Naya Rivera wants you! And if you have big boobs and are hot — and don’t mind if she’s mean more times than not – then she really wants you.
Now, to clarify, the always-striking Rivera was talking about her wants for her alter ego Santana Lopez on the upcoming third season of Glee. Needless to say, Rivera — and co-star Heather Morris — seem to be up for anything this season. Witness the following exchange at the press conference for the Glee 3D movie, which was filmed over two nights at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey earlier this year and opens nationwide this weekend.
Naya: We’re really excited to get back to work. It’s like going back to school. We’re really excited about this season. As far as what I would like to see my character, I don’t know – I’d like to see her be pretty mean this year. Like, real mean and maybe get a girlfriend.Heather: I’d like to see her have a girlfriend. Like a hot girlfriend.
Naya: (grinning) With big boobs!
Heather: She has to be hot. Gorgeous.
Dianna Agron, sitting on the other side of Morris, was asked by AfterEllen.com if she was feeling a bit left out by the Naya/Heather banter and she smiled and declared, “I’ve said Quinn can always be gay.” To which Heather added, “I was asked who would be Brittany’s next hook up and I said ‘It will be Dianna for sure – everybody wants to be with Quinn!'” Agron simply shrugged and said, “Quinn’s a popular girl.”
The night before the movie’s press conference, members of the cast were present in Malibu for the Fox party for the Television Critics Association summer press tour and Rivera was beaming as she expressed how honored she was to be ranked #1 on AfterEllen.com’s Hot 100 list earlier this year. “I do want to say that I’m super excited about being #1 on AfterEllen. That’s crazy! It was awesome!” Rivera harkened back to our interview in May at the GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco when I told her she was definitely in the top 3. “When you said top three, that was already an honor, but #1 is the best!”
As for what the future holds for Santana this year on Glee, Rivera expressed her excitement for what is to come even if she isn’t too sure what that might entail. “We just got the new scripts last night and it’s sort of that set-up process so it’s going to be a surprise to all of us. I have no idea what is going to happen with her. I know Ryan says she’s not going to mess around with boys anymore, so she’ll be a lesbian.”
Asked if she was concerned at all that Santana’s stories might suddenly be limited to only gay-centric stories and Rivera shook her head. “I don’t think they’d do that. They’ve been through it before with Kurt and he’s not all about being gay. He touches on it and he deals with it but there’s so much more to him and there’s so much more to Santana. I don’t think the writers would do that so, no, I’m not worried about that.”
With Glee 3D opening this Friday nationwide, can fans expect to put on their 3D glasses and get a new chapter to the Brittana story? Not so much, according to Rivera. “It’s not really like that,” she said. “We have interaction in some numbers but we don’t bring the storylines to the concert. We bring our characters and that’s about it. There aren’t any storylines. We don’t have any numbers together but she does do ‘Slave’ and it’s fantastic so we’ll see that.”
Back at the Glee 3D press conference, Rivera and Morris both expressed the gratitude at the impact the Brittana storyline has had on Glee fans, especially the young girls who need some guidance over very grown-up feelings they might be having for their girlfriends. “I guess I can say Heather and I both receive letters constantly now from teenage girls that are struggling with their sexuality,” said Rivera. “I think that since we’ve tapped into that, they have something to look up to that maybe wasn’t on television before in that way and we have countless stories.” Morris added that she also thinks the Glee story is good for girls because girls, in her opinion, “are just more quiet about it. I’m sure growing up, I probably had a handful of girlfriends who weren’t sure and they just kept it under wraps. It wasn’t as accepted to just say it out loud. I think it’s easier now.”
Did the cast realize they had tapped into something back when it first premiered in the fall of 2009? Rivera explained that before the show had aired “We were naïve to it. We were just the performers. We were in this room watching the show every Monday night with Ryan and we didn’t really see everybody else seeing the show. We wanted to be included and go to all the after parties and then [the show] hit and we were being invited and we were like ‘Oh, that’s cool’ so we would be invited [laughs] and then we could say no.”
Has Rivera had any downtime at all? “I had a couple of weekend vacations,” she said, “and that was really nice. I went to Mexico, which was beautiful, and I went to Vancouver and then I started working in the recording studio and that was fun. Now it’s back to work on the day job.” And now that she’s going into her third season on the international hit television series, is her endless work schedule still an adjustment? Rivera shakes her head with a satisfied smile. “I’m used to it and know what to expect. I like being busy like that.”
For more on the Glee 3D movie, go to facebook.com/Glee3DMovie and check back later this week for our review. The third season of Glee premieres September 20 on Fox.
