Tonight’s Glee episode, “The Quarterback” promises to be an emotional tribute to its fallen star, Cory Monteith, who died of a toxic mix of heroin and alcohol in a Vancouver hotel room this past July.
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Writing and shooting the episode, which both memorializes and bids farewell to the character Corey played, Finn Hudson, was hard on everybody, from the creators on down to the crew.
“Almost everything in that episode is from the first take of every performance because the actors and the crew had a really hard time shooting it,’ Murphy said. “I’ve never seen a crew that you can’t continue shooting because they’ve left the room sobbing. It was very hard. I struggled even working on it because what they felt, not just about Finn but Cory.”
Co-creator, Brad Falchuk directed the episode and said it was “the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” His method, basically demanded the actors live their personal grief in front of the camera.
“My job as a director was to keep everyone in that grief because I didn’t want anything fake in the episode, and I didn’t want anyone to pretend they were sad,” he added. “I wanted them to be sad about what they were sad about and to stay in that for the two weeks it took to shoot that — and to keep pulling everyone back and to take care of them when they went there — was a lot. I had a hard time. I’m more proud of it than anything I’ve ever done. It’s for Cory.”
On writing the episode with co-creator, Ryan Murphy:
“We talked through a lot of different ideas of the possible ways to do this,” Falchuck said. “We sort of came upon what we decided to do–and it was this. Ryan and I sort of wrote it very quickly. It was emotionally very challenging to write, but as a piece of work not very hard to write. We’ve been writing the show for a long time and know the characters very well. There was less rewrites than we probably had in years.”
Santana, played by Naya Rivera, had a rocky relationship with the character Finn Hudson. She plays a pivotal role in the episode:
“[Cory’s passing] is heartbreaking and it’s even harder to have to mourn the loss of your friend on camera when it’s not acting, per se. It’s a real thing and it’s trippy in that way. It’s tough. but at the same time it’s good that we’re doing it because the fans loved him just as much as we do. It will be good to get a sense of closure and be included in it. I feel like that’s what Cory would have wanted.”
Viewers never learn how Finn dies. Also, there are NO references to drugs or addiction in the episode, although, reportedly, drug hotline PSAs will run during commercial breaks. The story is a meditation on grief, says Falchuk, and how the people who knew and loved Finn deal with his passing.
“There is no mention of addiction at all in the episode,” Falchuck said. “This episode is about grief, it’s not about any message. It’s about what it means to lose a friend. It’s not about how that friend is lost, it’s just about how people react to that loss.”
“It’s a tribute to him,” he said. “And I think it’s lovely that it’s hard. There’s no answers in it. Nobody says anything that makes anybody else feel better…because nobody feels good about it. Just like in real life. We went in the day of shooting and nothing was really said. Everyone knew what we were there for. He’s our friend. He’s everybody’s friend. No one had to be reminded about what it was about. Nobody needed any help. There was a lot of crying and a lot of hugging, a lot of taking a moment. And lot of quiet. It was a very quiet set.”
