Amber Riley Reflects on the 'Crazy' Amount of Time and Money Spent Filming “Glee” Pilot

Meredith WilshereSat, March 7, 2026 at 4:00 PM UTC

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Amber RileyCredit: Brian Feinzimer/Getty -

Amber Riley revealed the Glee pilot took a month to film, far longer than typical TV episodes

The pilot was filmed at her brother's high school in Long Beach, making the experience personal for her

"When I saw it, I was crying. I had seen nothing like it," she said on the Zach Sang Show

There was a lot of time and money spent on Glee before it even became the pop cultural phenomenon that it is today.

Amber Riley recently appeared on the Zach Sang Show to discuss how the series came to be, explaining that they shot the pilot but then "heard nothing for about eight months."

"I mean months, like it was months and months, and I'm like 'Oh well, I guess it didn't do anything,'" she recalled.

Riley, 40, was admittedly surprised by what she thought was a lack of interest given all they had put into the pilot.

"Mind you, the money that they had to have spent on that pilot, bro, is crazy," she said. "We shot the pilot for like a month. That's not normal."

Amber Riley on 'Glee'Credit: FOX Image Collection via Getty

The actress noted that most episodes are shot in "like a week."

The extra time and attention to detail, she emphasized, is shown in the final product, agreeing that it's one of the "greatest pilots of all time."

"When I saw it, I was crying. I had seen nothing like it," she said. "This is coming from someone who loves TV. I love television. When I saw that pilot... when I read the pilot, I was blown away."

Not only was the Glee pilot well written and directed, but it also hit close to home for Riley.

"When we actually shot it, I was like, they spent all that money on location. We shot most of the pilot at my little brother's school," she revealed. "A real high school in Long Beach. That's where the show is modeled after, the look of the auditorium ... they shot the auditorium, and they shot all the football stuff at the real high school, which is my little brother's high school."

"Everything just aligned. I saw my brother like every day while we were filming," Riley added.

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Riley also revealed that she had initially auditioned for the show by singing "Tell Me Something Good" by Chaka Khan and Rufus. However, casting director Robert J. Ulrich had her change course, asking her to sing "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls instead.

Despite feeling like the song was out of her wheelhouse, Riley gave it a try — and the rest is history.

"I surprised myself," she admitted.

"He literally dragged me around to every fricking casting director that was on that floor, [saying] 'You have to hear this,'" she recalled. "And mind you, they had been looking for Mercedes for months."

Riley played Mercedes Jones in the musical comedy, which ran from 2009 to 2015. The beloved FOX series also starred Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison, Lea Michele, Naya Rivera, Cory Monteith, Kevin McHale, Darren Criss and Jonathan Groff, among others.

Amber Riley on 'Dancing with the Stars'

During the six-season run, Riley revealed she turned down the offer to be on Dancing with the Stars three times before finally saying yes in 2013.

"Three times," Riley said. "I was just scared. I was terrified, and I think I was the first Glee cast member to do it. Of course, they were going to ask somebody on Glee to do it. We sing and dance like every single day."

She explained that the pressure of social media made her wary of joining the competition series.

"Glee was the beginning of the whole social media thing, and you can instantly see what people think about you. I never had to deal with that growing up," she said. "Having that access to know exactly, instantly, what people thought about you was just so nerve-wracking to me."

Despite her initial hesitancy, Riley and partner Derek Hough were crowned the champions, taking home the Mirrorball Trophy.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”