Glee's Jayma Mays Dishes on 'Wemma's Future, Lesbian Crushes, Nationals and More!

Wemma fans, rejoice! Glee‘s delightful Jayma Mays — that’s Emma Pillsbury to you — shared some very hopeful intel about McKinley High’s “Will They/Won’t They?” exes during a recent chat with TVLine. Actually, no topic was off limits during our talk with Mays — and that includes same-sex costar crushes, Emma’s OCD breakthrough and the Emmy buzz surrounding Tuesday’s Emma-heavy “Born This Way” episode (Fox, 8/7c).

TVLINE | Lots of Wemma scoop to get to, but since tonight’s episode is sort of their jumping off point to rekindling the romance, let’s start there.
“Born This Way” is actually a really great episode for Emma. Will comes up with this idea in the beginning that we’re all born the way we are, and we should be happy with that. But Emma takes that to believe that [having] Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is who she is and it’s who she’s supposed to be — she should be happy with that, not really wanting to confront the fact that she has an issue that can be helped. He coerces her into seeing a therapist. We saw in the last episode that she finally realized that she ruined a marriage over this, so for her, it’s really the first time she confronts it as a real problem. And even though she goes into the therapist reluctantly, she comes out thinking maybe she can make a change.

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TVLINE | Any chance Emma is involved in the big “Born This Way” musical number?
Emma actually helps out with the costumes for the “Born This Way” number. This is definitely something she wants to be involved with. The first scene in the episode, Emma and Will are talking and she says something about “being born this way,” so that spurs Will’s imagination to do this Gaga anthem. And then he asks her to join because he realizes that she may be able to benefit from this lesson as well. There are actually no more musical numbers this season for Emma that I’m aware of…so far.

TVLINE | You know there’s Emmy buzz surrounding your performance in “Born This Way,” right?
First of all, the whole Emmy buzz thing is terrifying. I just don’t understand. [Laughs]

TVLINE | It’s a compliment!
It’s very humbling; I just never know how to react to that. I start acting like a five year old and I have no more speech.

TVLINE | How was it working with Kathleen Quinlan? What does she bring to the story as Emma’s therapist?
Not to be too “thespian” or anything, but coming home from work that day, I called my manager right away and gushed about it being one of the most fulfilling days of work I’ve ever had. There’s something that Kathleen brings to the table that is so real, and for Emma, it was so important for that moment in therapy to be very soft and real, and to not make fun of it anymore. She had such a motherly quality about the way she dealt with that scene as a therapist, that it really made that moment so special for me. And I don’t know if it would have been with any other actress playing that part. There’s a switch there that Emma makes in that scene with Kathleen — that finally OCD becomes something different.

TVLINE | Will we continue to see Emma implement the tools she learns in therapy into her daily life?
We haven’t filmed that much since, so I can’t predict where the writers are taking her. But I do think that she is convinced enough in that moment with the therapist that this is something she’d like to pursue, working on getting better with her OCD issues. She realizes that maybe she doesn’t have to be ashamed about it.

TVLINE | The Glee cast is shooting in New York this week — any chance we’ll see Emma head to the East Coast for Nationals?
I still don’t know the answer to that question [Laughs]! I know it sounds bizarre, but I honestly do not know. I promise.

TVLINE | I believe you! But are you hoping you’ll get a last minute call to go shoot in New York this week?
Oh my gosh, yes. I would love to. Emma loves those kids so much, so any time she can support them, she will. That being said, New York for her might be OCD-overload. If she’s trying to get better, I can just see the therapist screaming “no, not yet!” They would have to wrap her in a bubble suit. I can’t imagine her being on the streets of New York City. Poor girl…

TVLINE | So no New York for now, but what about any cute Emma/Will moments in the upcoming prom episode?
There is no Will/Emma in the prom episode. That is all about the children, as it should be.

TVLINE | You have officially broken the hearts of Wemma fans around the world.
Oh nooo [Laughs]. I totally get that. And there’s a part of me that wants to be a part of that as well. But when you think about the character and what she’s been through, and what Will’s been through the past couple of years, the writers are really smart. First of all, you want people to want more, you don’t want to shove it down their throats. But I also feel that it’s smart to take things slow — it would be weird if they were right together again. But I know all about Wemma love — you do not have to tell me.

TVLINE | What about some cute, jealous April/Emma moments when Kristin Chenoweth returns?
First of all, I love this lady. I have such a crush on her. Even though she’s not and I’m not, I wish we were both lesbians. That’s what I wish. [Laughs] I kind of follow her around on set when she’s there… April and Emma don’t have any interaction, but I walk in on Will and April when they’re singing. Emma overhears April asking Will to hit the road with her, which is obviously a bit devastating for her. But Emma is the most positive, encouraging character that I know, so there’s a very big part of her that wants Will to go follow his dream of performing.

TVLINE | Does that maybe lead to a sweet moment for Wemma fans to look forward to?
There is one, but I don’t know exactly what he ends up deciding to do. Even though Emma and Will want to be together, they also want the best for each other, so Emma rightly feels that she should encourage the best for Will. That’s what’s so nice about their relationship. They’re good for each other, aren’t they? They’re nice to each other! [Laughs]

TVLINE | What do you want to see happen for Emma in Season 3?
I would never say what I want the writers to do, because they are way more clever than I am. But I imagine that this transition of Emma really tackling the OCD would continue through Season 3. That would be a guess of mine. And for me, it would be a nice thing to play. Even just the little things of seeing how her office may transform and how she dresses is going to be really interesting. That one little change of her seeing a therapist could catapult a whole multitude of ideas in everything she does.