JamesG
03-30-2011, 12:06 PM
Adrianne Curry on Receding From the Reality Spotlight ... and Why She's Coming Back
by Joel Keller
posted Mar 30th 2011
Until 2008, Adrianne Curry and her husband, former "Brady Bunch" star Christopher Knight, had spent almost their entire relationship in front of reality show cameras, first as their romance blossomed on "The Surreal Life", then as they romanced and battled their way to the altar and beyond in their own VH1 series "My Fair Brady".
But after the series ended, the couple decided to take themselves out of the reality spotlight.
Knight hosted a game show ("Trivial Pursuit") on GSN and Curry popped up on a Smoking Gun talking head show, but the pair has more or less been off TV for over two years, mainly to see how well they get along when the cameras weren't in their faces.
Now, with her marriage still intact, Curry's ready to get back into the reality game. She and Knight will be appearing at the first-ever Reality Rocks Expo in Los Angeles on April 9.
The first winner of "America's Next Top Model" has also been getting back in fighting shape and fielding offers for new shows. Oh, and in our wide-ranging and frank conversation about reality TV, she told me she wouldn't mind if a show like "Dancing With the Stars" came knocking.
"'Dancing With the Stars,' I think I would own that," she told me. "I mean, I train seven days a week. Dancing doesn't come naturally to me, but I'm very capable of doing some really crazy sh*t, using my strength."
You've been out of the reality spotlight, and from what I read, on purpose, for the last couple years.
Yeah, you know, had to focus on marriage. I mean, look at what happens to everybody who stays on television that's in a relationship. It's just not healthy for long periods of time.
And I think it was really good of us to recognize when enough is enough at that time. It's also nice to leave on your terms, instead of like someone booting you out because they're sick of you, too.
Was there something in particular that happened that made you think, "Maybe we should take a break from this"?
I would say the pressure from our families to have a baby, the pressure from the network -- VH1 would have loved to be able to order us to have a baby.
I've actually worked behind the scenes in post-production in reality... ours is probably the most authentic, if you ask me. Most of them are really contrived. Producers are telling people what to do.
With ours, if we weren't going down the path they liked, like they would kind of, in a subliminal way, try to push us somewhere they wanted to go. So we weren't even aware of it.
That's why everything was so raw. But that was one thing we didn't want to get pushed in, and we felt that the public would expect that to be our next step as well. I don't think either of us were ready for it.
What was an example of that subliminal pushing on the part of the producers?
Like with Snooki, they'll tell her, "Hey Snooki, we want you to act like you're gonna punch this chick in the face and get all drunk and do this." And she'll be like "Okaaayyyy!" And then she'll do her thing.
With us, they realized really quickly, I am best when I am natural. I think they tried to interfere twice in our first season, and found out really fast they don't get what they want from me, because I hate being told what to do.
Especially someone trying to tell me how to portray who I am. Because I'm like, "F*ck you. That's not who I am and that isn't what I do."
So what they'd do is like, say we're all drunk at a bar -- and I remember for a while, there was an issue with Chris' family, they hadn't met me yet. All this stuff. And he didn't want to talk about it on TV.
Well they would pull me aside and say, "Chris told us that he didn't want to discuss it because his sister, she doesn't really like you." And he had never told me that before. And then I would go out there.
So it wasn't like they were telling me, "Go do this." They were baiting. So we'd get baited a few times. But for the most part, we were really that f*cked up. [[I]Laughs] Unfortunately. Yeah.
What I do remember was that every single episode was extremes; loving one second and at each other's throats the next.
It still is! It hasn't changed!
We took all this time off, and it's so funny, I was just talking to my best friend before you called and I said, I swear to f*cking God, four years in counseling, we've been together for almost seven years, and I feel like we're in the same spot we were when we met. [Laughs]
Did you think some of that was going to go away when the cameras left?
