November 17, 2022
Out 'Glee' Star Kevin McHale: I Wouldn't Play Artie Today
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
"Glee" star Kevin McHale, who played wheelchair-bound character Artie Abrams, said that if there were to be a "Glee" reboot he would not be part of it – unless, that is, it was as a different character.
"I don't know if Artie could be in it," McHale told Insider after openly gay series creator Ryan Murphy discussed revisiting the hit series on the podcast McHale hosts with "Glee" castmate Jenna Ushkowitz.
"Knowing what we know now, I don't think I should be playing a character that's in a wheelchair," McHale explained. "So, if they let me grow out of my beard and play a different character, I'll do it."
"'Glee' drew criticism early on for its portrayal of a person with a disability, which a Guardian opinion writer in 2010 likened to blackface," the Los Angeles Times recalled.
McHale, who does not use a wheelchair in real life, "has previously said that neither he nor the 'Glee' production team 'knew better' when he was cast as Artie," Variety noted in a report on the actor's comments.
"It couldn't happen today," Insider recalled McHale reflecting in a 2019 episode of "Showmance," the podcast about the series he hosted with Ushkowitz. "What were we thinking? I can't play that part."
The podcast has since been renamed "Here's What You Really Missed," and recently featured Ryan Murphy, who discussed the death of cast member Corey Monteith and the tribute episode that followed the tragedy.
The LA Times detailed how Murphy told McHale and Ushkowitz that, seven years after the show ended its six-season run, he's "at the phase now with that show where it's like, well, there's been enough time. Like, maybe we should really re-examine it as a brand. You know, should we do a reboot of it in some way? Should we do a Broadway musical of it in some way?"
Murphy has kept busy with multiple projects at Netflix, including the controversial series "Monster" and the suspense series "The Watcher," as well as the long-running "American Horror Story," now in its 11th season (and a very gay-centric season at that), but if anyone could fit yet another series into his schedule it would the be prolific out producer.
