House of Stassi‘s executive producers David Marker and Renata Lombardo weren’t surprised when the show began to explore Stassi Schroeder and Beau Clark‘s marriage issues amid their return to reality TV.
During an exclusive interview with Us, Marker and Lombardo recalled having a conversation with Stassi, 38, before the brand new Hulu show began production.
“There’s a handful of scenes that basically stand out, but I feel in the beginning of this journey, Stassi said to us, ‘I’m going to bleed out for this show,’” Lombardo recalled. “She knew she needed to go there. If she wasn’t going to deliver at that level, the audience was not going to just accept.”
Lombardo praised Stassi for not hiding anything about her life from the audience, adding, “That’s exactly what she did. She went to very real places along with her mom, her sister, her best friends and her husband. Those are the relationships which are closest to us all.”
She continued: “I do know if I had a fight with my husband and it was captured on TV, [it wouldn’t feel good]. But she went there because that’s what was happening of their life at that moment. It’s visceral and raw and almost uncomfortable to have a look at at times. But that’s what we love in regards to the show is individuals are going to feel like we’re doing fourth wall breaks and we’re acknowledging the show throughout the show — since the audience is just too savvy to not.”
Lombardo also identified the “humanity throughout the show.”
“It is rather real. That’s the very best stuff of our genre in unscripted is when it’s just real humanity crossing our screens,” she added. “That’s where our genre is peak over scripted. You can write a personality all day long, but while you get real humanity captured on camera of an actual relationship and it’s in a peak moment of uncertainty or a peak moment of just truth or authenticity, it’s like pure gold. And we captured that with Stassi’s season.”
House of Stassi, which is streaming now, offers a candid glimpse of Stassi’s life after Vanderpump Rules as she attempts to balance her personal and skilled lives while Beau, 46, struggles with no job.
While filming, the producers had conversations in regards to the tense moments between Stassi and Beau.
“Each time we film a scene, there are conversations coming out of that scene like, ‘Where can we go next?’” Marker told Us. “We’ve got producers on the team who’re speaking directly with the forged all over and managing feelings in real time. So there definitely wasn’t ever some extent through the season where we had people saying, ‘Cut the cameras, we will’t film this.’”
Marker continued, “The whole lot happened organically and in a possible way, but it surely never got to some extent where it felt prefer it went too far for anybody.”
Despite capturing raw moments, Lombardo hinted it wasn’t the plan from the very starting.
When viewers were introduced to staff at Lisa Vanderpump‘s restaurant during Vanderpump Rules‘ 2013 premiere, it was clear everyone was intertwined in each other’s love lives. From Stassi Schroeder‘s rocky relationship with Jax Taylor, which took a turn when he attached along with her best friend Kristen Doute, to Peter Madrigal’s casual connections to several […]
“The very story lines that we’re tracking are because we’re staying as authentic as possible [and] bringing up real issues. It wasn’t all the time planned as such, but I feel just in who Stassi is and the way she navigates her relationships, that’s what we covered,” she continued. “For the Stassi piece of the show, it’s talking in regards to the duality of her life. We were really struck by it and I actually have conversations with my friends who’re excelling of their careers they usually’re often now increasingly more in these relationships where they’re the breadwinners they usually’re those on the market killing it of their careers they usually’re married to men who are actually more the stay-at-home person in the connection. We haven’t seen that reflected as much in media as we’re attending to do with this series.”
She added: “It’s the nice and the bad and the ugly obviously. But I feel there’s just an influence in seeing a lady of Stassi’s caliber navigating really relatable dynamics in a wedding. She’s got the entire resources and this fabulous life. But at the tip of the day, they’re also navigating who [has] more time for self-care. These are real conversations that real couples all over the place are having on a regular basis. In order that they’re just the representation of that throughout the series, which we’re really thrilled by.”
Looking ahead at season 2, the EPs wouldn’t do much in a different way.
“In case you ask the forged that query, they probably feel like they’ve some regret. All of them knew what they signed up for, which is just putting it on the market. We’re capturing a moment in time in these people’s lives. By the point the show airs, a number of months have passed, so season 2 goes to be type of the fallout of seeing all of it play out again,” Lombardo teased. “They lived it once, but once they see it again within the show, they’re going to live it again.”
Marker, meanwhile, teased plans to “go larger.”
“I’m really excited to see how people react to the opposite forged members since it really truly is an ensemble show,” he noted. “And who’s going to pop? Who brings the drama? Who’s the funny one? And the way can we proceed to construct out the world around Stassi because the show progresses?”
House of Stassi is streaming now on Hulu.