Idina Menzel Says Playing Lea Michele's Mom in 'Glee' 'Wasn’t Great' for Her Ego

"I sucked it up," the Broadway star said of the role, which she took only 3 months after giving birth to her son Walker

Idina Menzel was not entirely gleeful at the prospect of playing Lea Michele’s on-screen mom.

In 2010, the Broadway star, 52, appeared on hit series Glee as Shelby Corcoran, show choir coach and biological mother of Rachel Berry, a high school sophomore portrayed by Michele, 36.

Now, over a decade after her debut episode of the Fox show aired — when Menzel was 38 and Michele was 23 — the Frozen star is opening up about how it felt to play the mother of a teenager right after welcoming her first child, Walker, in real life.

Put simply, it “wasn’t great” for her ego, Menzel said in a new interview with Stellar Magazine.

Related: Idina Menzel Says She Almost Played Fanny Brice in a 'Funny Girl' Revival but Thought She Was 'Too Old'

“You’re worried you’re not going to work again, and then people hire you to be someone’s mother when you probably should be their older sister,” she told the Irish magazine (via The New York Post).

“It just wasn’t great for the ego,” Menzel admitted, adding that she “sucked it up” because she “was excited to work with [showrunner] Ryan Murphy and be a part of that hit show.”

The Enchanted star shared that when received the offer to portray Corcoran, she had just given birth and feared that opportunities like her role on Glee would become increasingly rare.

“I had my son Walker and then three months later, I got the call,” she reflected. “And so I said, ‘yes.’”

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The Tony winner said that she not only “sucked it up” but also “sucked myself into my clothes” — literally. The then-new-mom was still breastfeeding, and “couldn’t fit into any of the costumes,” she told the magazine.

After her introduction in season 1 of the series, the actress’ Glee journey was far from over.

She went on to play the rival show choir coach sporadically for three more seasons, solidifying herself as an iconic character through performances of songs including “Poker Face” and “Somewhere" — both duets with Michele.

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Menzel's journey with motherhood has also continued in full force.

The Uncut Gems star co-parents 13-year-old Walker with ex-husband Taye Diggs. Now married to actor Aaron Lohr, 47, the “Let It Go” singer underwent in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments during her 2018 national tour in an attempt to become pregnant with Lohr's child.

"Maybe before meeting me, [Lohr] didn't think he wanted to have kids, and then he sees how good of a dad he can be, so I wanted that for him" Menzel told PEOPLE last December, adding that the actor “has been the most amazing man to [Walker].”

Related: Idina Menzel Opens Up About Educating Herself While Raising a Mixed-Race Son: 'It's on Us'

Four years after wrapping the tour and ceasing the treatments without becoming pregnant, Menzel told PEOPLE that she felt content with the results of her IVF journey, and said that both she and her husband "moved beyond that."

"I have this amazing son and I was fortunate enough to have him," the singer said of Walker. "And the pregnancy was pretty easy and I conceived easily, and there's a lot of people that don't even get to have that."

Related: Idina Menzel Opens Up About Her IVF Journey: 'It Just Wasn't Meant to Be'

She continued: “I think going through all that, you're so exhausted by it that finally, it becomes apparent like, 'I don't want to do this anymore and it just wasn't meant to be,' and you're resolved in that.”

"[Lohr] sees Walker as his own kid at this point anyway," she added. "I think we feel content and lucky with what we have."

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