[Voice-over Anthony:]
Netflix reality stars Those who star in the online streaming service's original programs Documenting reportedly unscripted real life situations Reality TV has dominated the entertainment industry over the last 25 years Simply because of the format's high revenue return potential and simple production value. As of April of this year A whopping 30 million households watched the premiere season of Netflix's 'Love is Blind' With their other reality shows like 'The Circle' and 'Too Hot to Handle' following closely behind in amassing impressive viewership. My name is Anthony Padilla, and today I'm gonna be remotely sitting down with Netflix reality stars to learn the truth about having one's life scrutinized and dissected for entertainment. Do these Netflix reality stars happily embrace their time in the spotlight? Or has the relentless scrutiny from having their life documented for millions of viewers Left them feeling isolated and broken? [Anthony]
Hey Joey! [Joey:]
Yo! What's good? [Anthony:]
Lauren and Cameron! [Lauren and Cameron:]
Hey! Hello! [Anthony:]
Chloe! [Chloe:]
Hiiii! [Anthony:]
Thank you so much for coming on and teaching me about the wondrous world of Netflix reality stars. [Joey:]
Thank you for having me on bro, I'm pumped to do this. We're gonna have a great time. [Anthony:]
So what do you guys consider yourselves? Reality stars? The fan favorite? [Lauren:]
Regular people who happened to fall in love on reality TV. [Chloe:]
I would say just a TV personality. [Joey:]
Influencer, reality star, all these things that like I never had in mind. I was never seeking. [Anthony:]
Which reality show were you on? [Joey:]
I was on Netflix's 'The Circle' @Alana Don't lie. You looove peeing in the shower [Lauren:]
We were on 'Love is Blind', which is a Netflix dating reality TV show [Cameron:]
I want to Spend the rest of my life with you Will you marry me? [Chloe:]
So I was on Netflix's, 'Too Hot to Handle.' I just feel like I need to release that sexual tension Do you know what I mean? [Anthony:]
Too. hot. to handle! [Chloe:]
Yeah! WooWooWoo! [Anthony:]
I Feel like you've got to feel good getting cast on the show literally saying that you're too hot. [Chloe:]
I know! [Anthony:]
Do you remember what that audition process was like? [Joey:]
With this it was like just come on in and be yourself and I was like "Oh! Alright that's easy enough" and then tell us about your family, your mom, your dad [Chloe:]
We need you to kind of have a couple of meetings We need to make sure you're not serial killer basically [Anthony:]
So you had a clean record and that's all it took. [Chloe:]
I did yeah! [Anthony:]
What do you think it was about the show that made it so popular? [Chloe:]
It was the twist. Ten sexy singleton's in a villa and say that they can't have sex when they love sex! [ Anthony Laughing ] [Chloe:]
They're gonna break some rules! Why don't you kiss me then? [Lauren:]
Cam and I we didn't try to be characters We were just ourselves. We really said what was on our mind and I think that that was refreshing for people [Anthony:]
Did knowing the cameras were rolling constantly affect your behavior in any way? [Joey:]
Don't get me wrong, you're always aware that there's cameras there and that it's rolling 24 hours a day, but it was never even a thing of like oh trying to put on a personality or put on something that's fake. [Chloe:]
You do kind of just forget the cameras are there, but you're always weary if I was getting changed I would make sure that I had a towel wrap around my bottom half cuz I thought well I don't the whole nation seeing my nunny. [Anthony:]
And we don't want that. [Chloe:]
No! Definitely not, I'd give you all a fright! [ Chloe Laughs ] [Lauren:]
I would say after the first like third, fourth day It was just like you kind of forget that they're there and I know that that sounds crazy, But it's like you kind of get so wrapped into what you're doing, But it's just kind of like they melt away in some, some weird type of way And I guess you just get used to them. [Voice-over Cameron:]
I remember we were in the pods, and one of the camera dudes was viewing the pod through this cutout, like banged up against the wall. [ Anthony laughs ] [Anthony:]
And you're like, oh, yeah, there's people behind the wall peeping on me this entire time. [ Lauren laughing ] [Cameron:]
Right, but you don't think about it on the dates and then some like little accident like kinda of jogs your memory. [Anthony:]
What was your most bizarre experience while filming a reality TV show? [Chloe:]
I think I was a bit weirded out that there was mics in the beds. [Anthony:]
Oh yeah! You were constantly being recorded even in the bed while you were sleeping. Literally. [Chloe:]
Yeah! Like it was a bit weird for me, to be honest. [Anthony:]
I guess they were monitoring you to make sure there was there was always room for Jesus between you and the person next to you as well [Chloe:]
Yep. Definitely. [Joey:]
I would say not being able to drop a deuce like you would want to. [ Anthony laughing ] [Anthony:]
Did you have to ask for permission? [Jpey:]
