SAM BELLIKOFF: You are doing so much press that you’re losing your voice. Do you lose your voice a lot?
DIANNA AGRON: No, not until this past month. We’ve been filming during the week and then doing quite a few junkets on the weekends for I Am Number Four. It really just happened, two weeks ago was the first time. Now, the mentality is to rest your voice at any opportune moment. I went to the recording studio yesterday and I’ve never had this—I couldn’t sing. It sounded completely unnatural, like I had a frog in my throat. And I kept saying, “I’m just so sorry, I’m just so sorry.” And Adam [Shankman] is saying, “It’s because you’ve been talking on the phone to… you know… [laughs] late-night.” But yeah, it just keeps coming and going.
BELLIKOFF: I imagine you’re still shooting Glee and recording. Is that scary if you lose your voice?
AGRON: Exactly. There’s been a couple of scenes where I can’t even… Quinn’s voice is higher, and it’s got this pitch to it. You’re going to be able to tell. I just couldn’t do it, so, you know. It will come back one of these days.
BELLIKOFF: Is her speaking voice higher than your regular voice? Your voice does sound a little lower…
AGRON: I guess my voice kind of changed in middle school. It was what it is now. I remember there was this boy who used to walk behind me and sing that song that goes, “Walk like a man, talk like a man” and I was devastated. So I learned that I can pick up my voice if I want to. But that’s not my comfortable speaking voice, or if I’m tired… it just all kind of varies. But with Quinn, she sees herself as having to be elite and perfect, so I didn’t see her with this raspy voice.
BELLIKOFF: Quinn’s such an interesting character. In the pilot, she was definitely the villainous cheerleader. And then you had one of the biggest—if not the biggest—dramatic story arcs in the first season, and continuing onward. Was that something that was always planned? Were you supposed to be part of the glee club from the start?
AGRON: That, yes. They knew they wanted her to join, but they also had the mindset that she could be axed really quickly. FOX really wanted that character, at least in the pilot. Ryan [Murphy] and Brad [Falchuk] and Ian [Brennan] hadn’t found a girl yet that worked for everything they needed, but at the same time, they didn’t see the need for the character unless she was brought to some new light. Luckily, I didn’t know that. The pressure during the first couple episodes, I probably would’ve freaked myself out. It would’ve been horrible. I would’ve gotten fired. Also, what they told us now, in retrospect, is everybody started off a certain way to them. Then by getting to know us as real people—that also influenced the characters.
So no, I wasn’t pregnant in real life, but I hope I’m a very understanding person. That’s something I was raised to be aware of—not everybody has the same shoes to fill or walks the same way or is on the same path. When Quinn became pregnant, she had to go through that. She had to give up things and overcome situations and be mindful that these people around her were showing her true support and friendship. So, they did know during the second episode that she was going to be pregnant, but I think that the reasoning was more how ironic it is—the celibate cheerleader cheats on her boyfriend with his best friend and becomes pregnant. Then from that, that found its wings as well. And that’s how everybody’s characters have been.
BELLIKOFF: I’ve seen interviews, where people ask you which character in Glee were you like in high school. You have said basically, I wasn’t the über-popular kid, but I wasn’t the nerd. Do you think that Glee compartmentalizes the high school experience?
AGRON: A bit. I think it was more so in the beginning, to make it simpler, especially because our show was so different. I think they thought, let’s start it out to make it more viewer-friendly. And then once you get past the basics of these characters, now let’s show their depth, now let’s show all the broad strokes. And that’s still going on. It’s hard because there are so many characters on our show. You might go quite a few episodes without new journeys for that character or challenges, things like that, and then all of a sudden, it hits you. That’s the great thing about our show, too. We don’t ever know what’s coming up. You could be pregnant, you could be in juvie, you could have all these things happen to you. It really forces you to focus and think on your feet and dive in there, because you don’t have time to make mistakes.
BELLIKOFF: Has there been a favorite song that you’ve performed?
AGRON: “Say A Little Prayer” will always have that sentiment for me as an individual, because it was the first one that I did. That was the day when we went over to the Nip/Tuck set. They were finishing up that season, and Ryan created that show as well. Some of them came over and were watching and I thought… no pressure. But it really ended up just being a blast. Also, “Somebody to Love,” that was something that we had fun filming. But then, we went to the upfronts for the first time in New York and saw that FOX was really behind us. There were huge posters all over the city and billboards, people walking around with these giant balloons that were harnessed to them, saying Glee. It was the first of all of that awareness. That was the song that we performed while we were there. Our choreographer practically made all of us cry before we went on stage. He said, “Look this is something that we love doing and we’re working hard for. When Freddie Mercury sang this song, this is what he was talking about. These were the emotions behind his lyrics.” He went into that whole story of how he was dying… He was just like, “You guys, this is something that we’re always going to remember.” That song as a group is something that more often than not, everybody will say, that’s a really special one for us………..
Dianna as: Quinn Fabray







