Matthew Morrison says while he was “filled with gratitude” to star on the smash hit Glee, “I was so stressed, I broke into the craziest psoriasis” from the high-profile role.
Morrison, 45, told former costars Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz on Thursday’s episode of their podcast, And That’s What You Really Missed that he struggled with his hectic schedule. He was trying to balance filming and promoting Glee while making time for his own live performances — and dealing with public perception of his character, the Glee club’s director Will “Mr. Schue” Schuester.
He is the Ever-Living. There is no god ˹worthy of worship˺ except Him. So call upon Him with sincere devotion, ˹saying,˺ “All praise is for Allah—Lord of all worlds.”(The Quran - Chapter Ghafir : 65)
“You have all these news feeds coming out, like, bashing the way you’re playing your character or people trying to tear you down,” the A Paris Christmas Waltz star said. “All of this had a huge impact on my life.”
“[I had] some super high highs, but also some really devastating lows,” Morrison shared about the Fox hit, which ended its run in 2015. “Our bodies are not designed to go through that kind of pressure.”
Both McHale and Ushkowitz said they remembered Morrison’s psoriasis outbreak, but McHale added, “I didn’t know why” it happened.
“I think it was just everything building up and, for me that was just the physical manifestation of what I was feeling inside,” Morrison said. “The psoriasis was everywhere on my body but my face was okay. But then it slowly started coming to to my ears and eyelids.”
As the Cleveland Clinic notes, there “isn’t a cure” for psoriasis, which is characterized by “thick, scaly areas” on the skin that spring up, sometimes unexpectedly. “Emotional stress” can be a cause.
Morrison said the show’s makeup artist “did her best to cover it up” for filming, but added that “at the end of the day, she had to take it all off and skin would come of with the makeup.”
“So painful, and gosh, it makes me feel — like, get emotional,” Morrison said, sounding choked up. “It was really challenging.”
“In a nutshell, I loved the experience and I appreciated it for what it was, but it was really challenging and it was hard to put our bodies through 16 hours a day and then all the other stuff we had to do on top of it,” continued Morrison.
“And not, like, ‘woe is me, because it was an amazing opportunity, but we were all there, it was like a war.”