You know, stress went away when the cameras left. Unneeded stress. It's stressful to share really private moments that most people wouldn't share. Because we didn't portray our relationship the way most people do, like say Tori and Dean, and all these other people who have control over what they show of themselves on TV, which is wonderful, but it's also incredibly biased.
Like you're not going to show any of your bad qualities, like the Kardashians, because you have control over it. We relinquished control. And I think that's why, even after a few years, I walk outside and every couple comes up to me and my husband and they're like, "Shut the f*ck up! We loved your show! It's just like us. You guys are so f*cked up, too!" [Laughs]
How did it feel for you to recede from the spotlight a bit?
And how did it feel for Chris, doing it a second time around?
You know, it's really weird, because I pretty much grew up on TV, and so did my husband. Chris is very uncomfortable with reality TV.
The whole experience for him was like a misery, whereas for me, it's very easy for me to be myself, say whatever's on my mind, and have no filter, because I really do not care what other people are thinking.
But I think for him, leaving was a celebration, because he was just so miserable with the reality aspect, and I know that sometimes I can be a little humiliating and embarrassing because I do not have a filter, and he does.
He comes from that world of celebrity where you portray a certain face, and not exactly who you are. If I was to do another show, and I've been approached to do some shows that just focused around me, I think everything would be perfect. This just isn't what comes naturally to him.
I think the biggest story that came out of that was Florence Henderson and her reaction to the two of you.
With a little distance, are you still shocked that she told Chris not to marry you?
You know, this is how I look at it. The best revenge in life is success.
So I mean, regardless of what somebody's else's opinion is, according to most of society that even knows about us, we were supposed to break up after three months.
And I've been with him for seven years and almost married five. So even if we broke up tomorrow, we deserve a medal, a trophy, and a big achievement.
I was very young when we met, and I've definitely changed a whole bunch. Which was another good thing about stepping out of the spotlight for a second so I was able to just grow up and focus on some things, because it was hard to focus on the major things I needed to at that time in my life, when I constantly had cameras in my face.
They don't really give a crap about me balancing my checkbook and paying off my taxes, but that's something I need to do. I can't do it when you people are in my face!
So the time off allowed you to learn some of that stuff?
Absolutely! It's funny...if people were to come into our lives now, I think they would be in shock. I'm still the same person, but whereas before I was this tomboy that didn't know how to cook and never cleaned, I am now doing laundry, I cook dinner every night, I make s--t from scratch, everything my Italian grandma taught me that I refused to learn when I was younger stuck, and I'm Mrs. Domestic.
And all my friends laugh their asses off at me because they're like, "I cannot believe that you of all people are like, 'Look at these 'Star Wars' cookies I made, and I even decorated them perfect so they're all the same colors of Boba Fett's suit and blah blah.'"
And they're like, what the hell? [Laughs] So funny. Yeah. Betty Crocker.
Has Chris thought about getting back into acting at this point?
Or has he decided to move onto something else?
You know, he's thinking about doing game shows and stuff. We both took such a hit when the economy crashed. Because we're all like "OK, quit the show, got all our little eggs in all these baskets, blah blah blah."
And then like all our baskets started blowing up. I was like "Aaaaaahhhhh! What the hell?" So now he's like "OK, OK, what am I gonna do?"
And I'm figuring out what I'm doing... I'm making my little comeback and I'm probably going to do it a little bit without him. I've got a couple pilots out there, and one looks really good.
And I just signed a deal with another job, so I've thrown myself out there. But without my darling.
That's another thing that annoyed us both.
We had careers before we met each other. We were working, we were doing our thing. We got together, and then everyone was just obsessed with "You must do everything with each other." And it's like, listen, do you want to hang out with your wife every [exasperated voice] f*cking minute of the day, every goddamn day? [chuckles]
At work, at home, like you need some separation so you can miss each other, and then enjoy each other more. I think we both got really bitter and angry for a while, especially when we quit our show when all these offers poured in, and still do, but it's always the same thing: "With you guys together."
