Since her days on Glee more than a decade ago, Lea has been the subject of a wild conspiracy theory that she doesn’t know how to read, and she has had other people recite her lines to her so she can memorize them.
On the May 8 episode of the Therapuss with Jake Shane podcast, Lea did her best to put the rumor that she’s illiterate to rest.
“For everyone who thinks that I can’t fucking read I was on the debate team. I would write speeches,” Lea said.
Jake then asked, “You must think that rumor is hysterical, or does it really piss you off?”
“It depends on the day,” Lea 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. And then there are moments where I fucking get so frustrated by it because I’m one of the only women in my whole family to get accepted to college.”
Lea continued, “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, and for someone to minimize that, it’s so sad and so frustrating. But yeah, I don’t know — it’s wild. It’s a crazy thing.”
Lea remembered that Glee creator Ryan Murphy told her about the rumor in 2015. “I’ll never forget the same day that all came out Donald Trump said he was going to punch John McCain in the face or something like that. It was 2015 and he said something so wild but what was trending online more was Lea Michele can’t read.”
“Ryan Murphy called me and was like, ‘Have you heard this rumor?’ and I was like, ‘No, what’s going on?’ and the fact that we are here all these years later,” she added.
Lea then grabbed Jake’s notecards to prove that she can read in real time. “Give me the notes, I’m reading them! I didn’t memorize them! Jonathan [Groff] is not here to read me this shit.”
Lea joked, “What does this word say?” and realized that it probably won’t matter if she attempts to disprove the rumor on the podcast because people will just make theories about that, too.
“The theories, oh my god the theories, 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,” Lea said. “This proves nothing.”
Lea added that Jonathan Groff did an interview where he was asked about the rumor. “Jonathan did a podcast that someone was like, ‘Can Lea read?’ and his response to me was so funny; he was like, ‘Do you really think she can’t? What the fuck does that say about you.'”
In the end, Lea seemingly confirmed that part of the rumor that she memorizes her lines is factual. “I have photographic memory, too. How do you think I memorized all those Rachel Berry speeches?”
I think it’s safe to say Lea Michele can read AND memorize lines, y’all. Besides, look at how she read all the haters. That’s talent.
And, if you thought that was juicy, you can watch the full episode here.
