Irish Glee star Damian McGinty says late Naya Rivera was ‘incredibly nice’ and she was great mum
IRISH Glee star Damian McGinty said that the late Naya Rivera was "incredibly nice" as she invited him for drinks one week after he started on the show.
Naya sadly passed away earlier this month after she “drowned” while “saving” her four-year-old son, Josey, at California's Lake Piru.
Damian spoke about his time on the show on The Six O'Clock Show after he started in 2009 during the third of the hit series.
He explained that when he first started Naya was incredibly welcoming towards him and he said that her tragic death was heartbreaking.
The Derry native said on the Virgin Media show: "Naya was incredibly nice. I got to be honest when I joined the show I actually didn't realise how talented Naya was.
"I remember one of my first memories was we were shooting episode six and Naya's Adele mashup.
'UNBELIEVABLY TALENTED'
"I was there watching her for hours because we were shooting the scene and I was like this girl slips under the radar on this show she's unbelievably talented.
"But she rose to the top for the show for the last three or four seasons."
He continued: "Naya was so nice, she was so welcoming to me and like I was only there a week or two and she had already like invited me to her home to have a Friday hangout with the cast which she really had no right to she didn't know me from adam you know.
"That was very nice of her. It was incredibly sad news there are no words that really describe what happened it's so terrible."
Damian then went on to say that Naya was always very honest with every and he admired that about her and he also said that she was a great mum.
'SHE WAS AN INCREDIBLE MOTHER'
The singer said: "Anybody who knew Naya knew she was incredibly transparent in the best possible way, you knew exactly where you stood with Naya.
"I personally I love that quality in a person anyway I think there's a lot to be said about it, It was really sad and it almost doesn't feel real, to be honest.
"When the news broke about Naya for me it was very hard to digest."
He added: "God bless her son I knew how great of a mother she was and it was largely reported and everybody knows it she was an incredible mother.
"It's just really hard to digest and it just makes it a little bit more difficult knowing that Corey had a similar story."
JOINING THE CAST
Damian went on to explain that he was very nervous about joining the cast as it had been so popular when he decided to join.
He said: "It was unbelievable, I was actually quite intimidated, to be honest.
"I actually joined Glee at the start of season three so they had just finished shooting season two which was breaking rating record across the world, 14/15 million people were tuning into every episode each week.
"So they finished filming season two so they then went on to do a six or seven-week tour of the world.
"By the time they got back they had a week off and they got back to see three probably the pinnacle of the absolute of.
TIME WITH CORY
"I was going onto the set very sheepish very quiet."
Damien also spoke about his time working with the late Cory Monteith who he said was a "gentleman" and welcomed him into the cast.
Speaking on the show, the actor explained: "My very first day on the set was with Cory and nobody else.
"Our characters had all these scenes where Finn was welcoming Rory into the Glee club so for the first 24 hours of being part of the show it was literally me and Cory.
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"He was such a gentleman, unbelievably nice. So the whole thing is just really sad.
"But you know they left a great legacy behind them they lived a really great life and they touched millions of people which not many people will get to do.
"I think it's important to remember them in that way."
