Cory Monteith's Friend 'Thought He Was Doing Well' Before Death

The new docuseries The Price of Glee investigates the final days of the late Glee cast member Cory Monteith, but his close friend told Newsweek he seemed to be "doing really well" before his death.

Justin Neill was Monteith's roommate and good friend when the actor became famous for playing Finn Hudson on Glee. Monteith died at the age of 31 in a Vancouver, British Columbia, hotel room in July 2013.

The three-part documentary series, available now to watch on Discovery+, investigates the deaths of cast members Monteith, Mark Salling and Naya Rivera.

Neill, an actor, is one of many contributors to the series, along with friends, family, crew members, stand-ins and extras. He also spoke to Newsweek and addressed rumors surrounding star Lea Michele and shared his positive accounts of the actress.

Monteith was known to have struggled with addiction, and his cause of death was described as a "mixed drug toxicity" consisting of heroin and alcohol. But in the days leading up to his death, Neill said he seemed to be fine.

"My final memory with Cory? My final memories, in person, of Cory at the end, I thought he was doing really well," Neill told Newsweek. "I thought he was sober, and I thought he was really taking the work that he needed to do on himself and recover. I thought he was taking it very serious. I thought he was really taking care of himself."

Neill met Monteith before he became internationally famous on Glee, and saw firsthand how he became a star. As a close friend of a Glee cast member, Neill also spent time with Salling and Rivera, who died in 2018 and 2020, respectively.

"I knew both of them pretty well," Neill said. "I almost feel like I went through that whole pilot episode [with them] because we watched it 30 times before it even aired. We watched it with the cast members and hung out for six months with the cast members before any of it ever made it big.

"I can't really speak to Mark because that's a whole different level of I don't know what. But God, when I heard about Naya, it was just shocking to me. I knew her family a little bit, and to have her child there, man, that's rough."

Salling, who played Puck in Glee, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in 2017. He took his life in January 2018.

Rivera died in an accidental drowning in California's Lake Piru in July 2020. Her son was found asleep alone on a boat, with Rivera missing. The Ventura County Sheriff's Office said she likely "mustered enough energy to save her son, but not enough to save herself."

Neill said he can relate to a close friend of Rivera's because of their shared tragedy.

"I'm still close with one of her best friends. I wrote her this, 'I'm probably literally the only person close to you that knows exactly what you're going through.' And she was able to, you know, lean on and lean into that. I think that helped her a lot, to know that. It was crazy," he said.

This summer will mark a decade since Monteith's death. Neill said his experiences with his friend will stay with him forever. "Nobody has ever changed my life as much as Cory, and I'll probably say that till the day I die."

He added, "He put me on this different trajectory. But on a personal level, Cory would give me really good advice. He wouldn't give me advice that often, but when he did, it was some of the best life-changing advice I've ever received."