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Reality television is everywhere. But with the Real World, this was the proverbial fork-in-the-road. Strangers come together in a location and lived together in a beautiful home and have to deal with one another.
The drama, intrigue, sex, and… sex turned MTV from one-stop music video channel to a fully defined network. Following in the tradition of the Peck’s, Kevin Powell’s, and Pedro’s -- Ms. Janelle Casanave finds herself thrust into the spotlight.
As she prepares for the Challenge, Ms. Casanave talks about how the seventeenth season almost never came to fruition, why certain rich folks didn’t want the show to even be in Key West, and how MTV cameras didn’t catch everything, much to the dismay of Ms. Casanave.
HHDX: Real World’s season seems to be very dramatic and stressful. But the Key West season also had the dilemma of filming during one of the most brutal hurricane seasons ever. How was it to have to go through Katrina, Rita, and Wilma?
JC: Being from the West Coast, I never thought that I’d be in a hurricane, ever, in my life. I really didn’t know what to expect. The cast was dispersed into separate hotels. I was kind of one of the fortunate ones, my hotel didn’t have any of the issues of flooding and what have you. But there were a lot of areas in Key West that had major damage after Katrina. The cast and crew definitely felt Wilma and Rita, especially Wilma. We evacuated to Ft. Lauderdale and ended up underneath the eye of the storm. We didn’t know what was going to happen. For people who live there… they know what it’s like, but we were all pretty shocked to see the windows getting blown in. It was a pretty dramatic experience. They weren’t expecting to have to deal with that. What aired on television is what exactly how it happened. Our season is unique because we had to deal with that. I mean… it is history. Our situation isn’t comparable to people who live in Key West and are from there. We are fortunate to be able to pick up our stuff and leave, but for the residents… that was their livelihood. When we came back, we saw washing machines and refrigerators strewn all over the place. It was sad to see how people had to just pick up the pieces. I know that it was twenty times worst in New Orleans, but it was pretty rough there.
HHDX: Another interesting thing that happened was during the season, Real World was about to face a lawsuit from tourism mogul Ed Swift III. Why did he want to stop filming? Why do you think the suit was unsuccessful?
JC: In my personal opinion, this man was upset that Key West was getting attention and he didn’t have anything to do with it. He was personally trying to shut it down by saying that we were running a business in a residential area. That was his angle for his lawsuit, but it didn’t fly. You can tell that it was more so of a personal thing. He was an old man and the focus wasn’t on him. He runs a couple of bars, clubs, and restaurants in Key West. He made specific requests that we weren’t allowed to be around any of his “stuff”. There are four rich families that run Key West. All the other families were accepting of us, they wanted Key West to get that publicity. But he was concerned that Key West would only get put in a negative light.
HHDX: As the number of seasons grew, the debauchery did as well. But this is the first documented season where they were no sexual relationships with anyone in the house. Or is it? [laughs]
JC: It’s weird. For some reason, I guess the chemistry didn’t exist on an intimate level. It’s almost like right away we became like brother and sister. I don’t know about the other Real World casts, I only know about my cast and that’s Key West. It seems odd that people would get down like that on television. For me, if I see someone’s habits, good or bad, I get turned off. I think that that’s why when people hook up on the show, around the end of the season they don’t like each other. I think that all three girls were in some sort of a relationship. I had just got out of relationship and was still in contact with my ex. So, I think that that limited our interaction with the guys. They weren’t expecting us to keep in contact with our exes. Johnny [Devenanzio] did have an interest in me, but there was no interest from me. I think the guys were interested in us, but we weren’t feeling the guys. I feel bad for the viewers, though. It wasn’t one of the spiciest seasons. Key West is a place to go for the weekend, but to live, there is no one there. There are a bunch of old retired gay guys, it seemed like a lot of people are down there escaping problems, and there are also a lot of people from the Midwest. There were major slim pickings to choose from. When we evacuated from Key West, we went to Orlando and had a great time. We were around people who were young and we were attractive to them. I think that the guys and the girls would’ve been bringing people home if we were in a different location.
HHDX: One of the reasons that the show is immensely popular is the storylines and the back stories of the cast members. On the show, you came off as very opinionated and your goal is to be a lawyer. Would those plans change if you were to be able to launch your career as a makeup artist?
JC: I think the thing that I’ve realized is that over the past few months – I had wanted to come back and do makeup. I thought that being a lawyer was my calling, my passion, because I wanted to help out people. Not to downplay being a lawyer, but I think that doing makeup would help people. There are a lot of women who come in with low self-esteem, but now that I’m off the show, it’s impossible for me to work at a makeup counter. So, it makes that pretty difficult. But after you get off the show, especially one like the Real World, they have you making appearances. So, I don’t have the time to do anything else. I love the opportunity. Doing makeup and law school are both on my mind, all the time, but I’ve also had the chance to work with a close friend doing real estate. But I’m going to do the Real World/Road Rules Challenge, and after I get done with that, I’ll just weigh my opportunities.
HHDX: Being on television could warp people’s perception of you who already know you. Have the one’s closest to you changed since you’ve been on MTV?
