There has been a seemingly endless debate over the recent saturation of reality shows by every network on television. Some argue that the presence of these shows is dumbing down America and cheapening television; others argue that reality skeins are merely a reflection of our current insatiable desire to see ordinary citizens on-screen—albeit, citizens being humiliated and degraded. Regardless, reality shows have taken their toll on the actors, writers, and directors hoping to eke out a living in this town. While the cards have long been stacked against the average actor looking for work, today more than 40 percent of the current on-air real estate is taken up by reality shows. The odds of landing a legitimate acting gig have gotten even steeper. But is it possible to work the reality trend in your favor? In a town in which thousands of actors are vying to get noticed, can a nationally televised show be the push you need to get your big break? Back Stage West spoke with four actors who took the reality plunge.
Surreal World
Undeniably the single most famous "celebrity" of the reality genre is Jerri Manthey (Survivor Australia). Manthey had been living in Los Angeles and working as an actor for six years before landing in the Outback. She had an agent and a manager, and she was working with an acting coach and performing in workshops to get seen. Her biggest credit before Survivor was a role in the Showtime movie That Championship Season, directed by Paul Sorvino and starring Vincent D'Onofrio, Tony Shalhoub, and Gary Sinise. Manthey was frustrated with her career and with Los Angeles when she auditioned for Survivor; she saw it as an opportunity to challenge herself and to get some perspective. "I was at a level of frustration. I was really into the outdoors and I needed to get out of L.A. I thought, What better way than on this show where I could win $1 million?" said Manthey.
She tried to get on the first Survivor but was rejected. She said the rejection kept her from watching the first season, but when it came time to cast the second season, the casting directors hired for the project had coincidentally already cast Manthey in two other reality shows, Blind Date and Singled Out, both of which she did "during a year in which I was totally broke, and $100 and a free meal was a lot." The casting directors remembered her face and encouraged her to make another tape for them. Manthey said she didn't fully realize the potential the show had as a vehicle for success until about two weeks before she was scheduled to leave for Australia. "When they were casting for Season Two, no one really knew the effects that Season One was having yet. It wasn't until about two weeks before we left that all the Survivor One people started popping up on TV everywhere and getting guest spots on television shows, and I suddenly realized, This show could be the vehicle that launches my career."
For those who never watched Survivor Australia, the turmoil and drama that surrounded Manthey was intense, to say the least. She was quickly dubbed "the most hated woman in America." So severe was the loathing by the general public that Manthey was shocked and disheartened to learn that her vision of the big break needed to change. She said, "It was very frightening and painful to watch. I was completely thrown off. I had no idea that they would manipulate me in that way. Whatever I thought was going to happen for my career at the end of the show was completely thrown off by the fact that they took me and turned me into this evil character. To be completely loathed and despised by most of America, I realized I had to use the vehicle in a different way. When I did the media circuit, people were constantly trying to push my buttons, but I did my best to come off as polite and charming and smart. I wanted to set the record straight."
Manthey's hope for stardom was severely challenged by the outcome of the show. "A lot of doors were getting slammed in my face because people really thought I was a horrible bitch," she said. The show, however, led to a guest spot on the Young and the Restless. "I was really excited about that because I felt like it was my chance for people to see that I'm an actress," said Manthey. "But then they made me play myself. It wasn't really myself, though; it was a character of myself, the person people saw on Survivor. It was all very surreal."
Manthey said most of the casting directors who called her in after Survivor were fans of the show. She said, "It seemed like the only calls I was getting were from CDs who just wanted to meet me and ask me a bunch of questions about Survivor. I had to remind them I was there to audition."
Though Manthey tried her hardest to leverage her career and seek legitimate acting jobs, casting directors and producers were unwilling to take her seriously. She said "I think people were very afraid to take a chance with me, people were really buying the hype. It created a whole other level of challenges for me beyond what I had combated before going on the show. I thought the exposure would really work in my favor, but it didn't. I was hoping to be cast in every single bad-girl villain role there was, but the difference between playing a bitch and being portrayed as a bitch on a reality show is that people believe the reality to be real."
While Manthey appeared on a considerable number of game shows and talk shows after Survivor, her only on-screen acting credits besides the Y&R stint was an independent film that a friend of hers produced and a short film that another friend produced. "Friends of mine were trying to give me the vehicle I needed to prove that I was an actress," she said.
Then in early 2002, producers approached Manthey to appear in yet another reality show, The Surreal Life. Though Manthey was hesitant at first, she realized it was the only way to change the public's perception of her so she could have a career. "It was almost like I did Surreal Life as damage control for Survivor," she said.
Manthey said that the response from Surreal Life has so far been positive. It has given her an element of celebrity status—other celebrities lived in a house with her during the show—and CDs have been much more receptive to her. She said, "Casting directors have told me that doing The Surreal Life was the smartest thing I could ever have done."
