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Billboard Women in Music 2024
Amber Riley, who played Mercedes on “Glee,” revealed in the “And That’s What You Really Missed” Podcast who refused to film a sex scene with Chord Overstreet’s character Sam.
“I told (‘Glee’ co-creator) Brad (Falchuk), ‘Of course not,’” Riley shared with former castmates and podcast hosts Jenna Ushkowitz and Kevin McHale. “He gave me the blue pages or whatever. It was written. I said no.'”
Riley said there was a “full-blown” sex scene planned in which Mercedes loses her virginity to her boyfriend, Sam. After Riley rejected the idea, Falchuk proposed a more toned-down angle for the scene.
“He said, ‘Well, what if, you know, we had them hold hands, walk to the room and then close the door?’” she said. “And I said, ‘No, I won’t.’”
Riley continued: “I’m not telling everyone, no. I don’t fight for anything. … This would have been very awkward, and I feel like it would have read awkward.”
Riley also thought that the sexual history of Mercedes, who was a devout Christian and even stated at one point that she was saving herself for marriage, was not something “my character had done.”
“I mean, I grew up a church girl. It just wouldn’t happen. Not at that age, you know what I’m saying? Not so easily,” Riley explained. “And then feeling pressured and all that kind of stuff, and doing it for someone else when it’s actually not what you really believe, the message that I felt like that would have sent to young girls wouldn’t have been great.”
Mercedes and Sam had an on-again, off-again relationship that began in the season two finale of “Glee.” They finally decided in season five that they should remain friends.