You would have to like go into your mic and be like Um excuse me, can you raise the cameras in the bathroom please? And then you would see it slowly raise up And then even if I had to go and like I'm a dude who wants to sit down I want to reflect on my day I wanna think about what's happening [Anthony:]
Hell yeah man! You need at least 20 minutes [Jpey:]
I wanna breathe! [Anthony:]
Yeah, that is your self-care. Okay, I get it. [Joey:]
Bro [Anthony:]
I've been there, we've all been there [Joey:]
I, I don't think I deuce dropped one time I was in that freakin place because I'm like yo, 'like they know what's going on. They know what's happenin. I don't know if they're turnin the mic off in there. You know, I'm eatin my diet food My stomach's killin me, that was a bizarre thing for me.' [Anthony:]
Before we learn more about the wondrous world of Netflix reality stars I just want to take a quick moment to let you know that I just launched a new series where I investigate one ideology versus another to evaluate some of the choices we make consciously and unconsciously in our daily lives. That's my little tagline for it, but basically I dive into competing lifestyles or ways of thinking with my research team and we dissect them we've got minimalism versus materialism, alcohol versus marijuana, even the age-old capitalism versus socialism, and baths versus showers. I've got a few episodes up on my Instagram page already So go check that out immediately, and I know many of you may not use Instagram but I honestly want to be challenged in creating new content on different platforms So, please let me know in the comments if my new series is actually f****** incredible, and it blew your mind That's all I want to say, now back to learning about the wondrous world of Netflix reality stars people often debate if reality TV is in fact real in any way and they're saying, you know, no Actually all it is is some crazy diabolical plan put together by People in Hollywood to exploit people and it's all fake. How do you feel about that? [Chloe:]
I think it's all b*******. [ Anthony laughing ] [Chloe:]
Reality TV is reality TV. 10 different personalities chuck 'em into a villa. You do not need to tell them what to do. It wasn't scripted. It wasn't fake. I cried a handful of times, and the emotions were real they were very raw. We were being filmed 24/7 [Anthony:]
Authentic [Chloe:]
Yah, authentic. [Lauren:]
I think it's both, I think that our experience in reality TV was definitely very authentic to us and real, but I mean I've definitely seen some shows where I'm like, I know that's not real, unh-uh. They staged the mess out of this, so I definitely think it's both I mean, I think that there is a such thing as scripted reality. So it's ki nda like a planned reality. [Joey:]
In my situation, there was nothing that was scripted. Everything was 100% real. A lot of people you know have found out after the fact that I'm an actor. So they think I get that like they're like, oh [Anthony:]
Riight [Joey:]
Nothing was faked or put on like I don't know how you could force situations and things, given the concept of our show. [Anthony:]
the truth is it's just actors tend to be the ones that are confident enough to go out to auditions and At the same time. It's also saying that actors aren't real people at all whatsoever ever. You can be a real person and also be an actor and then document the reality side of that. [Joey:]
It doesn't make sense, man I just look at it as like I get it if I lived somewhere else besides LA and I just casually tuned into shows or something, and I saw someone was an actor. I think anyone's natural instinct at that point is to be like Everything is faked, scripted, I'm heartbroken. How could this be? I'm done. [Anthony:]
Were you nervous as each episode was finally airing? [Lauren:]
I was yeah [Cameron:]
Yah. Because it's like , we didn't see it before so we were watching it the same time as the rest of the world and it's like Of course you remember what happened, but like we said it had been a year and a half after all of this that happened so I'm like, did I forget some stuff? like hope that they're gonna edit it like true to who you are. So you never know they could have tried to edit it and make us seem like something else. Yeah, every episode was like [Anthony:]
You had to keep your relationship secret for an entire year and a half. [Cameron:]
Yeah, that was frustrating for sure. [Lauren:]
Yeah. -Cameron:]
because you wanna you know be proud of your relationship, Especially in these this day and age where you get to post about your life and stuff and we had to act single pretty much. [Anthony:]
I can understand how that would be nerve-racking watching your relationship unfold for everyone to see because you know how it ends. You know how the story ends So you're watching that slowly unfold for everyone to judge you while it's happening. Oh man, and our like supporters were goin crazy, When I say some of those people need to be in the FBI, like [Cameron:]
Oh yah. [Lauren:]
They were matchin paint like in our pictures, like, Ooh that's the same color paint on Cameron's pictures, so I know that they have to be married. [Anthony:]
Did any of these private investigators figure it out? [Cameron:]
Oh, yeah. Easily. [Lauren:]
Yes! Like, of course we had to keep it a secret, but they were matching everything. [Chloe:]
