Amber Riley Refused To Film A Sex Scene With Chord Overstreet In ‘Glee’: “It Would’ve Been So Awkward”

Amber Riley once refused to film a sex scene with her Glee co-star and onscreen boyfriend Chord Overstreet.

The actress, who played Mercedes in Ryan Murphy‘s musical series, made the revelation while chatting with her former co-stars Jenna Ushkowitz and Kevin McHale on a recent episode of their And That’s What You Missed podcast.

According to Riley, the show was set to feature a scene in which Mercedes lost her virginity to Overstreet’s character Sam. However, she said she told Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk, “Absolutely not.”

The storyline had already been “written,” Riley remembered, telling her longtime pals, “It was a full-blown scene.”

She continued, “[Falchuk] said, ‘OK, well what if we just have you guys hold hands and walk into the room and then like close the door?” But she vetoed that, too.

“I was just like, ‘No. I’m not doing it. I don’t ever tell you guys ‘No,'” she recalled. “I don’t fight about anything. But, this?! It would’ve been so awkward and I feel like it would’ve read awkward.”

Since Mercedes was a Christian who was openly saving herself for marriage, Riley noted that losing her virginity in high school “just wasn’t something my character would’ve done” and she wanted to “let her stick to her guns.” Ushkowitz agreed that it “wasn’t necessary” for the storyline, while McHale pointed out how each actor fiercely protected their characters — especially since most of them were representing a marginalized group.

For Riley, it simply didn’t seem realistic for her character to have sex that young.

“I mean, I grew up the church girl. It just wouldn’t happen,” she said. “Like, not at that age, you know what I’m saying? Not that easily.”

Riley added, “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.”

After breaking up multiple times on the show, Mercedes and Sam decided the end their romantic relationship in Season 5. Meanwhile, Riley and Overstreet remained good friends long after the series ended in 2015, with the latter revealing on a 2023 episode of And That’s What You Missed that they had recently reunited.

“We were doing shots and hanging out,” he said. “It was so good to see her. It’s like running into family that you haven’t seen in forever.”