ROOJIE

Eddie and Max's best concert at the Trailer Park 🎸✨

- RM advised her to play into the stereotype when auditioning for executives and make Mercedes the loudest possible diva bc that's all that studio execs understand

- on singing as Mercedes: "it doesn't have to be a perfect vocal, it just has to be an honest one"

- most of the Glee pilot was shot at her little brother's high school in Long Beach 😂

- 1st audition song: Chaka Khan "Tell Me Something Good"; 2nd song Dreamgirls "And I Am Telling You" which she was worried about bc she mostly sang "floaty soprano"

- the cast saw more of each other than their actual families and drama was inevitable with that many personalities together for 18 hours a day; she attributes her learning the grace to weather difficult moments during Glee to knowing she had a safe family and foundation and not everyone had that

- Amber had been optioned by Columbia for a solo album and was asked to pitch songs from it for Mercedes' solo career, which is where "Colourblind" came from

- for the first two seasons they could have studio time to try out things on songs, but as shooting got more hectic they switched to demo singers and would follow those recordings/vocal runs

- her work with the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation 😍

- Glee was a platform to her talents but she sees her first real vehicle was Dreamgirls, which she said was even harder, but she felt more appreciated and supported

- she and Naya collaborated on the choreography for "River Deep, Mountain High"; describes Naya as having been uber-talented -- super smart, quick-witted, could've done stand-up

- "she was obsessed with tater tots because her best friend got a boyfriend, so they made her love tater tots instead of just giving her a boyfriend to be obsessed with" (Amber is clearly trying to be diplomatic while describing this storyline lol, saying she'll "try to be PC")

- "I feel like Mercedes was on that pipeline of being super religious into being gay so she may have dibbled and dabbled a little bit when she got a little older! But samcedes was super cute, it was very much so a puppy love situation I think, that was her first boyfriend, but she definitely moved on after that. And could be queer. I don't think anybody in Glee Club was straight. There was nobody straight in that Glee Club."

- Amber used to talk about not getting married or having kids before winning a Grammy, so she thinks they put that into Mercedes' success post-McKinley

These sweeties love sunsets at the skatepark <3