While Manthey hasn't booked any acting jobs yet, she is not disheartened. "These are not the cards that I thought I'd be dealt," she said, "but they've been dealt to me, and now I've got to rethink my game plan. And that's basically where I'm at." And while Manthey claims that going on Survivor was definitely "a double-edged sword," she has no regrets. "They say in Hollywood as long as they're talking it's OK—no press is bad press—but it's very painful. Still, this has been the wildest ride, and I don't regret a single part of it."
Mystery Solved
Like Manthey, Holly Brentson-Pelletier was also an accomplished actor before her appearance on Road Rules 9, Maximum Velocity. Pelletier grew up in Lake Tahoe and had been acting since she was 9 years old, doing theatre in San Francisco and Sacramento and traveling around the United States with a theatre company. Pelletier also taught an after-school theatre program in Lake Tahoe before going on the show.
Pelletier didn't have cable, so she wasn't very aware of the impact of Road Rules, but chance and luck brought her to an open casting call at Great American Six Flags Adventure in San José. Despite her resumé, Pelletier said, "When you do a show like that, no matter how much work I had done before, everyone just assumed that I was trying to make it as an actor because of the show."
After the shooting of Road Rules ended, Pelletier moved back to Lake Tahoe and continued doing theatre while planning a move to Los Angeles. Her move to L.A. was hastened, though, when she met her future husband (a Road Rules 8 alumni, Chadwick Pelletier).
Though Pelletier had made it to L.A., she was forced to take a two-year hiatus from her acting career because of the contractual restrictions from the Road Rules production company. She said, "The contract that Bunim Murray makes you sign before going on the show is so binding that if they can in any way argue that you only got an acting job as a result of the show, they can take almost every penny you get paid." Pelletier explained that her contract stipulated that for two years after the show she would be paid $750 per promotional appearance. Even though the entire cast of Road Rules 9 was booked on a national commercial for Route 66 clothing, each was paid the standard $750. "In any other situation we would have made anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000, but the production company claimed we got the commercial as a result of Road Rules and therefore it was a promotional appearance, so we only got our standard fee." She said, "After that experience, I just took two years off. I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of making money for them, and essentially anything I did they could come after me and take everything."
Now that her contract has expired, Pelletier is working on getting an agent. "Part of me thought that the show would give some exposure and some notoriety, but I learned very quickly that it wasn't going to do that for me," she said.
Indeed, Pelletier also confronted some bad press when she got home. Faced with the unwelcome task of defending herself against the public, Pelletier, much like Manthey, decided to appear on a second reality show to set the record straight. She said "When we [she and Chadwick,] were offered to go on the Real World/Road Rules Challenge, we both had reservations about going into it a second time, but we both had changed so much since the show that we really wanted people to see who we are—and we are together. I knew what to expect, and I could play their game more. The Challenge gave more of a whole picture of who I am to the public."
Still, the change in public perception hasn't done much for her career. "There's no quick fix to a professional acting career, and going on a reality show is not going to help that," she said.
Pelletier said she believes that the struggles actors face after appearing on a reality show come not so much from the stigma these shows carry as from the all-encompassing glimpse into their everyday life that makes the transition back to working actor so difficult. "If we really knew what Tom Cruise did day in and day out, or if we thought we knew, it would be much harder to believe that he is really a character in a movie," she said. "You have to have a certain amount of mystery about actors, or they can't become somebody else. If you are in L.A. and you are working as an actor and you're thinking of doing reality just to get that extra push, I would say absolutely not—going on Fear Factor is not a good move for your career. If you are somewhere in middle America and you get a chance to go on one of these shows, and it's going to give you enough money to come to L.A. and start trying to make it, I guess you have nothing to lose. But if you are already out here working, it is absolutely not a good idea."
Regardless of your motives, Pelletier advises you to look closely at your contract before signing. "I don't have any regrets. If I could go back, I would do it again in a heartbeat—it was such an amazing experience," she said. "But I also wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."
Hiding From the Hype
A contestant on a recent popular WB reality show also hoped the exposure would benefit her career, but she had such a tough time with the reality backlash that she wished to remain anonymous for this story. While living outside of Los Angeles and working as a theatre actor, she was approached by producers to be on the show. While initially skeptical, she said, "Pretty much everyone I knew was urging me to do it. My agent and manager didn't really have a strong opinion on it, but some of my directors and colleagues were incredibly excited for me. They all told me this could be a big break for me."
Originally, the source felt that going on the show would be a bad career move for her: "I thought it would cheapen me as an actress." But, she said, she got increasingly curious about the show, and producers continued to lead her along. "They were so good," she said, "They always kept me at bay and wouldn't give me too much information, but they still made it really exciting. By the end I was treating it like any other role, so when they finally told me that I had been cast, I accepted."
