Melissa from New Orleans on reunion issues, revisiting Julie and the N-Word drama

The season addressed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell controversy as gay roommate Danny Roberts dated a military officer whose face had to be blurred to protect him from being fired, Innocence pointed out to wide-eyed (and sometimes problematic) then-Mormon Julie Stoffer and gave us the anthem that is “Come On Be My Baby Tonight.” Viewers had stripteases, Mardi Gras madness and some important conversations about race. It was the roller coaster of a season.

22 years later, the entire cast is back for “The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans,” with Beck alongside former housemates Danny, David “Tokyo” Broom, Jamie Murray, Matt Smith, Julie Stoffer and Kelley Wolf. Although a lot has changed for all of them during this time, the show wastes no time resurfacing some of their two-decade-old drama – with long-simmering tensions between Melissa, Danny and Julie almost erupting. immediately.

Speaking with TooFab ahead of Paramount+’s premiere of the reunion, Beck explained what her life has been like since her reality TV days and why she decided to return – before teasing some of the goodies to come for viewers.

“What happens after the show is you get into the grind and chase the dream because opportunities are presented to you to try things and become a bigger version of yourself in the world. real. But then you hunker down and have some privacy,” said Beck, who also appeared on 2003’s “Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Sexes” with Jamie, Tokyo and Julie.

“So I’ve been here minding my business, drinking my water. I have kids, I have a husband, I got a mortgage, so when the opportunity came, it was both flattering and intimidating,” she said. continued. “But ultimately it ended up being a good decision because I loved reconnecting with everyone. We had lost touch for many, many years, so it was really cool to reconnect.”

While almost everyone lost sight of each other, Melissa and Danny had a major falling out with Julie shortly after their original season. Although Melissa and Julie ended their stay in New Orleans planning to live together in Los Angeles, it completely fell apart after Beck confronted Stoffer about shady business dealings on “Battle of the Sexes.” In a very passionate and memorable moment, Melissa accused Julie of slamming her into colleges who allegedly booked her for speaking engagements – painting her so that Stoffer would be a better option for them instead. Julie was later eliminated from the show and, it seems, the two never really addressed things again. Until first night of the meeting, that is.

“Listen, replay the tape, I feel like I covered it all in Jamaica. This was back when they had the blog on MTV and you could air your side of the story so I feel like I did it on TV and I did it in some form as well line, which I’m sure exists somewhere in a Wayback Machine,” Beck said of their story and having to deal with it so many years later. “So I had no apprehensive, because I had done nothing wrong to that lady. I walked into the house like she was ready to fix it, she could if she wanted to. But the responsibility was not really on me. I wasn’t really tripping over it.

“Even outside of that, it’s been a very busy, interesting, therapeutic, restorative and crazy two weeks, no matter how you slice it,” Beck continued. “We’re talking about seven different personalities who all grew into adults and who all processed their original ‘real world’ experience in whatever way they did, so I think even outside of that particular interpersonal dynamic that I had with [Julie], the show itself and the life there… who does a student life when you’re married?! It’s very strange.”

She added that the Julie of it all “was a very interesting part of this experience”, adding: “You saw it, it’s something.

Another issue the band will address this season is Beck’s reaction after a swamp tour guide drops the n-word in front of the cast while referring to a bird as a “[N-word] stork.” At the time, Beck – who is half-black and half-Filipino – was rightly offended, but her teammates failed to understand her outrage. In the same episode, she and Tokyo also had to educate Julie on racial issues. Beck knew they would be encouraged to talk about these incidents again, but didn’t feel as obligated to fulfill an “educator” role in 2022.

“I think now, this time around, there’s been less anxiety because we live in the age of the internet, we have all the information we could ever want to know at our fingertips. So I have the feel like if there’s something you want to know, you don’t have to go to a microfiche or go to the library to find out, Google is your friend,” she explained to about running conversations now.

“I didn’t go into this one nervous about it. If it was a topic, I felt like the producers assured me that I wasn’t going to be put in a position where I would do anything It’s emotional work,” she continued. “I really came into this experience hopeful and appreciative and excited to reconnect with former roommates. I think of the show like this: when I said I was going to do it, I said I had to do it, I had to be present, be authentic and enjoy it for what it is. Now I know things and now I know better. And when you know better, you do better.

