I got to chat with the famously lovable Johnny Bananas about the Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Island as well as an upcoming episode of Reality Obsessed where he’s stuck in a house for 36 hours straight with fellow Island castmate Kenny, Real World Sydney’s Trisha, Big Brother 8‘s Jen and the foremost reality television expert Murtz Jaffer. Johnny talks about the drama, the manipulations and just what it takes to make good reality television…
Be sure to check out Johnny’s episode of Reality Obsessed tonight at 6 or 8 p.m. on TVTropolis and a new episode of The Island at 10 p.m. on MTV.
Sharon Tharp: Why do you think you became more of a target this challenge, unlike past challenges where you were kind of the fun lovable guy?
Johnny Bananas: I think one of the main problems with the Island is that on the other challenges, there were a lot of Alpha male-type personalities. Everyone wanted to be in charge and everyone had an opinion, but nobody wanted to listen. And the other challenges were very individualistic where we had people cooking for us and cleaning for us. Whereas in this challenge, it was a lot more like a community. My personality, I’m pretty much a natural born leader and I always have been. I think what happened, since there wasn’t a villain like there has been on every show, they needed that. And I gave them more than enough sound bites and clips for them to be able to edit me all they wanted.
Tell me about the drama that unfolded with all the girls on the show. They all seemed to turn against you pretty quickly.
What’s kind of disheartening about this is, yes, I’ve said a lot of mean shit, but they never show what led up to that. They make it look like all these girls are the sweetest, most easy-going people on the planet and I was like this raging animal. Everyone was always on edge. There are some girls who you wouldn’t see for more than five seconds of footage because they would be hopped up on fucking pills all day long. They’d sleep all day. The guys didn’t have that option. We just starved. And after a while, that really does start to screw with your psyche. It’s one of those things that if people don’t understand the concept of functioning as a community or working as a team, sometimes you got to kick people in the ass and force them to listen. Either you are going to lead, you are going to follow or you are going to get the fuck out of the way. Some people weren’t having that and as much as everyone hated me, I single-handedly held that island together for the most part.
What was the eating situation like? You got in a heated argument with KellyAnne over it. How did that all go down?
We were eating twice a day—four ounces of fish and a bowl of rice, which for me was nothing. A ninety-pound girl shouldn’t be eating the same as a two hundred-pound guy, but a lot of these girls turn it into a guy/girl issue as opposed to just common sense. The way that I see it is just from a nutritional standpoint. Half the girls there didn’t eat a lot as it was, a couple of them with eating disorders, and I was eating a couple thousand calories a day because I was training before I got there, so my diet going from 3000 calories a day to 500 was a lot bigger drop than some of these girls who were eating 500 calories a day coming into it. There was always a lot of tension surrounding the food. And I took it upon myself from the beginning to cook. I figured as long as I have control over the food, I could pretty much control this game. I cook a lot at home so I had it down pretty soon and one day KellyAnne wants to cook and I’m already taking care of it. There was already so much tension between the two of us from being on the show and the arguments we already gotten into that it didn’t take a lot to turn something so small into a huge argument.
Paula is your former castmate from Key West and although she is seemingly weaker than some of the other girls, she is also part of your alliance. Was this about friendship or ability for you?
Out of all the girls on these challenges, I am closer to Paula than anybody. We’ve been together since Key West. I stuck my neck out for her on The Inferno and then on the Gauntlet and when it was time to return the favor, she didn’t say two words. In a way, this was kind of Paula’s chance to step up and be a team player and show us that she would stick her neck out and compete. And there are a few times in future episodes when she doesn’t necessarily make the best decisions. Kenny and I are basically running this thing and we wanted to keep our strategy to ourselves. It was a very delicate game we were playing and we were trying to promise a lot of people a lot different things, yet we knew at the end we weren’t going to be able to fulfill all the promises. In the end, I think it worked out good for all parties involved. I have more faith and more trust in her than any other girl in the game.
What can we expect in upcoming episodes of the Island?
