The deaths of Glee stars Cory Monteith, Naya Rivera and Mark Salling are still difficult for their former costar Dianna Agron to process.
“It’s hard to think of our loved ones from the show not being present with us anymore because they feel so present in my heart, body, mind, soul, all of it,” Agron, 39, said on the Wednesday, August 13, episode of the “And That’s What You REALLY Missed” podcast. “I think that tenderness I feel and the memories that I have [of] who Cory, Naya and Mark were as people, as cast members, as our friends and family [are] just so vivid.”
She added, “That will never dissipate for me, ever. I think there’s beauty in that. I could replay memory after memory after memory.”
Agron played Quinn Fabray on Fox’s Glee opposite Monteith’s Finn Hudson. Rivera and Salling played Santana Lopez and Noah “Puck” Puckerman, respectively.
Monteith died in July 2013, two years before Glee wrapped, following an accidental overdose at the age of 31. Salling died by suicide in 2018 at the age of 35, and Rivera drowned in a fatal boating accident in 2020 after getting her young son, Josey, to safety.
Agron further said that she often looks back on her former costars’ talent and work ethic with fondness in the years since their respective deaths.
Cory Monteith, Dianna Agron and Mark Salling. Adam Rose/©Fox/courtesy of Everett Collection
“He was a teddy bear, and I mean that in a way of his kindness and groundedness in himself was so perfect,” Agron recalled of Monteith, who played her on-again, off-again TV boyfriend. “He was this tall, big brotherly presence in all of our lives.”
She continued, “[Cory] just felt so safe and equally excited about what he was getting to experience with his character. His character had a leadership position in the show, as well, and there was not an ungenerous bone in his body.”
Lea Michele is looking back on grieving the death of her boyfriend and Glee costar, Cory Monteith, while still filming the musical show. “I had a tour bus that would go past my house in West Hollywood and you would hear, ‘Lea Michele [is] Rachel Berry on Glee,’ and then I would hear ‘Don’t Rain […]
While Monteith was a leader on the Glee set, that same spirit extended when the cameras cut.
“I remember this one time that he was having people swim in his backyard,” Agron recalled. “My brother had come down and [Cory] said, ‘Oh, you’re squinting a lot. Do you not have a pair of sunglasses?’ He was like, ‘Oh, no, I don’t,’ and [Cory] took him into his room. He’s, like, ‘These are all my sunglasses. Just take a pair.’ … That’s who he was always. It was so amazing to have.”
Dianna Agron, Heather Morris, Naya Rivera, Chris Colfer, Amber Riley and Kevin McHale. Adam Rose / Fox / Courtesy of Everett Collection
After sharing her memories of Monteith, Agron quipped that she had “goosebumps on [her] arms.”
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