cheerful Matthew Morrison had had his fill and wanted out. Then tragedy struck.
In an interview with That’s what you’re really missing podcast, Morrison revealed that he wasn’t very happy with the film’s set cheerful He planned to exit the show. “I was actually trying to get out of the show,” Morrison said. “In Season 5, I asked to be off the show, just because I was no longer being used the way I wanted to.”
Morrison played teacher Will Schuester on the series and wanted to do new projects. “There is no respect for the show,” he said. “We were so happy, and I thought to myself, ‘Maybe if I get off the show, I can do something else, or go make a movie,’ and they agreed to let me off the show.”
However, Morrison’s co-star, Cory Monteith, died at the age of 31 in 2013, prompting a change of plans. “Corey passed away, and then they said they couldn’t do it,” Morrison said. “Because you can’t have the two main guys on the show (leaving).” So, yeah, it was an interesting time.
“Obviously I got it, and I was like, ‘Yes, I get it,’” Morrison says. You know, when I try to reconcile my selfish wants and needs with the grief of losing a wonderful friend, you know, there are a lot of mixed emotions. But I’m a professional, I showed up, and I did my job. There was a good pay increase, and that worked too.
The actor said he was initially upset by the changes that de-emphasized him. “I think I took it personally, like I was bad, and that’s kind of why my story went,” he said. “But then I look at the demographic of what the show ended up being, you know, it’s like they don’t want to see Mr. Schuester, they want to see all the kids. So that made sense to me.”