GLEE - Interview with Mercedes & Kurt

We caught up with the kids from Glee during their recent trip to Australia...
Interviews by Demeter Stamell

Amber Riley & Chris Colfer – Mercedes & Kurt

The show’s been extremely popular. Why do you think it’s been so successful?
Amber: I think that people are loving the way we’re breaking down these stereotypes. They’re watching the show and they’re seeing a little bit of themselves in each and every character. It kind of has something for everybody – for the kids, for the music lovers, for the jocks, for the parents. A lot of parents are saying, “Finally, a show that I can sit down and watch with my kids. I can only watch so much Disney Channel!”
Chris: There is an element that everyone can relate to.

What was the audition process like for this show?
Chris: Stressful! [Laughs]
Amber: It was very nerve-wracking, but once you audition and you read the script, you’re like, “I really want to be a part of this show.” I didn’t want to miss this epic movement. It wasn’t really gruelling, it was just more, “Oh my God! I hope that I did well at this. I hope that I got in.”

How did you prepare for your roles?
Chris: I didn’t want to make him the stereotypical annoying gay guy in the background. You know, “You go, girlfriend!” I wanted to make him different from that. I made him more internally, rather than externally flamboyant. He’s very superior rather than inferior. [Laughs]
Amber: I don’t know if I really prepared for it. Whatever felt right I did, and if they liked it, they told me, and if they wanted me to change it, then I did. The thing that (creator) Ryan Murphy told me was, “Just have fun and don’t hold back.” Because Mercedes is a character that doesn’t hold back. She just goes for it.

How would you describe your characters in five words?
Amber: Mercedes is… loud, obnoxious, talented, she’s caring and fashionable.
Chris: I’d say fashionable, superior, fierce, secretly vulnerable, and maybe a little sad.

In what ways are you similar and different to your characters?
Amber: I’m similar in that I say what I want. If I feel that it needs to be said, even just sticking up for people and saying when something isn’t right or confronting people. I think we’re the same in that aspect. Where we’re different is I know the time and the place. Mercedes does not always. [Laughs]
Chris: Kurt – he’s fashionable, I’m friendly. He’s superior, I’m sarcastic. He’s fierce, I’m farce. He’s vulnerable, I’m vulnerable, too. He’s sad, I’m sad a lot of times, too. [Laughs]

Were either of you in show choir when you were in high school?
Chris: No, my school didn’t have a show choir.
Amber: My school didn’t have a glee club. But even if they did, I don’t know if I would have had time for it! [Laughs]
Chris: A lot of schools don’t have glee clubs, but maybe we’ll bring them back.
Amber: We have! A lot of schools are like, “We’re making our school start a glee club or a drama club!” I think it’s very important for kids to voice what they want. It’s important to have extra-curricular activities. Not everyone is good at sports, so if you have something like music, then maybe you can keep some more kids in school.
Chris: And off the streets!

The show’s obviously having a really positive effect on kids. How does it feel to be a part of that?
Amber: It’s an honour. It’s an honour just to be associated with such a great script. Our directors and our writers and producers – they really trust us with what they give us. They even let us give our opinions, whereas a lot of directors aren’t like that.
Chris: They’re hands on, but when it comes to us, they’re very hands off. They just let us go.

Do you feel like you’re role models though?
Amber: We’re models of the roles we play. I don’t know if we’re role models though. Mercedes is a diva, so I’m going to model that character, but I don’t know if I want people going around busting windows. [Laughs]
Chris: I think there will be a lot of doors opening, so I think it’s good, especially with the times that we’re living in, for there to be a positive gay character on a TV show for gay people to look up to.

If you had the chance to go back to high school, would you have done anything differently?
Chris: I would have given up on the writer’s club. I spent way too much time trying to make it something it wasn’t. I was trying to make that a glee club. I was trying to make it the popular thing to do. I tried and it almost killed me. [Laughs]
Amber: I don’t think I would have done anything any differently. I wasn’t completely happy with my high school experience, but I just went through it. It was kind of like, “I have to be here, so I’m just going to go through the motions and graduate and I’ll be done with it.” I knew what I wanted to be in life, and it was a singer and a dancer and an actress. It was almost like, “This is just a stepping stone.”

Tell us something about each other that we probably don’t know.
Amber: He plays with little swords from the movie… What is it?
Chris: Elektra. I’m a very competent swordsman. Amber is a good friend to have. She has your back, and if anyone is rude to you, she can handle herself. I’ll be like [puts on a whining voice], “Amber those people were mean to me…” and they’ll be on the floor in two seconds flat. Or running away. [Laughs]

How do you think you’ll deal with the tabloids?
Chris: I’m going to frame every tabloid that I’m in.
Amber: One thing that we’ve learnt is that we’re smarter than them. We pretty much know how to work with that.
Chris: We’re not stupid and we don’t play crazy games.
Amber: We’re a lot smarter than them, and any rumour that comes out, we don’t feed into it. We kind of know how the media works – if you feed into it, it just gets worse. Look at Britney Spears – when Britney fed into it, everybody just went crazy, but when she went away and was quiet, they left her alone.

The performance scenes are pretty intense. How hard is it churning them out on a weekly basis?
Amber: I would say that every week it gets easier. Every episode it got easier, because we got into a routine and it stopped becoming learning how to dance and it started becoming how to pick it up a bit quicker. Now you kind of know your body a little bit better, so now we’re just going to go in, we’re going to watch, we’re going to do and we’re going to record. The deadlines got closer – instead of having two weeks of rehearsing, we have two days or the day before. There was a wheelchair number that we did and we learnt that in a day. When we did the song, “Keep Holding On”, we learnt the dance the day before. We didn’t even start it until the day before.

Does it get stressful?
Amber: Not for performers.
Chris: Maybe on the inside. [Laughs]
Amber: Whatever our directors and producers and writers are writing, we really want to make it come alive and you want to make it visual, so that’s the most stressful part, because you want to make them proud and make sure that they’re comfortable with the work that you do. But we’re performers – we love to do this!
Chris: It’s not stressful all the time.
Amber: It can be a lot of fun.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve had to do in the name of Glee?
Amber: Eighteen hours! [Laughs]
Chris: Throw a slushie in my own face.
Amber: That’s probably the craziest thing you’ve ever had to do!
Chris: (I had to do it) three times, because we didn’t get it the first time.
Amber: Now there’s 12 kids in the glee club, and all 12 of us had to throw slushies at Mr Schuester and all at one time. That was amazing!

If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?
Chris: I would love to be a scenic designer. That would be my number one priority. Even though I love acting and writing, I would love to be a scenic designer for a Broadway musical!
Amber: It would be between being a hair and makeup stylist – I really love doing hair and makeup – or a teacher.

Were you inspired by the show?
Amber: No, I’m just really bossy and I like telling people what to do. [Laughs] What better way than being a teacher!

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