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Lea Michele: I Was Told I Wasn’t ‘Pretty Enough’ for Fame

08/03/2011 at 08:00 AM ET

Lea Michele Harper's Bazaar
Mark Seliger for Harper’s Bazaar

Though she’s currently one of Hollywood’s hottest stars, Lea Michele remembers a time when she was told she’d never make it. “How many managers told me, ‘Get a nose job. You’re not pretty enough?’” she recalls in the September issue of Harper’s Bazaar. “But I proved them wrong.”

Now one of Glee‘s soon-to-be graduates, Michele is savoring her status — and eyeing her next steps. “I don’t stop,” she says of her booming career. “It’s my nature. People have to tell me to slow down. I plan on playing every role on Broadway … I want to do movies, make music. Glee is only the beginning.”

And while some may see her ambition as snobbery, she says she and her castmates are just seizing the moment. “People have to remember this is all new for us,” she explains. “We’re all reasonably young … I’ve learned some lessons. But people are going to say what they want to say. I know who I am, and I’m not perfect.”

What she is, though, is stylish; lately, she’s been hitting red carpets in looks by Versace, Escada and Oscar de la Renta, and graces Bazaar‘s pages in Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, Valentino, Moschino and Lanvin. But fashion still feels new to the star. “I’m five-foot-three,” she muses. “I don’t look like a lot of other people, you know what I mean? I look like I’m 12.”

Admitting she’s “not a big spender,” she says she’s happiest at home with her Broadway beau, Theo Stockman. “What I do is what I do, and what he does is what he does, and when I come home, we have each other,” she says. For more with Michele, visit harpersbazaar.com/leamichele.

–Kate Hogan

Lea Michele Harper's Bazaar
Mark Seliger for Harper’s Bazaar

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Showing 78 comments

Ania on

I don’t really mind the nose, it’s just that her other facial features aren’t that remarkable. Same with Barbara Streisand. Their face is unremarkable because of their other features, not their nose. Lea Michele did have a slight nose tweaking, subtle enough to be almost unnoticeable, but it’s still there. She is an egotistical liar. Her singing’s pretty, although her acting lacks subtlety and depth.

Erin on

I don’t watch Glee but Lea is very attractive and seems like a nice person.

suzyQ on

Ugh. She sounds so self-absorbed. Just take the focus off your looks and do your job and be glad that you have one, Lea.

krystal on

she looks like Natalie Portman in the magazine cover… very beautiful young woman.

hailey on

I think she’s pretty.

Sarah on

I Love Lea! The Harper’s photo shoot looks amazing! Good for her. She is incredibly talented and beautiful and deserves her success. I hope we see a LOT of her in the future and I hope she never lets the haters bring her down.

JJ on

I applaud her for making a career based on actual talent and not caving to the Hollywood pressure to look perfect. I don’t think she sounds self-absorbed. She has a gift, she’s aware of it, and she wants to use it. What’s wrong with that?

Stacy on

Nose job? i never would have even noticed that her nose was supposedly weird until this article, and i still cant see anything weird about it.

Pseudonym Withheld on

I don’t particularly care for “Glee” that much, but I won’t say anything derogatory about it because other people do like the show and I do not want to talk negatively about their taste in television shows. That aside, I find Lea Michele physically attractive, and I don’t think anybody should tell another person that they are not “pretty enough”. Those managers should have used more tact and said they are looking for someone with a different kind of look than you have because saying that you don’t make a judgement on someone’s look as good or bad, just right for a role or wrong for it.

david on

Lea you go girl!!!! Lets look at the facts. She now thinks well enough about herself to acknowledge, that she indeed is able to be, and being beautiful, own her own destiny, despite being told she wasn’t good enough. She isn’t taking stardom for granted. LOL Lindsay, Paris.. I for one thinks Glee is a nice diversion for those that can now say , YES. I’m deserving of good things because I have the gusto to put myself out there. As well as being who I was meant to be!!!! Positive!!!!

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