And it's like, oh my God, can we just work without each other?
Right. It would probably help the marriage a bit too, like you said.
Most people always say, "I could never work with my spouse."
And I'm like, pshhh, I've spent the last seven years shoved up mine's butt. [Laughs]
So is this convention kind of your way to tell people, hey, I'm back, and I'm gonna be back doing reality?
Well, I'm actually gonna be sitting on a panel for Playboy TV, because I just did a little show for their "Celebrity Sex Stories" thing. And you know, I'm pretty much gonna put it out there that yeah, I'm coming back.
I'm going back out there. I'm doing my thing. And he can follow if he would like, or he can hang back and do his own thing.
During the lull, were you ever worried that you weren't going going to have work to do?
No.... You know, with this whole thing, from the day I won "Top Model" to now, it's never really been about fame for me. I mean, I don't really care. If it was about fame, I could've stayed in the press the whole time.
I could go down to Robertson, and go eat at The Ivy, and pretend I didn't know there's a bunch of paparazzi there, and get my picture, and get in Star Magazine. But I just didn't feel like it. [Laughs]
I didn't want to. And you know, we moved in a town that's very far away from all that, so there's no photographers down here, and there's a bunch of celebrities who I'm not gonna name that kind of escaped here for the same reason.
And I like who like me for who I am, and not because I'm some Z-list celebrity. So I wouldn't care about fading into obscurity. It's always been about the money for me. [Laughs]
There's always VH1, which pumps reality shows out like Pez.
Every single network's been pumping it out like Pez. So it's not going anywhere. So if my career ended tomorrow, I'm not scared about my future at all. It's just, you know, I'll be honest with you, it's easy money.
And I got a mortgage, and one day hopefully kids, and their college, and I have to think about stuff like that. And I'm like, you know what? Most people would take this chance.
And for the last few years, I was wondering if it was something I should continue to do. But now, I'm like f*ck it. I'm here. Might as well do my thing.
http://www.tvsquad.com/2011/03/30/adrianne-curry-interview/
by Joel Keller
posted Mar 30th 2011
Until 2008, Adrianne Curry and her husband, former "Brady Bunch" star Christopher Knight, had spent almost their entire relationship in front of reality show cameras, first as their romance blossomed on "The Surreal Life", then as they romanced and battled their way to the altar and beyond in their own VH1 series "My Fair Brady".
But after the series ended, the couple decided to take themselves out of the reality spotlight.
Knight hosted a game show ("Trivial Pursuit") on GSN and Curry popped up on a Smoking Gun talking head show, but the pair has more or less been off TV for over two years, mainly to see how well they get along when the cameras weren't in their faces.
Now, with her marriage still intact, Curry's ready to get back into the reality game. She and Knight will be appearing at the first-ever Reality Rocks Expo in Los Angeles on April 9.
The first winner of "America's Next Top Model" has also been getting back in fighting shape and fielding offers for new shows. Oh, and in our wide-ranging and frank conversation about reality TV, she told me she wouldn't mind if a show like "Dancing With the Stars" came knocking.
"'Dancing With the Stars,' I think I would own that," she told me. "I mean, I train seven days a week. Dancing doesn't come naturally to me, but I'm very capable of doing some really crazy sh*t, using my strength."
You've been out of the reality spotlight, and from what I read, on purpose, for the last couple years.
Yeah, you know, had to focus on marriage. I mean, look at what happens to everybody who stays on television that's in a relationship. It's just not healthy for long periods of time.
And I think it was really good of us to recognize when enough is enough at that time. It's also nice to leave on your terms, instead of like someone booting you out because they're sick of you, too.
Was there something in particular that happened that made you think, "Maybe we should take a break from this"?
I would say the pressure from our families to have a baby, the pressure from the network -- VH1 would have loved to be able to order us to have a baby.
I've actually worked behind the scenes in post-production in reality... ours is probably the most authentic, if you ask me. Most of them are really contrived. Producers are telling people what to do.
