Idina Menzel is looking back on her Glee years with with the benefit of hindsight.

The Wicked and Frozen actor had a recurring role on the premiere season of Glee in 2010 as Shelby Corcoran, the birth mother of Lea Michele s character, high school student Rachel Berry. She went on to reappear during the musical series third season as part of a more substantial storyline.

At the time, it seemed like inspired casting. Not only do Menzel and Michele share a physical resemblance, but both women were established Broadway performers before landing their respective Glee gigs.

In a new interview, however, Menzel says playing Shelby wasnt great for the ego given that she is only 15 years Micheles senior in real life.

Youre worried youre not going to work again, and then people hire you to be someones mother when you probably should be their older sister, she told Irelands Stellar magazine, via the New York Post .

Menzel rose to fame in the late 1990s as Maureen in the smash musical Rent , which also starred Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp. She cemented her status as an era-defining Broadway performer in 2003 when she played Elphaba in Wicked , winning a Tony Award.