JC: Not at all, the people who I would consider close to me have been very supportive. I guess that being in the public eye is really annoying. My friends can notice that. They’ve said comments to them [the fans], but my family and friends are supporting me every step of the way. I mean that’s what important. I’m not really too worried about the people who are outside of my circle of friends.
HHDX: On MTV’s site for the show, it says that “those closest to you [Janelle] point out that she’ll do whatever it takes to succeed.” What has been one occasion where that was true?
JC: I can name so many, I just want to name a prominent one. I worked my ass off to get into law school. I went to San Jose State. They don’t get the respect that they deserve when it comes to their programs. I did whatever it took to get into University of San Francisco. I wanted to live next to home. I worked harder than anyone and got the best grades. I feel good after the outcome. Five thousand people applied to get into grad school and only 200 people got in. There aren’t that many black women who are involved in this program. It is kind of sad to see that we are competing for that minority spot, but I feel that I’ve worked hard to get into law school.
HHDX: One of the more interesting things about this season was the creation of a ‘burn book’ about fellow cast member, Svetlana. For those who didn’t watch the show, can you talk about the book and if anything happened that the tapes didn’t catch?
JC: The burn book was something created for Svetlana. It was created by Tyler [Duckworth]. People associate me with the book because of Tyler and mines closeness. It had a whole bunch of things that she would say. It was hilarious… [laughs] but not to her. I felt bad that she was the victim of Tyler’s wrath. But she gave him so much ammo that you couldn’t possibly not comment on it. I think they caught the burn book pretty good. But we would do stuff to try and avoid the cameras. We would write stuff down on paper and would talk in code to try and get the cast members to read it. We would e-mail each other from time to time. They didn’t know who we were e-mailing. But we’d do sneaky things to just avoid the cameras. Sometimes you would want the cameras to hear what you’re saying. The one thing that really disappointed me was that they made a point to talk about Tyler and Svetlana’s relationship. I think the production really wanted to create a bitch out of me. So, they would try to insinuate that I was. They wouldn’t air the conversations that Svetlana and I would have where I would pull her to the side and just talk to her. But they would never show what I would do because of that. It’s sad that that stuff happens. We actually got along, but people wouldn’t watch it if we weren’t getting along.
HHDX: When it’s all said and done, what would you say was the best experience of filming the Real World?
JC: Fantasy Fest. It is a huge festival in Key West. Kind of like Mardi Gras, but it has a tinge of Halloween in it. It kind of summed up our season. We enjoyed one another and it was a great time together. We came and got rid of our differences to enjoy Key West. For anyone who is trying to find a party, go down to Key West, because it gets really crazy down there.
Reality television is everywhere. But with the Real World, this was the proverbial fork-in-the-road. Strangers come together in a location and lived together in a beautiful home and have to deal with one another.
The drama, intrigue, sex, and… sex turned MTV from one-stop music video channel to a fully defined network. Following in the tradition of the Peck’s, Kevin Powell’s, and Pedro’s -- Ms. Janelle Casanave finds herself thrust into the spotlight.
As she prepares for the Challenge, Ms. Casanave talks about how the seventeenth season almost never came to fruition, why certain rich folks didn’t want the show to even be in Key West, and how MTV cameras didn’t catch everything, much to the dismay of Ms. Casanave.
HHDX: Real World’s season seems to be very dramatic and stressful. But the Key West season also had the dilemma of filming during one of the most brutal hurricane seasons ever. How was it to have to go through Katrina, Rita, and Wilma?
JC: Being from the West Coast, I never thought that I’d be in a hurricane, ever, in my life. I really didn’t know what to expect. The cast was dispersed into separate hotels. I was kind of one of the fortunate ones, my hotel didn’t have any of the issues of flooding and what have you. But there were a lot of areas in Key West that had major damage after Katrina. The cast and crew definitely felt Wilma and Rita, especially Wilma. We evacuated to Ft. Lauderdale and ended up underneath the eye of the storm. We didn’t know what was going to happen. For people who live there… they know what it’s like, but we were all pretty shocked to see the windows getting blown in. It was a pretty dramatic experience. They weren’t expecting to have to deal with that. What aired on television is what exactly how it happened. Our season is unique because we had to deal with that. I mean… it is history. Our situation isn’t comparable to people who live in Key West and are from there. We are fortunate to be able to pick up our stuff and leave, but for the residents… that was their livelihood. When we came back, we saw washing machines and refrigerators strewn all over the place. It was sad to see how people had to just pick up the pieces. I know that it was twenty times worst in New Orleans, but it was pretty rough there.
HHDX: Another interesting thing that happened was during the season, Real World was about to face a lawsuit from tourism mogul Ed Swift III. Why did he want to stop filming? Why do you think the suit was unsuccessful?
JC: In my personal opinion, this man was upset that Key West was getting attention and he didn’t have anything to do with it. He was personally trying to shut it down by saying that we were running a business in a residential area. That was his angle for his lawsuit, but it didn’t fly. You can tell that it was more so of a personal thing. He was an old man and the focus wasn’t on him. He runs a couple of bars, clubs, and restaurants in Key West. He made specific requests that we weren’t allowed to be around any of his “stuff”. There are four rich families that run Key West. All the other families were accepting of us, they wanted Key West to get that publicity. But he was concerned that Key West would only get put in a negative light.