With ours, if we weren't going down the path they liked, like they would kind of, in a subliminal way, try to push us somewhere they wanted to go. So we weren't even aware of it.
That's why everything was so raw. But that was one thing we didn't want to get pushed in, and we felt that the public would expect that to be our next step as well. I don't think either of us were ready for it.
What was an example of that subliminal pushing on the part of the producers?
Like with Snooki, they'll tell her, "Hey Snooki, we want you to act like you're gonna punch this chick in the face and get all drunk and do this." And she'll be like "Okaaayyyy!" And then she'll do her thing.
With us, they realized really quickly, I am best when I am natural. I think they tried to interfere twice in our first season, and found out really fast they don't get what they want from me, because I hate being told what to do.
Especially someone trying to tell me how to portray who I am. Because I'm like, "F*ck you. That's not who I am and that isn't what I do."
So what they'd do is like, say we're all drunk at a bar -- and I remember for a while, there was an issue with Chris' family, they hadn't met me yet. All this stuff. And he didn't want to talk about it on TV.
Well they would pull me aside and say, "Chris told us that he didn't want to discuss it because his sister, she doesn't really like you." And he had never told me that before. And then I would go out there.
So it wasn't like they were telling me, "Go do this." They were baiting. So we'd get baited a few times. But for the most part, we were really that f*cked up. [[I]Laughs] Unfortunately. Yeah.
What I do remember was that every single episode was extremes; loving one second and at each other's throats the next.
It still is! It hasn't changed!
We took all this time off, and it's so funny, I was just talking to my best friend before you called and I said, I swear to f*cking God, four years in counseling, we've been together for almost seven years, and I feel like we're in the same spot we were when we met. [Laughs]
Did you think some of that was going to go away when the cameras left?
You know, stress went away when the cameras left. Unneeded stress. It's stressful to share really private moments that most people wouldn't share. Because we didn't portray our relationship the way most people do, like say Tori and Dean, and all these other people who have control over what they show of themselves on TV, which is wonderful, but it's also incredibly biased.
Like you're not going to show any of your bad qualities, like the Kardashians, because you have control over it. We relinquished control. And I think that's why, even after a few years, I walk outside and every couple comes up to me and my husband and they're like, "Shut the f*ck up! We loved your show! It's just like us. You guys are so f*cked up, too!" [Laughs]
How did it feel for you to recede from the spotlight a bit?
And how did it feel for Chris, doing it a second time around?
You know, it's really weird, because I pretty much grew up on TV, and so did my husband. Chris is very uncomfortable with reality TV.
The whole experience for him was like a misery, whereas for me, it's very easy for me to be myself, say whatever's on my mind, and have no filter, because I really do not care what other people are thinking.
But I think for him, leaving was a celebration, because he was just so miserable with the reality aspect, and I know that sometimes I can be a little humiliating and embarrassing because I do not have a filter, and he does.
He comes from that world of celebrity where you portray a certain face, and not exactly who you are. If I was to do another show, and I've been approached to do some shows that just focused around me, I think everything would be perfect. This just isn't what comes naturally to him.
I think the biggest story that came out of that was Florence Henderson and her reaction to the two of you.
With a little distance, are you still shocked that she told Chris not to marry you?
You know, this is how I look at it. The best revenge in life is success.
So I mean, regardless of what somebody's else's opinion is, according to most of society that even knows about us, we were supposed to break up after three months.
And I've been with him for seven years and almost married five. So even if we broke up tomorrow, we deserve a medal, a trophy, and a big achievement.
I was very young when we met, and I've definitely changed a whole bunch. Which was another good thing about stepping out of the spotlight for a second so I was able to just grow up and focus on some things, because it was hard to focus on the major things I needed to at that time in my life, when I constantly had cameras in my face.
They don't really give a crap about me balancing my checkbook and paying off my taxes, but that's something I need to do. I can't do it when you people are in my face!
