Andrew Eccles/Oxygen Media; Kevin Winter/Getty Images; Andrew Eccles/Oxygen MediaBest. Reality. Finale. Evah.
Anyone else feeling all giddy after last night's Glee Project ending, in which [Spoiler alert if you haven't yet seen it!] all four of the finalists secured a part on the upcoming season of Glee? I just met up with Damian, Samuel, Alex and Lindsay, and found out what they know about their characters, how Samuel's morals are decidedly different than Cameron (the Christian who left the show), and how a love triangle is already brewing...
And on that note, Ryan Murphy, you are welcome for unearthing what is clearly your next great love triangle: Quinn, Samuel and Damian. Turns out, in real life, Samuel and Damian have been fighting over who gets to hook up with Quinn/Dianna and are ready to take that to the show!
"It just makes sense that I would end up with Quinn," Sam tells me. "She's the church girl, she is portrayed like that a lot and she's into the rough kind of dudes. And being that I'd be both, it just makes sense to me."
"But I want her too!" Damian interrupts with a laugh, while pretending to punch Samuel and then showing me a photo he snapped (like a fan!) with Dianna at the Glee 3D movie premiere. "I love her. I mean look at her. She's gorgeous!"
"I guess we are ready to fight," Samuel quips. And Damian admits there is a problem regarding "Quinnian": "If they bring me in as a freshman, then her character is three years older. So it would look kind of weird if Quinn took a thing for the baby of the show, which just occurred to me literally 10 seconds ago. It's very upsetting! Maybe my character is somebody that thinks he can shoot above his weight. I could come in thinking I'm Brad Pitt?"
People in his hometown of Derry City, Northern Ireland, would certainly buy it. Damian tells me the media have been camped outside his home today. "My parents and my brother cannot believe it! It's crazy!" And he's also popular among the Project cast. "I kept telling Damian it would be him all along," Lindsay insists. "I knew he was perfect and kept saying, it has to be you." "At the very end," Samuel recalls, before we sang for everyone, I went into [Damian's] dressing room and was like, 'Bro, if I don't get this, you need to get this.' He's such a humble dude."
Despite all the talent among the final four, no one saw the multiple winners coming. "I think we all kind of assumed that there would be a winner," Samuel explained, "and if there needed to be more roles filled in the future we might have first dibs or something, but no, we never expected that at all."
Samuel says he's guessing his character will be an "Christian indie rocker type," and he has no problems dealing with the love scenes that might come his way, unlike Cameron, who quit The Glee Project. "You definitely have to prep yourself to deal with doing things that you might not thought that you would do," he explains. I personally know I'm willing to do anything on camera basically. Aside from porn. [Laughs.] Playing a character, that's not me. Of course there are certain times where you have to put your morals in but I'm just very—I understand the difference between acting and real life."
Alex has an idea for his character: Mercedes' (Amber Riley) brother. "Amber and I, we are so much alike," Alex says. "I took a picture with her and we are so similar. I showed my mom the picture and she's like, 'You look like you are brother and sister.' I don't see it but everybody says, 'you look like you are brother and sister.' So maybe."
And Lindsay says of her character: "I keep getting told, 'You are in the Lea Michele mode. You could be a foil for Rachel.' But at the same time I don't want my character to be that one that comes in and hurts somebody else's feelings. I feel like it would almost be like another Sunshine. Some fans were like, "Send her to a meth house instead of a crack house." So maybe I'll be going to a meth house. Which is hilarious because I'm from Modesto which is the capital of meth and car theft. It totally makes sense as to why I'm insane, right?"
For the record, all off-screen or on-screen love triangle aside, Damian and Samuel seem thrilled to have scored the seven episode arcs on Glee together. "I'm just stoked to share it with him," says Samuel. "It's like the first day of school but you've got a friend to go with you."