Ryan Murphy reveals the intervention to try and help “Glee” star Cory Monteith kicks drugs and stay clean

Glee creator Ryan Murphy has broken his public silence about the death of Cory Monteith in an interview with Deadline Hollywood.

He said the show’s cast will return to work as scheduled to work on a two-part Beatles episode. They will then shoot a third episode dealing with the death of Finn, the character played by Monteith.

There will then be a hiatus of undetermined length in order to decide how to move ahead the rest of the season.

Here is what Murphy had to say about the final months of Monteith’s life and the struggle to help him get clean.

“It is so very sad and tragic. Cory wasn’t just an actor on one of my shows, he was very important to me, and I was very invested in his sobriety. When I heard what was happening to him, I organized an intervention and got him into rehab last March. We socialized and we also fought, because while he was a lovely sweet guy, he was also a leader on the set, a strong personality and the only analogy I can think of is that he felt like an older son to me.”

“As soon as I heard what was happening, when we had two episodes left to go, I brought him to my office where we had the intervention. He said he wanted to finish the rest of the season, and I said absolutely not. We were not going to put a stupid TV show before his sobriety. I assured him he was not fired, that his job was secure, that he would leave today. He went with a whimper and not a bang and it was very emotional. On one hand, he was thrilled that people wanted to take care of him, though he also felt shame and regret. We had experts in the room and tried to let him know this was a disease. It was a tough and very emotional day and the last thing he said before he left was, ‘I want to get better.’ And I believed him.”

“The last couple of months, all indications were that he’d gone through the steps, he went to one place where it didn’t work and then he went to another, but there was still a lot of concern. A couple of weeks ago, he and Lea came to Fire Island where we were shooting The Normal Heart, and I honestly couldn’t tell what was going on with him. He didn’t seem quite himself, but when I confronted him he claimed he was clean. It has been a very difficult roller coaster ride, and all through that, and through the last week, Lea has been the most brave and courageous person I’ve ever met. She has dealt with an impossible situation with more humanity than you could ever hope for.”

“What is difficult is that while Cory was going through this struggle, I told him that maybe he would go light on the work. He told me, ‘Work is my salvation.’ I thought that it would help him to be around people who were good influences, so we envisioned a season that was heavy with his Finn character.”