Amber Riley Revealed The One Glee Scene She Would “Absolutely Not” Film

It’s been almost nine years since Glee went off air, but there’s still more to learn about what went on behind the scenes of the beloved musical drama-comedy series. Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones) helped pull back the curtain in the Feb. 28 episode of Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz’s And That’s What You Really Missed podcast, and she didn’t disappoint. Her major revelation was that she refused to film a Samcedes scene that would have changed the course of the couple’s relationship.

Just Say No

Her character, Mercedes, first became romantically entangled with Sam (Chord Overstreet) in Season 2, and although they were off and on, it always seemed like they might get back together. A big sticking point was their differing views on sex before marriage. Mercedes wanted to wait, while Sam was ready to take things to the next level.

It turns out Riley and Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk were equally at odds over the couple’s trajectory. Riley shared on And That’s What You Really Missed that the writers penned a scene in which Mercedes lost her virginity to Sam, but she refused to film it.

“[Falchuk] gave me the blue pages or whatever. It was written,” she recalled of the episode. “I said no.”

Sticking To Her Guns

The script had what Riley described as “a full-blown scene,” and Falchuk seemed to think the on-screen intimacy might have been her concern. He offered a tamer alternative. “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 told McHale and Ushkowitz.

For Riley, it was still a no. “I was just like, ‘No, I’m not doing it,’” she said. She used the fact that she didn’t usually “fight on anything” to make her point, and she argued that it would have been “so awkward” and out of character for Mercedes. With her own background as “the church girl,” Riley didn’t believe Mercedes would have gone against her convictions at that point, so the decision to lose her virginity would have been about “being pressured” into it.

“The message I felt like that that would have sent to young girls wouldn’t have been right,” she added.

Protective Actors

Her story resonated with McHale, who felt they all tried to do right by their characters while starring on the show. “We all did protect our characters, like, to the best of our abilities,” he said. “We all thought about all of these things that might seem minor, like, very deeply … because each of us were representing some sort of marginalized group, and it was like, we all need to make sure we’re doing this with the best intention.”

And that might be why Glee and their characters still mean so much to so many people.