#glee project

Lindsay Pearce said that one of her most negative experiences on the show came during "Vulnerability" week. Contestants were asked to share some of their darkest moments and insecurities, which would be boiled down to a word or phrase to wear in the "Mad World" music video.

Pearce: They sat us down and essentially asked us to tell them our deepest, darkest secrets. I shared about my sexual assault. I said something like, "Going through that made me feel like I wasn't a person — like I was just a body and a nice face." To deal with those emotions, I had to put on a front.

She shot the video wearing a sign that read "fake."

Pearce: That story wasn't on television. The cut is me saying people like me because I'm pretty, which makes me feel fake. That was gut-wrenching, 'cause I wouldn't have shared my experience if I knew how it'd be edited. It didn't fit the narrative that they were trying to make.

Not The Glee Project giving the evil edit to a 19 year old adoptee who was born deaf, just because she is beautiful, and later manipulating her into kissing a fellow contestant for a scene not knowing that he wasn't told she would be kissing him.

Pearce was also involved in one of the show's biggest dramas. During season one's "Pairability" week, Pearce kissed Cameron Mitchell while shooting the "Baby It's Cold Outside" music video, but Mitchell told Insider the kiss was "a setup."

Mitchell: When we'd choreographed the scene, it didn't end with a kiss.

Pearce: Erik White, our video director, said something like, "In this next take, kiss Cameron. It's what we need."

Pearce said White told her kissing had worked well for other contestants, so she should do it as well.

Listen Lindsay was not only never going to win for, well, many reasons, she also most definitely got a villain edit and it's infuriating. I've heard about Nellie's treatment on season 2 and I am dreading it because season 1 was already plenty messed up. Oof, Vulnerability week.

Good for Ali Stroker, Alex Newell, Lindsay Pearce, and really just anyone who has found success since that goes well beyond what RM did/could have done for them.

Ryan clearly wanted someone to come in and just… blow him away and divinely inspire him to write a character, but Kurt would’ve been a bad stereotype if he’d been entirely written by Ryan. RM wanted him to be flamboyant and wear heels in Preggers. And that’s the kind of control he has over the glee project cast, especially poor Damian who got stereotyped as just “Irish” despite actually having an engaging personality. It was pure… RIB writes you as a stereotype and you just nod and be grateful, not like how ppl like Chris and Naya were actually involved in making their characters.

To his credit though, RM’s plan worked. He discovered the wonderful talents of Alex Newell and Lindsay Pierce, who are now doing wonderful things and are… much bigger than glee! But the whole Glee project thing feels weird.

Anon you're so right, holy shit. Deffo onto something there.

It's so wild that RM really just expected these kids to inspire him. And then the winners were the blandest most mediocre characters lmao so much for inspiration (again not hate to Damian and Samuel - BJ, however, can choke). He wanted to recreate Chris Colfer you're so right but Glee's problem at this time is that they've captured lightning in a bottle with a fair few things (Chris/Kurt, Naya/Santana, the show in general) and he just... can't get enough. And the hubris of that man is so through the roof that of course he just chooses these straight white dudes and calls them the underdogs whose stories are needed on Glee, of course.

You bring up another good point that RIB writes you as a stereotype and as 19-20-year-old kid starting out in the industry, what do you do? You can't exactly start acting like you are Chris Colfer and know better or be like Naya and encourage a story when there isn't really one anyway. And this is season 3, where things were fastly falling apart anyway. A Glee Project contestant, and even winner, wasn't gonna change that.

Anyway, not sure what purpose the glee project was - probably to bring in more money for the network etc.

if we’re talking season 4 - well Darren and Chord were main cast by then, and could be totally relied on to have the Lima episode parts centred around them, (with Tina/Artie) and not Joe, who had no real story and was only brought in really as back up cast.

Plus Samuel was a good singer, but his songs would never have been as popular as Darren/Chord/Kevin’s.

I'm not sure based on this message if you're prev anon but I'm gonna assume so.

I believe there was a genuine effort, or at least intention behind the Glee Project to find the next generation of kids and continue the show. But the format is so flawed in so many places and it doesn't make much sense that they only set out to have one winner. And they had little to no acting challenges?? This was a TV show, not an album. Oof.

I think season 4, like all of Glee, just needed to be more of an ensemble. But by that point not only did we have three generations of Glee kids (two and a half?) but also alumni scattered all over the place and so I get that they couldn't focus on everyone. Then again, set up your show differently then! It makes sense that Joe wouldn't get anything other than a few lines and some features in songs because they were already doing fuck all with him in s3 apart from that lukewarm Quinn romance. I don't see how his ch can be salvaged apart from a complete rewrite.

I mean I don't agree with the assessment of Blaine and Sam as "bland gay and bland blond" oof that's harsh anon 😂 It's a valid opinion but I don't know how much more potential Joe would have had. Samuel had potential, I agree, but you know funny you should send this because I recently watched Glee Project season 1 for the first time. And it was sad to see that Joe was doomed from the start because RM only ever viewed him as The Christian One and didn't do anything even with that. The fact that he didn't even realize he already had Christian chs on his show? Tells you all you need to know. Joe was never gonna be more than an inconsequential issue of the week ch. Shame.

I mostly just feel sorry for Samuel because Joe ended being such a nothing character and then what was even the point of him in season 4? I can't tell if he or Rory was worse. Watching the Glee Project I truly think it was a miracle how they robbed Damian of all his charisma to create Rory, who only had two speeds: Irish and creepy horny.

You're right, what was the point of the Glee Project? I have so many thoughts and 90% of it is just reflecting on shit Ryan Murphy said during last chance performances lol.