So the time off allowed you to learn some of that stuff?
Absolutely! It's funny...if people were to come into our lives now, I think they would be in shock. I'm still the same person, but whereas before I was this tomboy that didn't know how to cook and never cleaned, I am now doing laundry, I cook dinner every night, I make s--t from scratch, everything my Italian grandma taught me that I refused to learn when I was younger stuck, and I'm Mrs. Domestic.
And all my friends laugh their asses off at me because they're like, "I cannot believe that you of all people are like, 'Look at these 'Star Wars' cookies I made, and I even decorated them perfect so they're all the same colors of Boba Fett's suit and blah blah.'"
And they're like, what the hell? [Laughs] So funny. Yeah. Betty Crocker.
Has Chris thought about getting back into acting at this point?
Or has he decided to move onto something else?
You know, he's thinking about doing game shows and stuff. We both took such a hit when the economy crashed. Because we're all like "OK, quit the show, got all our little eggs in all these baskets, blah blah blah."
And then like all our baskets started blowing up. I was like "Aaaaaahhhhh! What the hell?" So now he's like "OK, OK, what am I gonna do?"
And I'm figuring out what I'm doing... I'm making my little comeback and I'm probably going to do it a little bit without him. I've got a couple pilots out there, and one looks really good.
And I just signed a deal with another job, so I've thrown myself out there. But without my darling.
That's another thing that annoyed us both.
We had careers before we met each other. We were working, we were doing our thing. We got together, and then everyone was just obsessed with "You must do everything with each other." And it's like, listen, do you want to hang out with your wife every [exasperated voice] f*cking minute of the day, every goddamn day? [chuckles]
At work, at home, like you need some separation so you can miss each other, and then enjoy each other more. I think we both got really bitter and angry for a while, especially when we quit our show when all these offers poured in, and still do, but it's always the same thing: "With you guys together."
And it's like, oh my God, can we just work without each other?
Right. It would probably help the marriage a bit too, like you said.
Most people always say, "I could never work with my spouse."
And I'm like, pshhh, I've spent the last seven years shoved up mine's butt. [Laughs]
So is this convention kind of your way to tell people, hey, I'm back, and I'm gonna be back doing reality?
Well, I'm actually gonna be sitting on a panel for Playboy TV, because I just did a little show for their "Celebrity Sex Stories" thing. And you know, I'm pretty much gonna put it out there that yeah, I'm coming back.
I'm going back out there. I'm doing my thing. And he can follow if he would like, or he can hang back and do his own thing.
During the lull, were you ever worried that you weren't going going to have work to do?
No.... You know, with this whole thing, from the day I won "Top Model" to now, it's never really been about fame for me. I mean, I don't really care. If it was about fame, I could've stayed in the press the whole time.
I could go down to Robertson, and go eat at The Ivy, and pretend I didn't know there's a bunch of paparazzi there, and get my picture, and get in Star Magazine. But I just didn't feel like it. [Laughs]
I didn't want to. And you know, we moved in a town that's very far away from all that, so there's no photographers down here, and there's a bunch of celebrities who I'm not gonna name that kind of escaped here for the same reason.
And I like who like me for who I am, and not because I'm some Z-list celebrity. So I wouldn't care about fading into obscurity. It's always been about the money for me. [Laughs]
There's always VH1, which pumps reality shows out like Pez.
Every single network's been pumping it out like Pez. So it's not going anywhere. So if my career ended tomorrow, I'm not scared about my future at all. It's just, you know, I'll be honest with you, it's easy money.
And I got a mortgage, and one day hopefully kids, and their college, and I have to think about stuff like that. And I'm like, you know what? Most people would take this chance.
And for the last few years, I was wondering if it was something I should continue to do. But now, I'm like f*ck it. I'm here. Might as well do my thing.
http://www.tvsquad.com/2011/03/30/adrianne-curry-interview/