Gwyneth Paltrow recalls 'tense' filming of “Glee” musical number 'Singing in the Rain/Umbrella'
- - Gwyneth Paltrow recalls 'tense' filming of “Glee” musical number 'Singing in the Rain/Umbrella'
Patrick GomezJanuary 4, 2026 at 7:00 AM
0
fox
Gwyneth Paltrow as Holly Holiday on 'Glee' season 2
The Glee team threw Gwyneth Paltrow into the eye of the storm on her very first episode — or at least into the rain.
The Shakespeare in Love Oscar winner joined the hit musical dramedy in season 2 for three episodes as substitute teacher Holly Holliday. Her work on the series won her the 2011 Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy, but filming didn't come without its challenges.
In her first of episode, "The Substitute," Paltrow performed Cee-Lo Green's "Forget You" with the New Directions glee club and "Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag" from Chicago with Lea Michele's Rachel Berry. But it was the finale — "Singing in the Rain" from the hit musical of the same name mashed up with Rihanna's "Umbrella" — that proved most stressful.
"I remember it was tense, because something was wrong with the water that day," the Marty Supreme actress tells host Gerrad Hall on Entertainment Weekly's The Awardist podcast. "There were bubbles. They were trying to get bubbles out of the water. There was some technical thing they were trying to figure out."
Courtesy Fox Television The cast of 'Glee' performs 'Singing in the Rain/Umbrella'
That said, "I had the best time doing that number," she affirms. It was so much fun. I just was drilling down on all the choreography. And then of course, it was a TV show, so it was like we did that whole thing and then it was like, 'Okay, lunch!' and we're done with that entirely, whereas if it was a movie, it would be the whole week. So it was like a whirlwind."
Returning twice more before the end of the season, Paltrow performed a handful of songs, including Prince and the Revolution's "Kiss" with Matthew Morrison's Will Schuester, the Chicks' version of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" with Naya Rivera's Santana and Heather Morris' Brittany, and Adele's "Turning Tables."
Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best in TV.
She also returned to Glee in 2014 for the show's 100th episode, but still most fondly recalls her first few days on the series: "That episode is, to me, one of the best things I've ever gotten to partake in — just in terms of the cleverness and the innovation."
Listen to Paltrow's full interview on The Awardist above.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
