Amber Riley, who starred as Mercedes in “Glee,” revealed on the “And That’s What You Really Missed” podcast that she refused to film a sex scene with Chord Overstreet’s character Sam.
“I told [‘Glee’ co-creator] Brad [Falchuk], ‘Absolutely not,’” Riley shared with her former co-stars 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 planned “full-blown” sex scene where Mercedes loses her virginity to her boyfriend, Sam. After Riley rejected the idea, Falchuk pitched a more toned down angle for the scene.
“He said, ‘Well what if we just, you know, have you guys hold hands and walk to the room and then like close the door,’” she said. “And I was just like, ‘No, I’m not doing it.’”
Riley continued, “I don’t tell y’all, no. I don’t fight on anything. … This, it would’ve been so awkward, and I feel like it would’ve read awkward.”
Riley also thought that the sex storyline for Mercedes, who was a devout Christian and even declared at one point that she was saving herself for marriage, was not something “my character would’ve done.”
“I mean, I grew up the church girl. It just wouldn’t happen. Like, not at that age, you know what I’m saying? Not that easily,” Riley explained. “And then being pressured and all that kind of stuff, and doing it for someone else when it’s not really what you really believe, the message that I felt that that would’ve sent to young girls wouldn’t have been great.”
Mercedes and Sam had an on-and-off relationship that began in the Season 2 finale of “Glee.” They ultimately decided in the fifth season that they should just remain friends.