‘RHOA’: Cynthia Bailey’s Advice to Future ‘RHUGT’ Cast Members – Have Fun Breaking the 4th Wall (Exclusive)
As one of the first Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip cast members, Cynthia Bailey from The Real Housewives of Atlanta has some advice for future cast members on how they make the most of filming.
The RHUGT series throws current and former Housewives from various series in a single location for a girls’ trip. The series allows cast members who have never met to connect, but also clash during filming. Bailey often found herself in the peacemaker role during the flagship season – but admits she lost her cool at one point.
Now that she’s gone through the experience, she hopes future cast members can be a little more vulnerable on this series than perhaps they are on their own show.
‘Housewives’ can break the 4th wall on ‘RHUGT’
Breaking the fourth wall in reality television is often discouraged, but the rules are a little different on RHUGT. “First of all I’m glad [producers] are going to be taking [the trips], because I know the fans have wanted this for a long time,” Bailey told Showbiz Cheat Sheet.
“In terms of advice, I would say go into it to have a good time,” she said. “You know, at the end of the day, one of the great things is Girls Trip is very different from the regular Real Housewives of Atlanta. Breaking the fourth wall was so much fun. Like it was my favorite thing to do. But just be able to really talk about things that we don’t really get to talk about.”
Bailey loved hearing the different casting stories and how some of the women became Housewives. “Because we all have different stories,” she remarked. “But I would just say just going into it to have a good time and just be yourself because, at the end of the day, I think the fans really want to see more beyond the girls trip than they get to see on the other regular Housewife show because we can break the fourth wall [on RHUGT]. And it is that time where you can be like, ‘Oh, OK, you know, so I feel at this moment and you know, this is maybe why I’m feeling this way,’ or whatever. I feel like I was able to be a little more vulnerable on Girls Trip.”
Cynthia Bailey recalls being more vulnerable on ‘RHUGT’
Bailey also said the cast should embrace how the show structure provides more opportunities to open up versus the regular series. “I had a lot of time to really express why I was feeling the way I was feeling,” Bailey recalled. “And I thought that was great because when you do it on the regular show, on your regular Housewife show, sometimes it was just kind of like, you move on and it doesn’t really show up. Like if you were sad or why you were sad. How long you were sad and who made you sad, you know what I mean? So for me, I definitely felt a lot more vulnerable on Girls Trip.“
She added that the RHUGT format was filmed outside of the casts’ lives and in one location. So they weren’t distracted with regular life. “I think that definitely played a part in it,” she said about the destination series. “And it was just long days. We did all those episodes in eight days.”
“So there was not a lot of downtime or time to just kind of decompress,” she added. “So, it’s not easy. And I think we were exhausted by the end of it. But I think it was entertaining. And then again, being the first one, I was so honored to be selected to be a part of the first one to kick it off. And I think we definitely set the bar pretty high.”
But don’t forget to pack your patience
Indeed the bar is set pretty high for future RHUGT cast members. Bailey added that the different personalities and demands require patience too. She and others were tested when Ramona Singer from The Real Housewives of New York City kicked off the trip by telling the other women that she put the franchise on the map and they should thank her.
“Oh, my patience was definitely tested,” Bailey laughed. “But in the end, I just kind of a I’m a ‘live and let live’ kind of person. And in this day, like, there’s only so much you can do.”
Since leaving RHOA, Bailey has been extremely busy. She partnered with Seagram’s Escapes and recently finished filming Lockdown for the Lifetime network.
The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip is currently streaming on Peacock.
