On Friday, April 28 I got to do something many females all over North America would pay big money to do, spend 15 minutes hanging out with Stephen Colletti of ‘Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County’ fame. Stephen was in Toronto helping to promote MTV Canada, which launched March 21, 2006, and ‘Laguna Beach,’ which has quickly become a hit in Canada, like it already is in the U.S. Stephen was a really down-to-earth guy and I really had a good time talking to him – admittedly I would have rather spent 15 minutes with Kristen, LC or my favourite ‘Laguna’ girl Jessica.
Romo: So what’s Stephen up to these days?
Stephen Colletti: I live down in Los Angeles, working on acting. I have been studying that hard for last year or so. I did a year up in San Francisco, but I didn’t like the acting programs up there so I came down L.A., and I’ve been working there. I’ve been travelling doing some self-promotional types of things. They [MTV] are doing more seasons but I’m not doing them. I know they are working on [season] 3. I’m not doing that, but I still keep my relationship with MTV and do some hosting stuff for them.
Romo: Do you think maybe that because you are known as Stephen, it’s going to be hard to distance yourself from that and get into acting?
Stephen: I agree, it definitely is. I think that the people kinda know that Laguna is different than any other reality show. We never really talk to the camera. You [viewers] almost kinda look at me like a character. I think that helps. But I am totally up for the challenge and I’m very aware of the challenge and will accept it and take it on.
Romo: Like any reality show a lot of it is about the editing. So how different is the Stephen people see on TV than the person that you are?
Stephen: I think that there are definitely some differences. I think for the most part [on Laguna] I kinda just lay low. I wasn’t going to try and act anything more than who I was. I wasn’t going to try and act up to the camera and be someone cool. I just tried to stay within myself. I think that more when I’m around my friends that I open up more. I’m a bit of a spaz.
Romo: More of a party animal?
Stephen: Not necessarily a party animal. Just kinda bouncing off the walls, just doing crazy things, just all over the place, trying to have fun.
Romo: What does it feel like to be known as “Stephen from Laguna Beach” and not necessarily for who you are?
Stephen: Yeah, it’s interesting, it’s weird because that’s where I come from, so hearing “Stephen from Laguna Beach” it makes me want to move away from that, put it behind me. It’s very stereotyped being from Laguna.
Romo: What are the best and worst things about the fame you have attained because of Laguna Beach?
Stephen: The worst, just the loss of privacy. It’s not that bad. But sometimes if you are a restaurant, you are having dinner and you are cutting into a steak and you get, “Can I get a picture?” I’m a nice guy and I’ll never say no. So I’ll do it but sometimes it’s just the wrong timing. I think the privacy is a huge loss.
One of the good things, I’ve met a lot of great people since I’ve done the show. It’s just opened up a lot of great opportunities.
Romo: I know you have probably been asked this about 100 times but can you maybe explain the whole “Cabo incident?”
Stephen: It was just during a time when Kristen and I were on a break, but you are on a break with someone but there are still some feelings. And seeing them with someone else can make things heated. And that whole thing was just not me, at all.
We started out in the morning with mimosas, and then pool happy hour with beers, and then lobby happy hour with tequila shots, followed by some tequila shots, followed by some tequila shots.
Romo: Everybody gets a little wild when love is involved, with alcohol.
Stephen: Exactly! That was me at a level I have never seen myself before. And I haven’t been back to it since.
Romo: What’s the situation with you and LC and Kristen right now?
Stephen: We are all just friends. I stay in touch with them a little bit. We have all moved on to our own things.
Romo: Do you think it’s just going to be friends for the rest of your life?
Stephen: Yeah I think so. Kristen and I have a lot of great memories together. We can look back and laugh at all the trouble we got ourselves in. It’s cool to have that. And since we keep doing stuff like this [promoting the show] it keeps coming up, people are always asking about us. So whenever we talk to each other we always laugh about something that happened before.
I think we will just stay in touch and remain friends. I think if anything it’s a better chance now of us staying friends and not losing contact because stuff from the show keeps coming up.
Romo: A lot of the things that happen on camera were pretty honest stuff. You would see people cheating on each other. Where there any friendships that were damaged or totally ruined because of stuff people saw on the show?
Stephen: No, I think the only thing I saw change because of the show, definitely was Lauren and Kristen’s relationship. It was non-existent before but I think it’s a lot more of an ugly relationship. It became an even more of a heated “they don’t really like each other relationship” because of the show.
Romo: Because the media kinda hyped things up a bit?
