Naya Rivera was a fearsome screen presence who made meals out of whatever crumbs she got. As Santana Lopez on Glee, Rivera took a flat character and made her vital by the sheer force of her inarguable charisma
was a fearsome screen presence who made meals out of whatever crumbs she got. While she began her TV career sparkling with winsome charm as a child actor on sitcoms like “Family Matters” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” it was on “
— shouldn’t have been half as magnetic as it immediately became with her in it. When first introduced, Santana Lopez was just a bitchy cheerleader — the smirky, sexed-up Latina counterpart for Quinn , the show’s blonde heroine teetering atop the pyramid with a delicate smile. To balance out and humanize Quinn, Santana had to be leaner, meaner, and sometimes downright cruel.
There’s a reason, for instance, why Rivera was the one to do a repeat performance of “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” the showstopping “Funny Girl” number that Lea Michele’s Rachel crushed in the first season to huge acclaim. Deep into the show’s chaotic fifth season, Santana auditions to be Rachel’s understudy by mirroring her initial performance, slamming the back door of the auditorium open and belting the song while strutting down the aisle.
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