Was the snake CGI’d in The Glory church scene? Actress Kim Hieora spills the beans

The Glory’s actress Kim Hieora, who essayed the character of drug addict artist Lee Sa-ra, spoke about her infamous scene from episode 13 in a recent interview with Sports Kyunghyang.

Episode 12 was a pivotal point for Kim Hieora’s character, as Moon Dong-eun’s (Song Hye-kyo) revenge plan caused Sa-ra to lose all her credibility and reputation in the church scene.

Sa-ra, under the influence of drugs, hallucinates a snake slithering towards her from the Garden of Eden mural and believes it to be a representation of Son Myeong-o.

While it seemed that the massive snake in front of Kim Hieora was made with CGI, the actress revealed that it was real. As translated via Koreaboo:

“I was lying on my back when the staff said, ‘The snake’s here.’ They showed it to me and said, ‘Say hello. This is the co-star you’ll be acting with.’ It was a GIANT snake in a box… I was told the snake has been on multiple shows, so it’s a sunbae-nim snake."

She added that the snake even warmed up to her some time later, which made acting with it much easier.

“I tried touching it, and it leaned on me, showing me some aegyo. After communicating with it for a bit, it became much easier for me to hiss.”

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Kim Hieora talks about filming her PG-rated church scene in The Glory episode 13

The much-awaited part 2 of The Glory was released on March 10 on Netflix. It took viewers deeper into Moon Dong-eun’s revenge and the many traps in which she destroyed her bullies. One of the many scenes that served as a near vengeance for Sa-ra was her losing her reputation in her pastor father’s own church.

In the now infamous The Glory church scene, Dong-eun sets up drugs for Sa-ra, who hasn’t been able to use them for weeks. She starts hallucinating and sees a snake from the Garden of Eden mural slithering towards her. She believes it to be Son Myeong-o, who had a snake tattoo on his thigh, and ends up mast*rb*ting in front of others.

In an interview with Sports Kyunghyang, she revealed that The Glory director and staff made sure that she was comfortable and ready for the scene. She said:

“The director asked me if I checked the script and assured me that I could tell him if anything made me uncomfortable. He said that he believed I’d do a great job but that he wanted to respect my boundaries as an actress.”

She also shared that Lim Ji-yeon (who plays the main bully Park Yeon-jin) and Cha Joo-young (who plays the accomplice Choi Hye-jeong) believed that she would be “the star of the episode” with the church scene.

“Anyone who wants to broaden their horizons as actors would understand. Lim Ji Yeon and Cha Joo Young also saw the script and told me that I’d be the star of the episode. I was not worried. I was excited to make the best out of the scene. I wanted to do my very best.”

The Glory has 16 episodes in total and was released in two parts. All episodes are now available for streaming on Netflix.