’4″ so she’s hardly freakishly short. Maybe she’s talking about supermodels or something?
When I see her name, all I can think of is the girl from True Grit crying over her.
Not a fan of glee or her really, but I think she is a very attractive girl and kudos for her for not nazi hitler-youthing her face up the way hollywood always expects you to. It’s so inherently racist, the idea that in order to be beautiful you have to angloize your looks. Eff that.
i love the clothes. they are lovely. but not the first one. her? *snorefest*
I liked the interview and I respect her for not changing her body just to appease others in Hollywood.
Most of those outfits are some Project Runway, raid your roommate’s trunk, put on blinders, and attempt to sew. There’s some fug stuff up in there…
As to Lea and her ambitions…good for her. But try and keep it in perspective; most that hit it big on a popular show and diva it out become…Mischa Barton.
Yeah, that…
eta: LLLL, I posted same time as you and my comment was not directed at your opinion they’re nice.:-)
No nose job? Yeah, it’s tough that it’s always the supposed ideal that is pushed for. It could change her sound or not; ultimately, it’s up to the person to do it. I just hate that it’s so pushed but if they do it, own it, and be happy.
Does she have to talk about the fact that she didn’t get a nose job EVERY interview? Also, she makes it seem like she has developed a Hollywood career that overcomes the fact she is not a “traditional” beauty, but so far she has had one notable part, playing someone who is supposed to not be the pretty girl. Whether she can have a Hollywood career beyond Glee (which I hope to God doesn’t last forever) remains to be seen. That’s not to knock a Broadway career at all though. I’m just not sure she will have much of a movie or tv career beyond Glee.
It’s good she didn’t get a nose job, but there are alot stories about her having a nasty attitude.I don’t like her that much.
Wow after reading that article I don’t like her. Let’s see, big fan of Goopy, theater brat, full of herself, finds Ashton Kutcher attractive, and is a big fan of Blake Lively? Ugh, puke. Didn’t know her before don’t want to know her now.
And I guess good for her that she’s happy (read in love) with herself but I think she has an ugly nose and she’s a 5 at best. She has a very mannish face. Sorry hunny, but you’re no Giselle.
And agreed with others about the 5’3 comment. I’m from San Antonio so if anything she wouldn’t be an oddity there. I find at 5’6 (which is actually short), I feel like a giant when out and about there. Maybe it’s genetics or crap water but everyone seems to be tiny. I used to think I was some kind of freak of nature.
I hate the show Glee. They don’t really have any talent and they are all snot nosed, snotty full of themselves assholes.
she is the worst of them all. Not attractve, though I can say she is attractive in the non uniform sense I suppose but still, her voice just destroys it for me.
we here in south texas have a saying for girls that speak and sing like this and its not a nice saying. basically you don’t want to take this girl home to your parents or home in your bed because you will be hearing her screech and the dogs will come running.
Im really surprised that HB went with a TV Girl for the big sept issue.
also HB sucks at styling peeps under the age of 35.
She can’t stop patting herself on the back for the nose job she didn’t get. Enough! She needs to read a book or a newspaper so she can have something else to talk about.
Hey Lea, I’m 6’1″! Swap?
Seriously, clothes shopping makes me stabby with frustration and every time I got out clubbing in heels my boobs are in a near-constant state of motorboating.
THere is nothing wrong with her face… she’s cute but that’s about it. I am sick of hearing about managers,… etc suggesting that their clients change something about them…
All the makeup and clothes still does not help this face.
She don’t need a nose job ,definitely not!She needs a new face,she’s so ugly and snotty,she’s full of herself!Bitch pl’s!
I’m just surprised that they didn’t mention the personality, if the mean girl rumors are to be believed.
The big red dress in the last picture is Giambattista Valli. Drop waist, not for short women. Disclosure: I’m 5’2″.
Honestly, snottiness aside, I admire her ambition and I really do think she’ll go on to be a Broadway legend. I would LOVE to see her and Chris Colfer do Wicked or Sweeney Todd together!
She gets a nose job in every magazine and photo shoot! She’s seriously never heard of PHOTOSHOP? I’m not ‘conventional looking’ either. I’m only 5′ tall. Buying clothes can be a pain because everything is cut for super long torsos/arms/legs.. But I manage :0) and it doesnt hurt that I can wear every heel height in the universe and never be towering over anyone.
I hate Glee so I have no opinion of her talent or lack there of but she is right that she “doesn’t look like everyone else” in Hollywood and not because of her height or her coloring or her nose.
Jennifer Aniston is what 5’4″? She has a big nose so it’s not that. I have no clue how tall Sandra Bullock is but they have very similar coloring and Sandra doesn’t have a typical WASPy nose either.
It’s her overall look and vibe.
She is very, very, very Broadway. She looks like a younger version of Idina Menzel.
