Cory Monteith will appear on the big screen in McCanick when the film premieres this coming Friday. The Glee star died in July of a drug overdose, and fans will no doubt experience a mixed bag of emotions when they see him in this role. Monteith portrays a character named Simon Weeks, who was also a drug addict. Cory had completed his last rehab stint just weeks before his death.

Monteith is almost unrecognizable in the film. His hair is long and he altered his voice a bit as part of his character’s persona. It’s a far cry from the clean cut and very handsome Finn Hudson fans idolized on Glee. This character definitely isn’t the kind that Lea Michele–the late Monteith’s girlfriend–or Rachel Berry–the character she played on Glee–would have associated with. But then, as history tragically proved, not all drug addicts look like Simon Weeks.

McCanick director Josh C. Waller claimed the role was “cathartic” for Cory Monteith.

“You could sense it,” he said during an interview back in July. “In my mind, I was envisioning a teeny little drug guy, but Cory Monteith is this tall, strapping man,” the filmmaker recalled. “But when I met with him, he wanted to do it so badly…He was very vocal about his past, and said he wanted to tap into things from his youth that he hadn’t been able to use as an actor yet.

Check out the official McCanick trailer.

It will probably be akin to spooky for many people to see Cory Monteith on the big screen as Simon Weeks. Everyone held out such high hopes for the talented young actor. It was just about a month before he died that he had the following to say about life–and the drug addiction that would ultimately snuff it out.

“I’m lucky on so many counts—I’m lucky to be alive,” he said, adding that when he was a teenager, he would take “anything and everything, as much as possible. I had a serious problem.”

Will Lea Michele attend the premiere of McCanick this coming Friday or will Cory Monteith’s role in the film hit too close to home for the bereaved actress?

Image via Wikimedia Commons