'Glee' Cast Recalls Emotional Final Episode

— -- There were plenty of tears during the filming of the final episode of "Glee," which airs next Friday.

Stars Lea Michele, Chris Colfer, Chord Overstreet, Jenna Ushkowitz and Darren Criss gathered recently to talk about the emotional finale on the "Ellen DeGeneres Show."

"We were watching Matt Morrison sing us all a song so we were very much in our own world experiencing this," Criss, 28, said of the final scene they filmed nearly two weeks ago. "And in one take they pulled a fast one on us, they took Matt out of it, and basically put the entire crew and production there looking at us."

Added Ushkowitz, 28, "It’s as if you take every family member and friend that you’ve ever loved and that you have to say goodbye to and put them all in front of you at once."

Michele, 28, said the moment was so emotional that the director had to yell "Cut."

"We cried so hard that they actually cut," she said. "We are loud criers, me and Jenna."

For Criss, who rarely cries, "It was really cathartic," he said. "Just to cry it out."

The cast wasn't only saying goodbye to each other and the crew, however.

They also remembered original cast member Cory Monteith, who died July 2013 from a mixture of heroin and alcohol at age 31.

"There’s a moment in the last episode that we had [to honor Monteith], and then obviously when we wrapped we all took a moment," Overstreet, 26, said.

"He was there, though, we could feel him," Colfer, 24, added. "He was there."

"Glee" will finally wrap after six years and six season on March 20. The cast appears on today's episode of "Ellen."

You can watch the video below: