Can you believe THIS 'Glee' and Broadway star still gets stage fright?!
Lea Michele has been performing since she was a child on Broadway, but believe it or not, she still experiences stage fright!
"Oh, I still deal with stage fright all the time. It is something I've battled my entire life, no matter what project," Lea told People.
The "Glee" star is back on Broadway in a revival of the musical "Chess," and has found some ways to overcome her anxieties.
"I try to reframe those feelings, because I can be really quick to categorize everything I'm feeling as anxiety, and that's not always the case,” she explained. "So now I take a beat. If I really tune into how I'm feeling and give myself the space and the grace to actually examine those emotions, I can realize, 'Well, maybe it's not anxiety? Maybe it's not all fear? Maybe there's room for the fact it could actually be excitement in there for what I'm about to do?' And I'll transfer my energy into that as much as I can."
She added, "If I'm nervous, it just means that what I'm doing matters. I'll tell myself, 'It's worth it. It matters. There are high stakes to what you're doing. It's a challenge.' And that's not necessarily a bad thing, you know?"
The 39-year-old star also relies on family to help her through.
"The last thing I do before I go on stage is call my mother," she said.
Lea herself is a mom with two kids, son Ever Leo, five, and daughter Emery Sol, 15 months, with her husband Zandy Reich.
"I have two kids at home. When I'm there, that's my main focus. Then, the moment I get into the house, it's all about focusing on getting ready for the show, doing my warm-up, looking over my lines, getting my wig on, etc. But when that five minute mark hits, I need to get out of my head, so I pick up the phone and call my mother."
She continued, "My mom always calms me down. Our conversations, they ground me and remind me that I'm still that girl who started doing this when I was eight years old. Any nerves I may feel disappear, because all I can feel is love and gratitude."
