Glee’s Kevin McHale Regrets Not Praising Cory Monteith’s Acting Ability More Before His Death

Kevin McHale wishes he could go back in time. 

The actor reflected on the immense talents of his late Glee co-star Cory Monteith, saying on the April 16 episode of the rewatch podcast And That's What You REALLY Missed, "What pisses me off is he was such a good actor and I don't think we necessarily told him that enough."

The comments from Kevin, who played Artie on the series, came as he co-host Jenna Ushkowitz, who played Tina, were revisiting the season one finale. In the episode, Rachel (Lea Michele) kisses Finn (Monteith), who later pronounces his love for her before hitting the regionals stage.

"This whole episode, I was just floored by Cory," Kevin explained. "So good. It's ridiculous."

Cory died of an accidental heroin overdose in 2013 at the age of 31 after Glee's fourth season aired. The show continued for two more seasons in his absence, eventually coming to an end in March 2015.

Kevin also expressed sadness over "the things we miss out [on] getting to see him do because he's so good."

This isn't the first time members of the Glee family have spoken about the impact Cory's death has had on them.

In fact, Glee creator Ryan Murphy admitted on the Nov. 7 episode of the podcast that he wished the show had ended after Cory's sudden death.

"If I had to do it again, we would've stopped for a very long time and probably not come back," he explained. "Now, if this had happened, I would be like, 'That's the end.' Because you can't really recover from something like that."

A month after Cory's passing, Glee filmed a tribute episode titled The Quarterback—which aired in October 2013. "It's an episode I was able to watch once," Ryan noted. "And I never looked at it again."

All six seasons of Glee are available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu.

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