HHDX: As the number of seasons grew, the debauchery did as well. But this is the first documented season where they were no sexual relationships with anyone in the house. Or is it? [laughs]
JC: It’s weird. For some reason, I guess the chemistry didn’t exist on an intimate level. It’s almost like right away we became like brother and sister. I don’t know about the other Real World casts, I only know about my cast and that’s Key West. It seems odd that people would get down like that on television. For me, if I see someone’s habits, good or bad, I get turned off. I think that that’s why when people hook up on the show, around the end of the season they don’t like each other. I think that all three girls were in some sort of a relationship. I had just got out of relationship and was still in contact with my ex. So, I think that that limited our interaction with the guys. They weren’t expecting us to keep in contact with our exes. Johnny [Devenanzio] did have an interest in me, but there was no interest from me. I think the guys were interested in us, but we weren’t feeling the guys. I feel bad for the viewers, though. It wasn’t one of the spiciest seasons. Key West is a place to go for the weekend, but to live, there is no one there. There are a bunch of old retired gay guys, it seemed like a lot of people are down there escaping problems, and there are also a lot of people from the Midwest. There were major slim pickings to choose from. When we evacuated from Key West, we went to Orlando and had a great time. We were around people who were young and we were attractive to them. I think that the guys and the girls would’ve been bringing people home if we were in a different location.
HHDX: One of the reasons that the show is immensely popular is the storylines and the back stories of the cast members. On the show, you came off as very opinionated and your goal is to be a lawyer. Would those plans change if you were to be able to launch your career as a makeup artist?
JC: I think the thing that I’ve realized is that over the past few months – I had wanted to come back and do makeup. I thought that being a lawyer was my calling, my passion, because I wanted to help out people. Not to downplay being a lawyer, but I think that doing makeup would help people. There are a lot of women who come in with low self-esteem, but now that I’m off the show, it’s impossible for me to work at a makeup counter. So, it makes that pretty difficult. But after you get off the show, especially one like the Real World, they have you making appearances. So, I don’t have the time to do anything else. I love the opportunity. Doing makeup and law school are both on my mind, all the time, but I’ve also had the chance to work with a close friend doing real estate. But I’m going to do the Real World/Road Rules Challenge, and after I get done with that, I’ll just weigh my opportunities.
HHDX: Being on television could warp people’s perception of you who already know you. Have the one’s closest to you changed since you’ve been on MTV?
JC: Not at all, the people who I would consider close to me have been very supportive. I guess that being in the public eye is really annoying. My friends can notice that. They’ve said comments to them [the fans], but my family and friends are supporting me every step of the way. I mean that’s what important. I’m not really too worried about the people who are outside of my circle of friends.
HHDX: On MTV’s site for the show, it says that “those closest to you [Janelle] point out that she’ll do whatever it takes to succeed.” What has been one occasion where that was true?
JC: I can name so many, I just want to name a prominent one. I worked my ass off to get into law school. I went to San Jose State. They don’t get the respect that they deserve when it comes to their programs. I did whatever it took to get into University of San Francisco. I wanted to live next to home. I worked harder than anyone and got the best grades. I feel good after the outcome. Five thousand people applied to get into grad school and only 200 people got in. There aren’t that many black women who are involved in this program. It is kind of sad to see that we are competing for that minority spot, but I feel that I’ve worked hard to get into law school.
HHDX: One of the more interesting things about this season was the creation of a ‘burn book’ about fellow cast member, Svetlana. For those who didn’t watch the show, can you talk about the book and if anything happened that the tapes didn’t catch?
JC: The burn book was something created for Svetlana. It was created by Tyler [Duckworth]. People associate me with the book because of Tyler and mines closeness. It had a whole bunch of things that she would say. It was hilarious… [laughs] but not to her. I felt bad that she was the victim of Tyler’s wrath. But she gave him so much ammo that you couldn’t possibly not comment on it. I think they caught the burn book pretty good. But we would do stuff to try and avoid the cameras. We would write stuff down on paper and would talk in code to try and get the cast members to read it. We would e-mail each other from time to time. They didn’t know who we were e-mailing. But we’d do sneaky things to just avoid the cameras. Sometimes you would want the cameras to hear what you’re saying. The one thing that really disappointed me was that they made a point to talk about Tyler and Svetlana’s relationship. I think the production really wanted to create a bitch out of me. So, they would try to insinuate that I was. They wouldn’t air the conversations that Svetlana and I would have where I would pull her to the side and just talk to her. But they would never show what I would do because of that. It’s sad that that stuff happens. We actually got along, but people wouldn’t watch it if we weren’t getting along.
HHDX: When it’s all said and done, what would you say was the best experience of filming the Real World?
JC: Fantasy Fest. It is a huge festival in Key West. Kind of like Mardi Gras, but it has a tinge of Halloween in it. It kind of summed up our season. We enjoyed one another and it was a great time together. We came and got rid of our differences to enjoy Key West. For anyone who is trying to find a party, go down to Key West, because it gets really crazy down there.