Soon after the show wrapped, the source moved to Los Angeles. While she was excited to see the show, she got increasingly more nervous. "I was worried, I didn't know what the tenor of the show was going to be like, and I feared that they were going to really manipulate the situation," she said. Upon moving to Los Angeles, she landed roles in several plays and a few independent films, and later got an agent. Before signing on with her new agency, she decided not to share that she had been on a reality series. She explained, "I didn't tell them until the show was airing. I was so nervous about it already that I was looking to disassociate myself from it. I also felt like there are so many writers and actors and producers in L.A who are so anti-reality TV because it's taking away so many jobs, I just didn't want to tell too many people what I had done." When she finally did reveal herself, the agent immediately tried to use the exposure to get her in to casting directors' offices. But, she said, "It was not a successful endeavor. I haven't seen any auditions because of the show."
As the show progressed, the source was featured more and more prominently—and not in a flattering light. While she was disappointed, she said, "At least people had a strong opinion about me." And while the show never became big enough with audiences to affect her career either positively or negatively, she said, "Overall it was an interesting experience. I learned a lot, but mostly what I learned is how I don't want to be portrayed on reality TV—it's not exactly information that I can ever use again. If I knew then what I know now, I definitely would not have done it. There was simply no benefit."
Win a Car, Not a Career
Another Survivor alum had similar experiences. Sean Rector (Survivor 4, Marquesas) has been a working actor for more than 10 years. Rector studied theatre in college, he traveled the country doing regional children's theatre, and he has worked as a member of the Negro Ensemble Company for five years. In 1998 Rector moved from New York to Los Angeles, where he continued to audition and support himself as a teacher.
In 2001 he and a few of his friends decided to send in audition tapes for Survivor. Rector didn't think too much about it at the time, but as he continued to get called back for more meetings with show producers, he said that career aspirations were the furthest thing from his mind. He said, "I teach in South Central Los Angeles, and I thought that if I could make it on the show, it would be really inspirational for my students. I represent them, and I thought it would be great to give them hope."
Rector knew that Survivor was a gigantic hit with audiences, but he had never watched an episode. "I did it as a lark," he said. "I never really thought I would get selected, and I certainly wasn't thinking about it as a vehicle to boost my acting career."
When he returned to Los Angeles, Rector was eager to see the show, though he was frustrated at having to keep quiet about it for so long. But as with Manthey, he was shocked and enraged at what happened in the editing room. " I just assumed they would show the events as they happened," he said. "I had no idea how they would manipulate the footage. There were moments where I was in tears watching myself."
But Rector believes that because there are so many reality shows coming out now, and the memory span of both the public and those in the industry seems so short, whatever impression he made at the time will be quickly erased by the next big hit, controversy, or scandal.
After the show, Rector signed up with a manager who put together a new reel for him that included some segments of Survivor. And while Rector did get some impressive meetings out of it, including people from Cheyenne Enterprises (Bruce Willis' company), Viacom Television's West Coast president Perry Simon, and Showtime head of casting Beth Klein, the only acting he has booked since the show was a guest starring role on CBS' Without a Trace in November 2002.
Rector considers his experience on Survivor successful—he won a car out of it—and he said he would consider doing the show again, but strict contractual limitations from CBS have been more severe than he bargained for. "They make you sign a contract before you go that essentially forces you to hold off from doing any acting or press work from the time you get back from taping to the moment you leave the show," he said. "Since I lasted pretty long on the show, I wasn't able to make appearances the way some other people who got kicked off earlier could. Making matters worse, the contract stipulates that for more than a year after the completion of the show, any media work that you do—and that includes acting gigs—must be signed off on by CBS." Rector said he landed a part on another network, only to be denied the job by CBS in its attempt to protect the Survivor brand.
Overall, Rector considers the show a worthwhile personal journey but not a career move: "Running through the jungles does not make me an actor. It may have given me notoriety, but that's something completely separate. I really don't think the show had any effect on my career. It's practically two years later and I'm still hustling."
No matter what their personal experiences were, all the actors interviewed agreed that if you are sincerely interested in what the reality show has to offer, whether it be facing the tribal council, being married by America, living in a house with seven strangers, or eating cow brains for cash, there's no reason not to go for it. But if you have any kind of ulterior motives in mind, it's best to just stay home and join the millions of viewers vicariously experiencing reality from the comfort of their couches. Manthey offered this advice: "If you are an actor who decides to appear on a reality show, I urge you to treat it like any other job, do your research, make sure you know the details, and recognize that it's a risk. There are not many things in life that aren't risky in the acting world, but I would never tell someone not to do it. In the end you just never know." BSW