I was a bit worried about them shoving my ditzy side. You've just gotta be really patient with me [ Chloe laughing ] cuz I'm not the brightest spark, uuum In the book people can judge you and like hate you for that, like "why are you so annoying? You're so ditzy," but I'm such a lot like a loving person so I don't care if I look a little bit ditzy like I can hold a conversation and I'm kind to everyone WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?? [Anthony:]
If you could redo your experience on the show Is there anything that you would change? [Lauren:]
I wouldn't change a thing actually. Everything that happened. happened how it was supposed to, and I'm extremely happy with the results. [Anthony:]
Yah, well when you end up in a happy married relationship, I don't think that you have to change anything. [Lauren and Cameron:]
Yah! Right! [Joey:]
There's nothing I would change. [Anthony:]
No Regrets. [Joey:]
I just don't like to live with regrets. I like to trust my gut instinct to make the best decisions I could in the moment and even if it's something that doesn't work out well for me. [Anthony:]
I think that's why you won, honestly. [Joey:]
You can't live with regrets man life is too short, and everything puts us on the road to be who we're supposed to be and the experiences with people that we're supposed to have. [Chloe:]
No, I actually genuinely wouldn't, I mean, but the first thing that comes to mind is oh I wouldn't have spoke to Kori and I would have completely ignored him because I now know what would happen, but that was, that was a lesson that I needed to learn, and girls are gonna go through Heartbreaks and that was real I didn't have the perfect love story in there, but it was a f****** relatable one. [Anthony:]
Do you feel like you were always accurately portrayed on the show or do you feel like there was any editing that was done to kind of bring the drama to stir the pot? [Lauren:]
They captured our personalities, but I definitely think that there was some editing that made it seem like every conversation that I was like. Hey, I'm black and you're white! Which is a real thing and it is something that we addressed, you know often on the show But best believe every time we addressed it it made that edit. [Anthony:]
So while you talked about race, like 0.1% of your conversations, it kind of ends up looking like 10% of your conversations? [Lauren:]
Yeah, I saw on like Twitter like a 'Love is Blind' drinking game. Like take a shot every time Lauren says interracial I was like that's not fair! [Cameron:]
You know, some people had something to say about the rap that I did to Lauren's mom. I'm feeling like a kid with you. You're my main chick those other girls are previews [Anthony:]
[ Laughs ] I forgot about the rap. [Cameron:]
that was actually the thing I was probably most nervous of seeing on the episodes because I was like man they are gonna edit it in in a cheesy way, and in fact, they did exactly that. [ Anthony and Lauren laughing ] They chopped the song up in a weird way and put this beat over it that didn't match the tempo of the rap and I never criticized the production and editing but that was the one thing that I was like man there was no need for that. [Anthny:]
Kathryn Hudson wants to know if it was ever Weird to react to things that had already happened when you're in the confessional booth? [Lauren:]
It was hard, Cuz it may have happened like the day before, or two, three days before. And we had to really like go back to that moment and relive it and talk about it like it was just happening [Anthony:]
Are they getting you to speak about it in first person? [Lauren:]
Yeah, like we had to be like like we couldn't say it past tense. Like it happened this way No it it's happening. [Anthony:]
That's got to be weird. You've got to change your entire way of thinking about those experiences as if you're living in them now. [Lauren:]
Right. [Anthony:]
Was there anything you learned about yourself through your experiences on the show? [Chloe:]
I actually have a backbone. [ Anthony laughing ] [Anthony:]
The whole time you thought you're a spineless? [Chloe:]
I'll let people walk all over me all the time to be honest. And when I was on the show, I think knowing that there was millions of people that were going to be watching. I thought, I can't let girls think that it's okay for a guy to treat them like this [Anthony:]
Have you used what you learned in that sense in your everyday life after the show? [Chloe:]
like before I went in the show I was someone who would date guys for fun, sleep with guys for fun I'd have commitment issues and I'd let people walk all over me, and when I went in the show I gained respect for myself I started to love myself, I understood myself and out from the show Day-to-day normal life when I talk to guys I've got a tick list. [Anthony:
Mm-hmm, so you have higher standards now and you're not afraid to put your foot down. [Chloe:]
Someone that has a job! [Anthony:]
So being on a hit Netflix TV show you're bound to have a bunch of fans What's been your most bizarre fan interaction? [Joey:]
There was one guy DMing me, trying to buy my socks or foot pictures, and me being me I was like, all right, let's talk about this. What's the offer on the table? [Anthony:]
