Creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan have heard the overwhelming fan demand for Brittana and are rising to the occasion. The Glee powers that be were joined by Naya Rivera, Heather Morris and a slew of their co-stars Wednesday at the Paley Center for Media’s PaleyFest panel in Beverly Hills where AfterEllen.com was there to get all the Gay Sharks details.
While Rivera and Morris were both rushed through the red-carpet arrivals – Rivera paused to tell us that she’s “really happy to portray” the gay story line – Falchuk, whom Murphy noted was the one driving the pairing, said the words we’ve been wanting to hear about our favorite bitchy former Cheerio.
“Santana is now out, internally,” he told AfterEllen.com. “Whether she’s dating somebody or not, we don’t know. But we think we’ve made a big step in giving the world that character. Whether her and Brittany will work out we don’t know.
“(Lesbian visibility) was our intention,” Falchuk added. “We want to make sure everybody is included. Santana is a lesbian. She might not be ready to come out yet, but she is.”
“A lot of people are very interested in that relationship,” he said during the panel. “We now have a major character on one of the top shows on TV who is a lesbian. Whether she’s dating someone or not is not really what we’re getting at here. What we’re trying to do is explore that character and what it means to be that character. Brittany will be a part of that exploration but the focus will be on Santana’s struggle with acceptance.”
As for fan response, Falchuk noted that it’s all been positive. “I heard some stories of people coming out after that episode and it was very moving,” he told AfterEllen.com.
Rivera noted that fan response to the episode in which she professed her feelings for Brittany has been “overwhelming and humbling.” “I hear every day on Twitter things that warm my heart,” she said during the panel. “There was one girl who said she’d contemplated suicide. Other people have said they’d had the courage to come out after the episode. I hope I handled it responsibly. I’m more than honored.”
Co-star Chris Colfer noted that while he didn’t expect the Brittany-Santana story line to develop to its current state, he’s happy with the pairing and hopes Kurt can take Santana under his wing.
“They’re both very bitchy characters so I feel like they could bond,” he told AfterEllen.com. “Maybe Kurt could teach her to be a little bit nicer – and a little bit more out.”
Jane Lynch was happy to see lesbian representation on the show. “I love that it looks like Santana is gay, it’s lovely. It’s nice to have a gay girl because we have such nice gay boys,” she told AfterEllen.com.
While the writers were tight-lipped on if romance is next for our favorite pinkie-holding pair, Murphy did tease that there will be “a lot” more of the pair in the remaining Season 2 episodes and that there will be a complication with Santana’s upcoming new love interest. As to if said love interest is male or female, Murphy replied: “Knowing her, maybe both!”
Rivera, however, knows just what would happen to Santana and Brittany: “I’d probably get her pregnant and we’d have a spinoff,” she said to roars of laughs from the cast and audience. “But Santana should be with her. I’d like to see her end up with Brittany.”
Murphy, meanwhile, had one question for AfterEllen.com readers when asked how much the Brittana pairing was brought on by vocal lesbian fans: “Are you happy now?”
So will Brittany and Santana wind up together? Murphy and company haven’t decided yet, but they seem to be listening.