I wish I knew. This has been the biggest fall from grace ever. On all the challenges I’ve done, I’ve always been that guy who’s stuck up for people. On this one, even though there were times I lashed out on people, at the end of the day, the way they portrayed it made it look like I was this chauvinistic asshole who hates women and was just mean to everyone. And I’m just like, “That’s not me.” Everybody was pissed off and on edge and they made it look like I was the only one who was. And this is the first time I’ve been edited in this way. So what I am hoping is going to happen is that they are tearing me down right now. I don’t even know if I’ve hit rock bottom yet. And I hope by the end they build me back up and it ends on a much more positive note. Other than that, it’s just a ton of drama. They say reality is stranger than fiction and that’s the truth. All the weird shit that happens and the way things play out were so unexpected that people are going to think we scripted this because there is no way this could happen the way that it did. So, there is still a lot of show left and a lot of cool shit that’s going to happen.
I heard that you also shot an episode of my boss’ Murtz’s show Reality Obsessed. What was that experience like and how did it compare to the other shows you’ve done?
When I did the Real World, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know the concept of camera time, how to get camera time, how to create drama, and what to say and what not to say. But after you do a few of these shows, you kind of realize what it is that makes these shows. It’s the sexuality aspect where it’s like hookups and crazy naked chicks and the whole sex appeal. And then there is the whole drama aspect. Going into Reality Obsessed, I didn’t know what this Jen chick was going to be about. And I went into it with an open mind and thinking this is going to be a great time. Kenny and I saw it as an opportunity to have fun with Murtz and take everything we’ve learned during all these reality television shows and do whatever we wanted with it. And what happened was Jen…it felt like we had a car with three tires that were fully inflated and one flat tire. We tried to engage her and we tried to get her to have fun and we realized after a while that this chick is just going to be a fucking stick in the mud.
So what were your first impressions and thoughts of the other castmembers?
Kenny and I are really close and he’s one of my best friends. Over a period time, I’ve become pretty good friends with Trish too. And Murtz was awesome. When I first heard the premise of the show, I thought that it sounded cool. You want people to open up and enjoy the experience. You say, “Let me just throw caution into the wind.” That’s what reality television is. People who don’t do that, don’t open up themselves to the whole experience. And when I first met Murtz I thought that’s how he was going to be. And even though I could tell he was outside his comfort zone, he still went with it. And with Jen, it was the complete opposite—as far as Murtz went to one side opening up, she went to the other extreme and closed herself off. Jen and Murtz were on two opposite ends of the spectrum. And I guess that’s what they want. Looking back on it and the way that she was, it’s what enabled the show to be as crazy and as cool as it was. Kenny and I still laugh about some of the things that happened. That was by far one of the funnest experiences ever.
You talk a lot about the different personalities in the house. Do you think casting is key when it comes to reality television?
Casting is huge. You need a Jen. She was like that opposing force and that is what created that spark and that drama in the show. And that’s the thing about the Real World. They take people who on a normal basis would never be friends and put them in a house together and that’s what creates that drama, worlds colliding. They have a recipe. How boring would a recipe be if they used the exact same ingredients? Each person has a different ingredient and that’s what makes it what it is.
So getting back to the premise of your episode, do you think that the drama on reality television naturally occurs or is induced behind the scenes?
The way that I see it, there are certain things that just unfold naturally, but at the same time, reality television is reality television. And of course when you are in front of the camera you are going to do and say things that you normally wouldn’t. At the same time, there have been things that happened on some of the shows I’ve been on that you couldn’t script. For example, the shit that’s going to come out on The Island, everyone is going to think it’s scripted. And that’s what I like about reality television. You can write a script and put a script together and it wouldn’t be as exciting as something that just pans out naturally.
Do you think your episode succeeded in proving the reality of reality television?
I think that Reality Obsessed was a really cool concept and I think Murtz himself was coming into this thinking he was going to have to do something crazy to get something to happen. And then it was like, he really didn’t. And we were there for one night. Could you imagine being there in that house for a month? It was just one of those things you just want to go on and just have a good time. Throw caution into the wind and see where it all falls.
– Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Island airs on MTV in the US on Wednesday nights at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT time.
– Reality Obsessed airs on the TVTropolis network in Canada tonight, Wednesday, October 1 at 6:00 p.m. Eastern time and again at 8:00 Eastern time.
