Sheryl Lee Ralph believes Patti LuPone should have kept her negative comments about Broadway stars Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis to herself.
“Why not be nice?” the “Abbott Elementary” star queried to Page Six at the Gotham Television Awards red carpet Monday night.
However, Ralph was quick to note that she’s “not going to judge” LuPone — who was branded a “bully” by the theater community — because “too often we don’t see all the sides of what might have been going on.”
“It was a moment where maybe you want to zip it,” the “Dreamgirls” star added. “Inner thoughts don’t always have to be outer thoughts, that might have been one of those moments.”
Ralph also congratulated McDonald for “keeping it classy” in her response to the ordeal.
LuPone found herself in hot water last week for calling Lewis, who won a Tony last year for “Hell’s Kitchen,” a “bitch” and mocking her for referring to herself as a Broadway veteran.
LuPone also claimed she was no longer friends with McDonald.
She then pointedly refused to reply whether she had seen the actress’ Tony-nominated turn as Mama Rose in “Gypsy.”
Days after LuPone’s controversial interview, over 500 Broadway artists banded together to issue a scathing response in an open letter.
“Recently, Patti LuPone made deeply inappropriate and unacceptable public comments about two of Broadway’s most respected and beloved artists,” the letter read, calling LuPone’s comments “degrading and misogynistic” and “a blatant act of racialized disrespect.”
The letter called out LuPone for “bullying,” “harassment,” and using “microaggressions and abuse that people in this industry have endured for far too long, too often without consequence.”
The outspoken performer issued an apology via social media.
“For as long as I have worked in the theatre, I have spoken my mind and never apologized. That is changing today,” LuPone wrote in a statement shared to her Instagram Saturday.
“I am deeply sorry for the words I used during ‘The New Yorker’ interview, particularly about Kecia Lewis, which were demeaning and disrespectful.”
The actress, 76, added that she feels “regret” over her “flippant” and “emotional” comments about her colleagues, and hopes to apologize to them in person.
Meanwhile, McDonald, 54, gracefully commented on the alleged rift when asked about it on “CBS Sundays.”
“If there’s a rift between us, I don’t know what it is,” the “Good Fight” actress said. “That’s something you’d have to ask Patti about.”
Ralph, who called herself a “mothering” figure, was not the only big name at the Gotham Television Awards, where she was honored with the Sidney Poitier Icon Tribute for her long career, which began in the mid-70s.
Other celebs included Jenny Slate, Parker Posey, Carrie Coon, James Scully, Elisabeth Moss and Ramy Youssef.