Because revealing that you were bullied in high school is the new adopting an African kid, Lea Michele went on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and said she had to change her last name because everybody picked on her. Awww. Us Magazine reports:
Lea Michele and Rachel Berry aren’t that different after all. Like the character she plays on Glee, the 25-year-old actress was bullied in her younger years. So much so, in fact, that she changed her last name to get kids to stop picking on her! “Sarfati. That’s my real last name,” Michele said on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno Wednesday. “I don’t use it a lot because I got Lea So-fatty, Lea So-farty at school.”
Yeah, I’m sure that’s reason she changed her last name. It probably didn’t have anything to do with her first meeting with an agent and him saying, “Lea Sa..safa…safari? Fer..ati..i? Safar…do what now? What’s your middle name? Let’s go with that.” But in order to pander to her show’s fanbase, I guess it’s better to say you were bullied into changing your last name instead of the prospect of only getting work in Bollywood.