Glee 's Kevin McHale says Naya Rivera and Jenna Ushkowitz staged an 'intervention' for him over steroid use
Glee star Kevin McHale is opening up about the "intervention" Jenna Ushkowitz and Naya Rivera once staged for him over his steroid use.
The actor, who played Artie on the hit musical series, revealed on a recent episode of the And That's What You Really Missed podcast that he became "sick as a dog" while filming Glee's second season in 2011. In order to feel better amid his busy schedule, McHale said he was prescribed "all kinds of medicine," including the steroid prednisone.
However, the drug came with a slight caveat. "It turned me into a monster," McHale recalled, while noting that the medication also gave him the "courage" to "fight" for a spot on the "Thriller/Heads Will Roll" mash-up in the season's 11th episode, "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle."
Bennett Raglin/WireImage 'Glee' stars Naya Rivera, Kevin McHale, and Jenna Ushkowitz
But his use of the steroids also raised some serious red flags for his costars. McHale remembered once having dinner with Cory Monteith on a plane when Rivera and Ushkowitz, who were seated nearby, took him aside to voice their concerns.
"You were all like, 'So, hey, um… So why are you taking these steroids?' And I go, 'Well, because I'm sick and I'm supposed to take them,'" he said. "[They said], 'But it's not the antibiotic, right?' I'm like, 'No.' [They're] like, 'Okay, I think you should stop taking them.' And I was like, 'Why?!'"
The pair began to list the negative side effects they were seeing in their friend's behavior. "'You're not sleeping. You're acting crazy,'" he recalled them saying at the time. "'You need to stop taking them.'"
McHale understood immediately. "I was like, 'Yeah, I think you're right,'" he said. "I hadn't slept in days. I was losing my mind."
Ushkowitz went on to explain that McHale's steroid use, in the beginning, was "necessary." Still, McHale added, "It was a hard lesson to learn."
Listen to McHale discuss the intervention in the podcast episode above.
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