Agree liz and that comment about goopy is either major suckup or just idiotic – has she never heard of real talent lena horne,sophia loren, liz taylor, kate hepburn (all from a bygone era,yah, so what) but Goopy – and broadway’s her home if she wants to make it as a star. THe commercial pop world is glutted, she can’t do rock, c and w or urban, she her options are limited – and since far more teens and twentysomethings despise glee than like it, her Glee association drives away much of her potential fan base anyway. Imho.
They were right, Lea, you’re not pretty enough or at all for that matter!
I don’t have a TV so I don’t know who this girl is. However, I think she’s doing a disservice by bragging about her nose. My family finally convinced me to get a nose job (in my forties!) and I’m so thankful. My original nose wasn’t that bad but it’s like now my “pretty face” is set free. @Nina, please chill-out.
SHIT HER MANAGERS WERE JUST BEING HONEST! SHE IS FUGLY…THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT HER FACE THAT MAKE YOU WANT TO PUNCH IT !!!!!!!!
Lea annoys the fn crap out of me and I’m not sure why, something about her voice and her face but it is just annoying – can’t stand that tablet ad she is in…gawd.
Well, if she had a nose job at least she wouldn’t talk about nose jobs all the time.
Cause the people who had one (most women in Hollywood) rarely talk about it trying to pretend it didn’t happen.
She is just as insufferable as Kate Winslet who babbles about her weight in EVERY interview.
Lushus- Naw, it’s not about chilling out. It’s fine to get plastic surgery for personal reasons. It’s a whole other thing to get it so you conform into an industry standard that is largely angloized. People of minority ethnic descent have historically been “white washed” in Hollywood, including being surgically altered to lose the features considered too ethnic. Rita Hayworth was white washed and had to hide her roots even once she successfully passed. Barbara STreisand was one of the first actresses to really talk about this pressure, so I get that this girl is trying to liken her issues with Babs.
is that self promotional? Of course. It still doesn’t take away from the fact that hollywood is a real mind-f**k if you don’t look like the standard beauty. Why be negative about a girl who didn’t conform in the face of industry pressure, how do you possibly turn that into her doing a disservice to herself?
Anyone else think she looks like Fran Drescher in that last pic–the one in the red dress?
It’s hard to root for someone who is so totally full of herself. I will be very happy when Glee and Michele fade from memory.
@ Nina, you’re right. I wasn’t thinking about the Hollywood pressure thing. My deal is personal so it’s hard to explain. I was stubborn about my nose (kind of like this girl) for many years and now I see it was just busted logic. I was operating out of fear and negativity. As for the racial aspect–Anglos are known for big noses! Prince Charles anyone? Live in an Asian country and find out. If you say Hollywood is an evil industry, I believe you.
@ Zen Sandra Bullock got a nose job…
And kudos for her for keeping her big nose and small boobs in that industry a la Barbara Streisand. Also, another insufferable one. Bottom line all of these actors and singers have a huge ego. Don’t care for her or glee either.
Good for her for not getting a nose job. I dislike her a little less now.
She’d look a lot better without the perpetual smug bitchface.
Sorry Lea but your 15 minutes of fame are coming to an end. Your star moment was during the first season. Now it’s downhill every month. You are officially becoming Hayden Panettiere.
You know during first season everyone just loved to hate Lea. But now no one even hates her. They just ignore her. Because no one cares even to care.
She can go to Broadway and live there. But you know that they don’t invite Broadway stars to Oscar, Golden Globes, SAG awards and all other events. And that is what Lea wants – to be a superstar. And that ain’t happen.
This is what happens when you give narcissistic drama club brats fame and money.
I didn’t bother to read the interview, this girl grates too much on my last nerve to bother, but all I hear when I see a quote from her is ‘wah wah wah, feel sorry for me. I’m sooooo hot and pretty and I’m sooo talented, I’m the next Barbara Streisand’. 🙄 I can’t stand this chick.
And her managers are right- she isn’t pretty. I don’t think she is all that talented from what I have seen of her work either (I don’t watch Glee, but the ads for it show enough 🙄 ).
I think she is prettiest when she is at a little heavier weight. She was scary thin there for a while and her made her face too harsh.
Only a mother could love a face like that.
Getting a nose job is probably the best advice. Ever since i hear she blew off the young woman who was nominated for an OSCAR in True Grit, I can’t STAND her!
Call me ignorant, but why is so important the september cover??
Sorry, but she IS talented. Who else can sing like that?
And the nose job topic – I assume every interviewer she meets asks that question, so she’s just answering it.
“Who else can sing like that?” Umm. There is plenty of talent that goes undiscovered and is underutilized in the entertainment biz, sweetie. Your comment is far too sweeping.
And this chick lies through her teeth about not getting a nose job. She has in fact undergone a very subtle refinement of her nose. Which is fine because it’s her schnoz, and if it makes her happy, then great. But she needs to shut up about it already. She’s a hypocritical, pompous, self-congratulatory brat with some talent, but not nearly enough to carry on with the kind of attitude she has.
