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Amber Riley Hilariously Dodges Questions About Lea Michele
“What’s more diverse, the cast of Glee or the Supreme Court?”
It looks like Amber Riley landed in the hot seat recently while appearing on ZIWE, getting grilled on Glee’s (lack of) diversity and the racism accusations against her former costar.
After Lea Michele was accused of racism and bullying by people who have worked with her in the past, Riley did her best to stay diplomatic about the whole situation, acknowledging that Hollywood has a problem with diversity and saying she hoped Michele “has grown,” while seeming reluctant to make any accusations herself.
“I’m not going to say that Lea Michele was racist. That’s not what I’m saying,” she said at the time. “That was an assumption because of what’s going on right now in the world and it happened towards a Black person. I’m not going to say that she’s racist.”
In a clip released ahead of Riley’s full episode, Ziwe bluntly asked, “You said that one of your famous coworkers wasn’t racist. Did you mean that she was?”
The uncomfortable but laughing actress dodged the question — twice — before Ziwe tried another angle.
“Would you say that your famous coworker doesn’t see race, and is in fact rude to all of her coworkers?” she asked.
Skipping over the first part, Riley responded, “I think she would probably say she doesn’t see race,” a fairly damning accusation in and of itself.
The six minute clip was littered with other deadpan probes into Glee that may have had the ever-polite Riley regretting her appearance on the show, including questions like, “What’s more diverse, the cast of Glee or the Supreme Court?” and "Would you say there was a race war on that production?"
The full episode itself starts streaming on Showtime December 9 — and it already feels like a must-watch.
Amber Riley rose to fame playing Mercedes on Glee.
Yes.
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Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
