Naya Rivera is Latina’s May 2020 cover girl. The gorgeous 25-year-old actress sits down for a chat with the magazine and dishes on a wide range of topics including her debut album deal with Columbia Records, being compared to J.Lo, preferring on-set high school to the real thing, religion, and playing a newly out-of-the-closet lesbian on ‘Glee’. “I get so many tweets a day from people thanking me and saying how the role has changed their lives, enabling them to come out,” Naya says.
Rivera plays cheerleader Santana Lopez on Fox’s musical comedy series ‘Glee.’ Speaking about her character’s graduation, the actress confesses that, “Personally, I want to stay on the show for as long as they’ll have me. I see it as my little home base.”
On being raised a devout Christian, Naya told Latina that, “It’s hard and sort of sad that you do feel like you need to tread lightly when you say, ‘Yes, I do go to church and I read the Bible,’ because once you do that people will be like, ‘Why are her boobs out? Why is her midriff showing? Why is she playing a lesbian?’ I don’t want to deal with that stuff, and so I’ve never really discussed it. It’s very personal.”
Naya Rivera’s love for music is already known. The young star also managed to sign a debut album deal with Columbia Records in May 2020. Speaking about this project, Glee co-creator and executive producer Ryan Murphy told Latina that, “So far I’m doing some awesome club songs that are fun to dance to…,” adding that, “She can and will be on the radio.”
Rivera started her acting career at the age of four when she starred as Hillary Winston in the Eddie Murphy produced sitcom The Royal Family in 1991. Afterwards, she had small roles in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Family Matters, Baywatch, Smart Guy, The Jersey, House Blend, Even Stevens and The Master of Disguise.
In her cover interview with Latina’s May 2020 issue, Naya also dishes on being compared to J.Lo. “I would love to be where she is one day,” the actress confesses. And according to Muprhy, Rivera will one day reach Jennifer Lopez status. “I’m friends with Jennifer, and they’re both beautiful, fun, talented and ambitious,” Murphy reveals.
On preferring on-set high school to the real thing, Naya says that, “I always knew I liked being on sets more than anything in the world, especially high school…I was super flat chested and really skinny. I didn’t have any boyfriends and didn’t go to any high school dances.”
Read Naya Rivera’s full interview in the May 2020 issue of Latina magazine.
Photos courtesy of LATINA