Glee Casting Director Robert Ulrich Says Finn And Mercedes Were The Hardest Roles To Assign – Looper

In an episode of the podcast “And That’s What You Really Missed,” “Glee” casting director Robert Ulrich revealed some surprising insights about how the show’s ensemble was assembled. While discussing his casting challenges, Ulrich stated that the parts of Finn and Mercedes turned out to be the hardest to nail down. Ulrich shared, “Ryan really wanted Finn to be this believable high school jock, and you had to sing great and we had flown people out from New York. We had so many auditions.” He then highlighted how his assistant found a tape where the auditioner reminded her of Ben Affleck — this was Cory Monteith. Robert Ulrich continued by sharing how Monteith’s tape was simply drumming on Tupperware with no singing. After flying Monteith out to hear his singing voice, the late actor won the role. 

Additionally, the part of Mercedes was originally about to be offered to a rapper and not a singer. But, as Ulrich explained, “Ryan kept saying, ‘I really want that voice.’ And my friend at the time — his girlfriend was either Amber’s roommate or sang with Amber at church or something …  [Amber] came in … and she sang something and I just knew it wasn’t the voice that Ryan wanted.” However, after switching things up and belting out a rendition of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from “Dreamgirls,” those in charge of final casting knew Amber Riley had won the part.