Of the “n-bird incident,” as she calls it, Beck added, “Wow, how did that thing survive.”

“I think as a youngster living inside of that, I was really hurt and upset that my roommates weren’t as hurt and upset as I was. Then the show aired on national television and the world wasn’t as hurt or upset as I was,” recalled Beck, who said she also received hate mail at the time. “So I was like, ‘Oh, so their reaction was normal and I am mad.'”

“There was a bit of adapting to that and I knew I was going there – because I’d also watched ‘Real World Homecoming: New York’ – that there are bits and pieces from every franchise where you know that these stories are going to have to be revisited. So I understood that we were going to do that,” she added. “So in a weird way in 2000 I came into this experience not knowing what to expect and then in 2022 I didn’t know what to expect again but I came in with a full adult and whole with a little wisdom – just a little bit of wisdom.”

She also promised fans that there would be “a nice little bow closure, how’s that going to be.”

Of course, the stars all had a great time in the Big Easy in 2000 too, especially celebrating Mardi Gras is one of the best episodes of the season. It’s an episode that includes a cameo from Anne Rice, naked Danny, Tokyo who meets a girl while her best friend uses the computer from the house downstairs, and one of Beck’s most hilarious confessionals with Julie.

“It’s a warm and fuzzy episode, actually. In between that, where I’m like, ‘Matt prays for his life, David takes care of the hoes,’ what was I talking about? Who are you, Melissa?” she said laughing. “That and ‘Come On Be My Baby Tonight’, those being kind of the highlights of ‘Real World’ New Orleans” and if that’s your takeaway, I’m really excited… I really appreciate that . “

While Melissa felt like she was “on the grind for about 4-5 years” after appearing on the original series, the notoriety associated with the MTV platform also had a negative effect on the attempt to get a real job. “After a lot of this, I was like, it’s time for me to step away and find out who I am. do not like ‘real world Melissa,'” she recalled feeling at the time. Turns out, “she’s a nice stay-at-home mom from Long Island,” Beck said.

Returning to the house showed her that everyone had a very different experience after their original season ended. While “some of us were able to just move on,” she noted, that wasn’t the case for everyone. As Danny told TooFab in 2018, he suffered from severe PTSD and had a really hard time adjusting to being spotlighted as a poster boy for the fight against Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell – while Julie had major issues with the Mormon community for her behavior on the show.

“Everyone treated it in a very different way depending on how they were perceived after the show. So some of us were able to just move on and it wasn’t a thing. Danny was literally unable to go to the supermarket, so it was interesting to see that different perspective,” said Melissa, who added that, for the most part, “we’re all still very much who we were then.”

“I know this sounds so crazy, but I have friends that I have in my real life, who know me, who don’t think of me as ‘real world Melissa’ and all, since Paramount started streaming the old episodes, called me and told each other [for watching]”, she continued. “They all said, ‘It’s really weird, it’s like reading your diary from when I didn’t know you. It’s like I knew you, but I don’t don’t know you. I like it, but I don’t like it.'”

She added that she really hoped to “respect” the way the original series made longtime fans feel with the reunion and didn’t want anyone walking away from it thinking, “Dang, I really loved this lady and now look at her.”

And while there were more than a few tense moments while filming the reunion, Julie seems to have issues with just about everyone in the season’s trailer (above) – Beck seems very happy that she ended up doing it.

“One of the best things about coming back, even though it was scarred with anxiety, is that I now have a direct connection to the only people in the world who could relate to what that experience was like and I really made some friendships,” she said. mentioned. “Danny and I were just in town the other day together, eating a plate of ribs. I didn’t have that before. I had his daughter Calico Critters, so a lot of us have a relationship really great and sweet to reconnect in this space, so really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you Paramount+!”

That being said, this could also be the end of her reality TV career, as she didn’t seem too keen on Beth Stolarczyk’s speech for the streamer to do the “Real World: All-Stars” season like they do. from “The Challenge.”

“Oh, no, no, no, no,” she said when asked if she would be interested. “I love being home. Look around, I love being here. Besides, it’s a pandemic. You’re gonna have to pay me a lot of money to go back outside. If they do, they have my number. We can chop it up but…ouch!”

“The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans” premieres April 20 on Paramount+.