Stephen: Yeah, I think because of that and because of the…dealing with me…[laughs]. But other than that everyone else kinda looked things as to not be taken too seriously.
Romo: How do you feel about MTV and Laguna Beach coming to Canada?
Stephen: I think it’s great. Maybe people can take something out of it and relate to their own lives. I hope they enjoy it. MTV does a lot of fun shows.
Romo: How has your life changed since you began Laguna?
Stephen: I’m only 20 now and it’s changed a lot. It feels like light years ago that I did that show because so much has happened since. I think I’ve grown up a lot. It helped me grow up faster. You are dealing with people a lot, people a lot older than you. So you are almost forced to mature a lot faster.
Romo: Do you feel you missed out though on a regular college experience?
Stephen: No, because I feel like I knew when I was in high school that I really wanted to take advantage of that time. I always just heard to make high school the best time of your life and take advantage of it and have fun. So I definitely tore it up during my high school career and had fun. And I went to a year of college and had fun. But, honestly I was almost started to get over it [partying]. I partied a lot in high school and plenty in college. Now I just want to start working on my career and making life a success. I don’t feel like I missed out.
Romo: When you went to college in San Francisco I assume a lot of people knew who you were there. Did you have people who tried to be your friend because they saw you on TV?
Stephen: I had maybe a month before the show came out when I was at school. So I was able to meet people and find some core group of friends. As the show came out, it was weird. People would always come by my dorm. There were always knocks on the door, “Does somebody live here?” They would kinda look inside and pretend they were looking for someone else; asking for Eric, when there was no Eric on the floor. Again that was that privacy factor.
I’m always about staying true to myself. I don’t want to have a famous girlfriend or hang out with famous people just because they are famous. I’m really against that stuff so I picked up on that a lot.
Romo: You picked up on when certain girls were into you because of the show?
Stephen: Yeah it was almost a turn off when girls were throwing themselves at you. I always like the challenge of battling for a girl. You know that thing were you see if you can get a girl and you wouldn’t necessarily want to do anything about it.
Romo: Was anyone mean to you because of things they saw on the show?
Stephen: There are always haters. Some of the girls, if they were related to Lauren [LC] they would joke to me about it. I’ve never had a girl flat out hate me, and say something like “You are such a player, like who are you are as a human being?” or nothing like that.
There were definitely some guys who had some jealous factor problems. They think they know me. Some of them just act like meat heads, “I could probably kick that Stephen kid from Laguna Beach’s ass.” But I never got in a fight.
Romo: One thing I always found interesting was the lack of parents. I assume you were living with your parents.
Stephen: They [MTV] shot plenty of footage with the parents. But I think they [MTV] wanted that high drama and the parents were always just smiling at the cameras. I think my mom just kinda acted towards the camera and was just excited to have her kid on TV. I think they [MTV] just played away from the parents. They just focused on the youth.
Romo: So your parents were totally supportive?
Stephen: Yeah they were. It was hard sometimes. Like the Cabo episode they totally understood. I was embarrassed not just for me but for my family, the name. But they understood. The parents take care of their kids down there. We don’t have all this freedom.
Romo: So you don’t have all this freedom that is depicted on the show?
Stephen: No, no. There were plenty of times kids were grounded and they [MTV] had to work around it. That happens. We are just all regular kids.
Romo: Are you guys as affluent and spoiled as it comes off?
Stephen: No that’s one thing that people ask, how do I think I came off looking? I really think it’s fine how I’m portrayed. But I think it’s more of the image of Laguna and how everyone lives down there and everyone is spoiled and there is so much wealth. That was off. I mean there is that, it’s not like the average American town. But you are on the beach and it’s so beautiful so the real estate is very expensive. But there a lots of people who have been there a long time [before things were expensive.] It’s disappointing for me to see that, how they show just the wealthy aspect of Laguna. It’s a much more mixed income.
Romo: So what does the future hold for Stephen?
Stephen: Acting is my passion so I’m working towards that. I know I will always be in the entertainment business so that’s the road I’m going to go for.
Romo: So what’s your dream role?
Stephen: Dream role?….That’s a good question. I like to do everything. I would love to do kinda action thing, like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible or like a James Bond. But I would also love to do some comedy, even a simple little romantic comedy would be fun.
Romo: It was nice meeting you Stephen and good luck with the acting.
Season 2 of Laguna Beach is now airing in Canada on MTV Canada, Friday at 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. followed by the Laguna Beach Aftershow.
