'Dancing With the Stars' Champion Rejected the Show 3 Times Before Joining the Cast: 'I Was Terrified'

Amber Riley may have taken home the Mirrorball Trophy during season 17 of Dancing With the Stars but she almost didn’t join the cast at all.

The former Glee star reflected on her time competing on the reality series during an appearance on The Zach Sang Show on Friday (Feb. 27). During the interview, Riley revealed that she actually turned down producers three times before saying yes.

“Three times,” Riley recalled. “I was just scared. I was terrified and I think I was the first Glee cast member to do it. Of course they were going to ask somebody on Glee to do it. We sing and dance like every single day.”

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She continued, “But I was just so scared. Glee was the beginning of the whole social media thing and you can instantly see what people think about you. I never had to deal with that growing up…Having that access to know exactly, instantly, what people thought about you was just so nerve-wracking to me.”

Riley added that dance is something she’s always loved but by being on the show people would be judging her body and “how it moves.”

“I was just so I was just so freaked out by that idea, but I’m glad I did it,” Riley concluded.

Riley and her partner Derek Hough went on to win the entire competition. At the time, Riley told Parade that she never thought she would actually take home the trophy.

“I never thought I was going to make it to the end, and I never thought I was going to win. That wasn’t my intention, but all the positive tweets—encouraging me through my knee injury and through being nervous and fearful—kept me going,” she wrote in a 2013 blog post. “I want to thank them for being a part of it with me…I kept going because of them. I’m so grateful to all my fans!”

You can hear all that Amber Riley had to say below.