Glee’s Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz Recall the Moment They Realized Naya Rivera’s Talent was ‘Undeniable’

The Glee cast will always have a special place in their hearts for Naya Rivera.

Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz hosted a special episode of their rewatch podcast, And That’s What You REALLY Missed, dedicated to the actress who played Santana Lopez on the beloved teen dramedy series from 2009 to 2015. Rivera died from drowning while swimming off a rental boat with her son, Josey Hollis Dorsey, in Lake Piru in Ventura County, Calif., on July 8, 2020.

The pair, who played Artie and Tina on the show, recalled how Rivera would keep the entire cast entertained.

“When you think about her journey… from her doing her Monica impression of ‘The Boy Is Mine’ set to us getting Ryan to watch it because, oh my God, she’s so funny and she didn’t really have a lot to do yet on the show,” McHale said.

“Exactly,” Ushkowitz responded.

“It was like, ‘Oh my god, she can sing,’ and we didn’t know,” McHale continued. “And then watching her sort of like fight her way to get more in that way.”

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“It was almost undeniable. Right? Like, at some point, people were gonna figure it out, whether [through] the show or somebody else. That talent was gonna have to come out somewhere. If it didn’t come out on screen first… kind of like Heather and Brittany S. Pierce,” Ushkowitz recalled. “Because that was created behind the scenes because Ryan saw the undeniable talent that these people had and was like, ‘Let’s use it.’ He was learning about the superpowers that we had.”

Returning to the Monica impression, Ushkowitz recalls, “She would just sit backstage with that cackle and make us laugh so much.”

McHale also remembered how “powerful” Rivera was when she became Santana, adding, “The fact that they had her to handle such a difficult role, powerful role, complicated role, and [she was] just an expert. I think one of the best actors I’ve ever seen, one of the [best] singers I’ve ever heard.”

He continued, “And she never talked… like it was always shocking, I think going back and watching it now, because people would ask us, ‘How did she handle the responsibility of playing that role?’ I’m like, ‘You’d never know.’ ”

Ushkowitz agreed, noting, “She came on set and she had fun and she was professional. She showed up. She knew her stuff. She delivered a hundred times over. But, like, you never saw it on set where she was making you feel or think that she was working really hard.”

“She just kinda did it, and then she would do it, and you’d be like, ‘Wow. That’s crazy that that just came out of you and that you just did that, and then you’d watch it and be like, ‘Wow, everybody gets to see this now and experience this.’ It translated from the work to the screen to the audience, but you never saw it. She never presented it to the world in that way.”

“She never sought attention for it. She just wanted to be utilized for her gifts, and she was,” McHale concluded.