Let’s start with the reality of this reality show. Give me a percentage of how much of the show is REAL real life.
One hundred per cent.
Really?
Yup, it’s so funny because usually, if someone says something that bothers you, it can be swept under the rug and forgotten. But, if you are with the same group of women for five months, five days a week, that little thing that bothered you at that barbeque on Monday is going to start to fester and eventually, you’re just going to have to speak your mind. I know people love to think it’s scripted and I can tell you, I wish it were scripted. It would be a lot easier if it were scripted because then it would be like cool [having someone tell me how to react] but this is just all really what happens.
Before you signed on to be on the show, did you weigh any pros and cons.
The pros are just bringing awareness to things like charities I’m involved with like Smile Train. It’s just to nice to have a little bit of a voice and use this platform to do great things. A lot of the cons are just social media, people on Twitter are just so evil and mean and horrible! I just, I can’t even read it anymore because you find that you want to defend yourself but then you’re like ‘why am I going to explain myself?’ People forget that they’re watching reality, these people that you are watching are actual human beings and we’re not going to make everybody happy.
Do you ever watch yourself afterwards?
Well, we have to watch because we have to write a blog for Bravo afterwards.
How does that feel?
It’s actually kind of fun to see how it ends up coming out. When there’s a scene at a party and you see that two of your friends are talking in the corner you have no idea what they’re talking about because it doesn’t pertain to you. But then you watch it back on TV and you’re like ‘Oh my gosh, I had no idea that they were talking about so and so.’ So it’s actually really fun to watch it because all of the pieces kind of come together. You know what it is? It’s like being a fly on the wall when you were also just there in real life.
Is there anything that you’ve refused to let them film?
No, not at all. No, I mean, it’s so funny, there were some articles written a couple of weeks ago saying that I had refused to let cameras to film my husband and I fighting. I never, in a million years, thought something like that would happen to me. For years, I’ve heard about like Jennifer Lopez or Nicole Kidman or whoever, saying ‘that’s so not true, the tabloids, the tabloids’ and I never knew what to think. Now, I’m sitting here thinking, ‘oh my gosh, little old me, this actually happened to me.’ Absolutely not an ounce of truth to that article and it just blows my mind. If you guys want to see my husband and I argue about his dirty gym socks on the floor, by all means.
I was actually going to ask you the craziest thing you heard about yourself in the tabloids.
That, yeah. Refusing to let them film a certain thing, it’s funny.
Have you ever watched anything back and been like, “oh my god, I can’t believe I said that” or “I can’t believe I did that”?
I think a lot of my facial expressions…[laughs] and we were just talking about pros and cons. A con: realizing all the creepy facial expressions you make because you’ve been making them for 38 years of my life without ever having seen them. And now I’m watching and going, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing that with my eyes or face.’ I think that’s pretty common for everyone and anyone when they see themselves.
How has your life changed since you started this show?
It’s really exciting to sort of go from being a housewife to a, quote unquote, real housewife and to get great opportunities. I’ve gotten to start little businesses, which is awesome, like my blog called Last Night’s Look and a nail polish line with Ricky’s New York City, to name a few. Last year, my husband and I argued over him being on a conference call and him being at work and having a lot of stuff going on. Now, I drop the kids off at school at 9am and I’m not home until 7pm. I didn’t have a conventional job before, I modelled and I still model a few times a month, but it doesn’t always keep me extremely busy. Everything I do now is so rewarding and fun.
The Real Housewives shows are a lot of people’s guilty pleasure so I’m curious to know what your guilty pleasure is.
I like these shows, too. I like to watch all the other franchises. When I watch scripted shows now, unless it’s like a period piece of something, I find that I just feel like it’s all fake. I just think it’s cool to actually meet the people. I think guilty pleasure is definitely reality TV. Also, I will always and forever be hooked on Sex and the City. I just watch the reruns; it’s sort of on the background all day long. I don’t why but it just calms me, I think it’s a mix of the fashion and just New York city as this amazing backdrop, it just inspires me.