[laughing] I have a confession. I've never told anyone publicly, but back when I first started going on YouTube in Early 2006, you know, we were we were struggling we didn't have money to do to like buy film equipment There was no way to make money on the internet really at all There was this dude that emailed me and asked me if he could buy the socks from this video that I was in and I was like This is creepy, but you know, what name your price. He said $150 and I sold it to him and that's what helped me buy the first camera that we end up using. [Joey:]
Bruh, that is f******awesome though, because you know what though, who cares bro we all got a story like I hate when people try to b******* and try to make themselves sound good. Like yeah, you were strugglin, homie wanted socks, and you provided the socks and the service bro. [Anthony:]
He got what he wanted, I got what I wanted, and you know, I don't blame people for having fans only accounts because why not right? [Anthony:]
round of applause for just giving people what they want if you get what you want in return. Everyone's happy no shame. [Joey:]
I agree man. I called my dad up and I was like dad homie wants to buy socks. He's like, ask him what he's offering. Come on. [ Anthony laughing ] He goes, I would tease him, he goes, I would be a son of a bitch, I'd send him a picture of my big toe and tell them there's more in it if you name a higher price. You'll get the whole foot. [ Anthony laughing ] [Anthony:]
What is it about being a Netflix reality star that's brought you the most joy? [Cameron:]
Probably just seeing that people find our love story inspirational saying, you know, I was in a dark spot in my life And this kind of gave me some glimmer of hope which is even hard for me to believe that that's possible but I'm thankful that we could have that type of impact. It certainly wasn't what I anticipated doing this I was thinking about my own relationship And yeah I'm happy that people took that away and felt like it gave them some hope that they could find that type of love too. [Anthony:]
I feel like many people haven't really been able to see a very healthy relationship grow and you know blossom from nothing to Marriage and see what a healthy relationship could look like so I feel like your guys's relationship it has inspired Many people to understand that they don't need to settle for less. They can find someone who shows such respect and admiration for you. [Lauren:]
Absolutely. [Anthony:]
I actually have a parting gift for you both! [Lauren:]
OOOOH. [Cameron:]
Alright! [Anthony:]
Best Interviewer shirt in the inverted color black, and I am going to ship this to you for free [Lauren and Cameron:]
Yay! [ Both clapping ] [Anthony:]
And you know what, you're both You're both gonna share one shirt right now and it looks good on both you guys fit perfectly in that one shirt. [Cameron:]
Yeah. [Lauren:]
Thank you. [Anthony:]
Alright, you've got five seconds to shout-out or promote anything you want directly into camera. GO! [Chloe:]
my clothing brand is on my YouTube Chloe Veitch and my instagram is Chloe Veitch Official. [Lauren:]
Be sure to follow us at hanging with the Hamiltons on YouTube Follow me on all my socials need4lspeed [Cameron:]
And also follow me, Cameron Reid Hamilton That's R-E-I-D on all socials as well. Follow me on instagram @joeysasso, twitter Joey underscore Sasso check out the Joey Sasso merch, It's fantastic, baby. [Chloe:]
You need to subscribe because he's the best sort of a geezer I have ever had an interview with In my life, he's amazing. You need to subscribe. [Anthony:]
I've never been called that before, but you know what, it felt good. [Chloe:]
Good, I'm glad it did. [ Anthony laughing ] [Anthony:]
Thank you so much, Lauren and Cameron, I feel like I understand the wondrous world of being a Netflix reality star just a little bit more. [Lauren:]
Thank you so much. This was a joy. [Cameron:]
Thank you so much for having us. [Anthony:]
After spending the day with these Netflix reality stars I've learned just how stressful it can be to have cameras documenting your every move and how much courage it takes knowing millions of people will see and Judge your behavior. See you later. Bye guys. [Joey:]
Press a like [ Drums ] [Anthony:]
Cameron I gotta ask, Are you sitting in a chair or are you on your knees? [ Lauren and Cameron laughing ] [Cameron:]
Yeah, I'm sitting on my knees right now. [ Anthony laughing ] [Anthony:]
You're on your knees right now. [Lauren:]
You're siting on your knees! I thought he was siting on the ottoman. [Cameron:]
I'm trying to angle up to the camera. [Lauren:]
Oh my God. [ Anthony laughing ] [Cameron:]
What's wrong? [Lauren:]
Your knees are gonna fall off. [Anthony:]
Are your knees bleeding yet? [Cameron:]
Well, if you could see the sitting situation, [ indistinguishable] [ Lauren and Cameron talking over one another ] [Anhtouny:]
I just realized I was like, I don't think he's in a chair there. [Cameron:]
No Well, I'm trying to get it framed up to the camera. [Lauren:]
Oh my God.
For those who don't want to watch all 19 minutes, the guest in the vid is Joey from The Circle US!