From show choir saint to sultry seductress: Lea Michele shakes off her geeky Glee image with a semi-naked photo shoot

By GEORGINA LITTLEJOHN

Temptress: Glee's Lea Michele leaves little to the imagination as she pouts sexily at the camera in pants, boots and a tutu to preserve her modesty


It's enough to make her alter ego run prudishly screaming back to the rehearsal room.
In what is probably her sexiest photo shoot to date, actress Lea Michele gazes seductively at the camera as she poses in nothing more than black pants and calf-high lace-up boots.

It's certainly a far cry from the knee-high socks, knitted motif jumpers and sensible shoes that have made her Glee character Rachel Berry a household name all over the world.

And as ironies go, Lea, 24, said life has imitated art for her by landing the role and she is actually a lot more like her character than some people would think.
The Broadway star stripped off down to her pants, hiding her modesty behind a black tutu as she teetered on lace-up high heeled boots for the sexy photo shoot for Marie Claire.

In another shot, she stands on a wooden block in a leotard and Charlotte Olympia platform heels as she oozes with attitude and sex appeal.

Lea has become a household name over the past 12 months, thanks to the international success of the all-singing, all-dancing Glee, in which she plays the annoying but super-talented Rachel, the female star of the William McKinley High show choir.

And she revealed, in her interview with Marie Claire, that her school life was not so far removed from that of her characters.

At eight years old, she got her first role on Broadway in the original New York production of Les Misérables after accompanying her friend to an open-call audition.
For the next six years she juggled stage and schooling, winning plaudits along the way until, at 14, she quit the theatre life after deciding she wanted to be ‘a normal student’.

But she said she - just like Rachel - didn't quite fit in, explaining: ‘My school was bit like Gossip Girl in that there was a lot of money and we didn’t have as much.
'It was very clear towards the end of school that I was different to those people and I didn’t like the things that they liked. I would go to parties and the best part of going would be the leaving. I would go to a party because I felt that’s what I should be doing. I’m such a loser!’


Hold on tight: Lea hangs from a rope on her platform heels oozing attitude towards the camera


She returned to the stage in 2006 in the award-winning production Spring Awakening, where she met, and became best friends with Glee co-star Jonathan Groff.

Two years ago he audition for the role of Rachel Berry in Glee came up, a part which was made for her and what she said has changed her life.


The November issue of Marie Claire is out now


She said: 'I auditioned once. I read and I sang On my Own and I sang a song from Thoroughly Modern Millie. Then I went straight in to meet the studio and I got it right away.

'The minute I read it, I wanted to play Rachel because I felt like I understood her and that she was a part of me.'

It's a role that has also won her numerous showbiz accolades, including an Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy.

But she is quick to point out that even though she receives the most attention, she said: ‘I feel very equal to my cast and I feel like I couldn’t do what I do without them.'

But is she as squeaky-clean as her good-living, early-to-bed early-to-rise character?
She said: 'I can honestly sit down in front of you and say I don’t smoke and I don’t do drugs. I never have and that’s who I am.

'These days I have one glass of wine and I’m completely gone. I’ve never been a “Let’s go out and have a cosmopolitan” kind of girl. I don’t even think I’ve ever tasted a cosmopolitan before. I much prefer a glass of wine and a bath at home at night to relax.’

But she does have one vice - a passion for tattoos, although she played down her nine inkings, which she said are 'so, so little'.

She has nine, each chronicling a significant milestone in her life. The first was a butterfly, on her back, at 16. There’s one for Spring Awakening, another, Imagine, after the John Lennon song, a gold star for Rachel Berry.


Misfits: The cast of Glee - the second series has just started in the US and comes to the UK in January


But she added: ‘I don’t have like a kiss on my butt or anything! They’re all tiny. All so, so, so little.’

Lea is currently starring in the second series of Glee, which started in the US on September 21 and is back on UK screens in January 2011.

● The full interview with Lea is in the November issue of Marie Claire is out now or a snippet can be read at www.marieclaire.co.uk/leamichele


source :dailymail