Cory Monteith had his eye on Lea Michele before the two even crossed paths. In a "Glee" BTS special, Monteith wasn't afraid to admit that he'd conducted some internet sleuthing on his co-star before meeting her for the first time (via Yahoo! News). He explained, "I heard about this Lea Michele Safarti, so I went on YouTube and looked at all these videos of [Michele] performing onstage."
All that sleuthing, however, did nothing to calm Monteith's nerves. When he finally saw Michele for the first time in the flesh, the young actor was rattled. "The first impression I had when I met Lea was, I was intimidated. Honestly, I was. I was intimidated because [she is] very talented," he confessed in the same interview.
In some ways, Monteith's initial reaction was justified. In 2009, when "Glee" took off, Michele was known for starring in the Broadway hit "Spring Awakening." Monteith, on the other hand, knew almost nothing about the world of musicals. In one of his first public appearances, the Canadian heartthrob told Undercover, "I've yet to see a musical theater show in my life ... so ['Glee'] has been a huge education, you know, and alongside the likes of a Broadway star." Luckily, these differences didn't stop the pair from connecting, both onscreen and in real life.