And the constant self-comparisons to Barbra Streisand are unnecessary and premature.
If she exercised a bit more modesty and honesty, “unconventional” looks and all, she would be far more attractive than she is. An unconventional appearance is way often far more beautiful than cookie-cutter looks. But some people never learn how to carry themselves with that kind of grace and dignity. This one sure doesn’t.
wtf does she have on her head? and i’ll be so happy when she’s irrelevant.
This photo-shoot is tragic and so is her nose.
@SEF, sorry, but just because someone is talented does not make that person any less annoying and conceited.
I do think she’s talented – she’s a bit up herself, but then she’s still young!! Most of us had tabs on ourselves at that age, and she has a beautiful voice – if you’ve grown up in that environemnt, I imagine it would be difficult to sound any other way. The only bit that really bugs me is the bit about Goop, but that’s because it’s Goop that bugs me!
I do think they’ve overstyled her though, and she’s not great at posing. That pic of her in the blue dress is terrible – but I like the last one of her in red and the back shot of her in cream.
I read the interview and she is going on and on about being Italian – again!
Doesn’t that bother anyone? I hear lots of Americans call themselves “Italian” or “Irish” or whatever and they are NOT.
Makes me want to ask them:
Do they have 1st or 2nd degree relatives in that country?
Do they speak the language?
Do they have dual citenzship?
Do they visit the country regularly?
IF the answer is no to any of these than you AREN’T Italian. You may be of Italian descent but you are not a citizen.
I’m proud of my Dominican roots but I also know I don’t have citizenship there and that I didn’t grow up there. If I reffered to myself as Dominican as Lea refers to herself as Italian, I would just confuse most Americans.
I was born here so I’m only a US citizen and it also just wouldn’t make sense to call myself Dominican when I’m “American.” Right?
Anyhow, Lea says that Teresa on the Realhousewives of NJ reminds her of family. I wonder what her mother would say about that?
on point dethhammer and camille.
People are weird about height, probably because it’s treated as something aspirational and unlike the majority of your body’s appearance, you can’t do anything about it. Height is considered a virtue, and the reward for years of dilligent work. Drink your milk so you’ll grow up tall and strong, go to bed early so you grow up to be tall, and so on. Why is height so coveted when the fact that I’m tiny means I can hide from predators? Everyone has attributes that make shopping hell, so I’m fully aware that mine don’t trump anyone else’s. Still, the fact that my sisters are both half a foot taller than me (they’re older, but I’m not exactly ‘I must increase my bust’ exercizes-aged) it’s either a funeral or a visit to the chuckle hut. My mother was scandalized about me being such a runt (5’0)–if I had done this, as my sisters had done, or acquiesced to more, as had they, then–then what? Then I would have been a good person like them, now I’m not so you should’ve pitched me in a ravine Spartan style? It’s odd that something so inconsequential gets so many jeers. People get teased for their height regardless of whether they’re too small or tall, but when you approach or reach adulthood, short teasing gets a bit worse because at that point, there’s no chance of you ever looking like a regular adult. The thing about people is they’re stupid and whoever made the comment of Kate Winslet bitching about weight is so correct. I swear, I just want to duct tape her lips together and enjoy the silence. It’s not relatable, it’s repetitive and disingenuous.
*shrug* She looks good. I do get that she seems to be the cool girl to hate now and that sites like this allow people to be thoughtlessly negative without thinking about how the nastiness they easily spew reflects on themselves as a person. Don’t know much about the girl beyond Spring Awakening, but honestly, just from reading this interview, she comes off a lot better than the majority of you. And definitely better than whoever wrote the “article.”
From a fashion perspective, the white one white cover is a boring and a total repeat of what they did last year, but she comes out nicely against it. She has great skin, eyes and hair. Harper’s could have done a better styling job though, she has lovely hair but adding those ridiculous extensions kind of overwhelms her. And the clothes are great but not for her. Isn’t she like 22? I imagine when she was talking about looking 12 she meant her not very “womanly” body and the clothes swamp her. Except for that shot with the red dress which is exquisite. It’s not an especially inspired editorial shoot and the story is quite lackluster, but I’ll blame that on the mag, which has been going downhill for the past few years anyways. As has Vogue tbh.
And instead of being annoyed by her for apparently talking about her nose so often, maybe we should be angry at HW for establishing/reinforcing this Aryan ideal for beauty that apparently outs her on the outside of it. And interviewers who spend more time asking female celebs about their looks, bodies, diets, clothes, etc, than anything that might indicate their intelligent, talented people with any degree of agency.
awkward photos and the interview kind of makes her sound like a brat. that being said, i have been a huge fan of hers since spring awakening was in previews (sort of lucked into a ticket to the first showing on broadway ever!) and she has indisputable talent. but, i think she needs to get her skinny butt back to broadway and stop being so open cause girl has had a jaded life and is real honest about it.
love you girl but go back to broadway. we miss you.