It’s no secret Cory Monteith‘s life wasn’t always Gleeful.
Cory was extraordinarily open about his drug-addled past and the actor channeled the demons rumored to have killed him to portray drug addicted hustler Simon Weeks in cop drama McCanick in his last feature film.
Just last September, the 31-year-old spent time in Philadelphia to star alongside David Morse and Mike Vogel to play a drug-riddled criminal sent to prison for seven years on murder charges only to disappear after being granted parole. A manhunt then ensues to find Cory’s Simon.
We know. This sounds like a FAR CRY from Finn Hudson and the flick’s director, Josh C. Waller, was understandably hesistant about awarding the TV musical jock the gritty role ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ that is, until he knew how passionate Cory was about the opportunity.
Josh explained:
├óΓé¼┼ôIn my mind, I was envisioning a teeny little drug guy [for the role], but Cory Monteith is this tall, strapping man. But when I met with him, he wanted to do it so badly. He was very vocal about his past, and said he wanted to tap into things from his youth that he hadn├óΓé¼Γäót been able to use as an actor yet. He didn’t say it was a cathartic experience, but you could sense it.”
The director, who developed quite a close bond with his star, remembers the last time he saw Cory three weeks ago to watch the finished cut of the movie that has been submitted to the Toronto Film Festival.
Josh recalled:
├óΓé¼┼ôHe sent me an email later that evening after the screening saying he was so thankful and had a lot of pride in the role. He was nervous and scared — but it was that good fear. He said something along the lines of — ├óΓé¼╦£I can├óΓé¼Γäót wait to find out the release date so that I can tell the world about it.’ It├óΓé¼Γäós tricky, because you know there├óΓé¼Γäós a group of people that want to see the movie because it├óΓé¼Γäós his last film — but by no means does anybody want to exploit the tragedy. I want people to see the movie, because Cory deserves that. People would ultimately see that he had a lot more to offer artistically, and it├óΓé¼Γäós a shame that this happened because now he can├óΓé¼Γäót explore that.├óΓé¼┬¥
We didn’t know it was possible, but our heart just broke a bit more.
Clearly Cory was only just beginning to flex his acting muscle and REALLY show the world what he was capable of.
He had such a promising future and now we’ll never truly know just what he could’ve accomplished.
Even though we’re curious to see Cory conquer the challenging character, the eery subject matter is making us think twice about seeing his last ever big screen contribution.
Are YOU planning to see McCanick when it’s released??!
[Image via WENN.]