Actress Dianna Agron, known for her breakout role as Quinn Fabray on Glee, recently appeared on the rewatch podcast And That’s What You REALLY Missed, hosted by her former castmates Jenna Ushkowitz and Kevin McHale. During the conversation, she shared deeply moving reflections on her late co-star Cory Monteith, emphasizing his kindness and leadership both on and off set.
Agron described Monteith as “a teddy bear” with a “big brotherly presence” who embodied genuine warmth and groundedness ― characteristics that resonated powerfully beyond the camera. She added plainly, “There was not an ungenerous bone in his body,” underscoring his generosity in everyday moments.
She recounted a particularly touching anecdote. At one of Monteith’s pool gatherings, Agron’s brother mentioned squinting in the sun due to a lack of sunglasses. Monteith promptly invited him inside to choose any pair from his collection, offering, “These are all my sunglasses. Just take a pair.” For Agron, that moment encapsulated the essence of who he was. She said the memory “gave her goosebumps.”
Beyond Monteith, Agron also expressed her enduring connection to the late Naya Rivera and Mark Salling, explaining that their presence “feel[s] so present in my heart, body, mind, soul, all of it.” Her memories of them “as people, as cast members, as our friends and family,” she said, remain vivid and will “never dissipate,” and there is “beauty in that.”
McHale and Ushkowitz revealed that the emotional weight of losing Rivera nearly derailed their podcast initiative, but ultimately they found healing in revisiting the show and celebrating the personalities behind their characters: “It really is a gift that we get to watch this and … how great they are as people shine through,” McHale shared.
Ushkowitz added that rewatching allowed her “to appreciate their talent more in addition to loving the humans that they were,” creating “a new place of healing” for cast and fans alike.
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