Entertainment

Monteith Battled Drugs, Demons in Last Film Role

by Kate Ward

It's a shame that McCanick wasn't on audiences' radars before Cory Monteith passed away. Because the release — which will premiere at September's Toronto Film Festival — looks intriguing, and not just because the Glee star is playing so against Finn Hudson's type.

Deadline's exclusive trailer for the film — about a street hustler (played by Monteith) who's hunted down by a detective (David Morse) after he's released from prison — shows a cat-and-mouse thriller, but not much of Monteith's drug-addled character. Of course, that could be because doing so would seem macabre and manipulative during a time when friends and fans of the Glee actor are still in mourning after he passed away from an overdose of heroin and alcohol in July.

Because, admittedly, our sudden attention to McCanick does seem a bit gross and misguided — would we have given Monteith's portrayal of a drug-addicted character a second thought prior to losing him at too young an age? Most definitely not. It is nice to see the actor earning props for a undoubtedly difficult role that required him to delve into his demons. But the fact that he had to die in order to get those props? So incredibly disheartening.

Image: Eagle Films