The second season of A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila premieres tomorrow night at 10pm, and MTV will be hosting a blog with the thoughts and commentary of season 1 finalist Amanda Ireton. Fans will remember Amanda, who finished third, as the statuesque blonde with a heart of gold.
BuddyTV spoke with Amanda to catch up and see what her life has been like since the show has ended. Amanda talked about the friendships she developed from the show, her take on the new season, the first season on DVD, and her new relationship. Continue to listen to the interview and to read the full transcript.
Hi, this is John from BuddyTV, and I’m talking to Amanda, one of the finalists from season 1 of A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. Hi Amanda.
Hi, how are you?
I’m doing great. How are you?
I’m fantastic. Outside it’s beautiful, there’s like perfect weather right now.
Wonderful. So the show has been done for quite some time. How has your life become since it’s over? Has it readjusted itself?
Yeah, I’m pretty readjusted. I think maybe other people’s lives may have been affected more than mine, but I’m adjusted. Everything’s different, but I feel like that’s because I’m the same. Was that vague? Was that really, really vague?
No, no, that’s fine. So how do you view your experience? You made it a long time, so you had more exposure than a lot of other people. How did your experience compare?
I was on 10 of the 11 episodes, so I think the entire world got to know me, and they got to know me fully. Everything from my personality to my family to my heart. I think that I was well-received. I think that the experience on the show was intense, awful, and wonderful all at the same time, but I think, for me, it’s just nice to have people know who I am. I don’t know if that makes sense. I don’t mean like in a “I’m famous” kind of way, but in a “they know who I am inside” kind of way. I feel judged, I guess, walking through the world. People know what I’m like, rather than just some blond, big boobed chick.
So unlike some other reality show contestants, you’re comfortable with being judged. Some people, they might not view that people know the real me as a good thing.
Right. Obviously reality TV is editing, but I don’t think they can completely change who you are. People come across how they probably come across in real life, and I was happy with the way I came across. There were things that I didn’t really say, and of course there were times when I looked awful or sounded awful or seemed stupid, but we’re human, that’s the way we are. I think in general people got a feel for who I was, and I’m happy about that.
I think in those last couple episodes where there were the final four of you, I remember watching that and thinking this is kind of boring, because all of these people seem very normal. There wasn’t any craziness, and all of you seemed very normal and relaxed and like nothing crazy was happening once all the Vanessa, Brandi stuff got out.
Right, I’m sure the producers were worried about that too. For us, it was a relief. It was like this huge, thank God we can all just breathe and relax and hang out and not be super stressed, and all this ridiculous drama. The top three, we were a little bit older than everybody else. They were all really early twenties and in a different mindset. Dani and I are both like 29, we’re pretty set in who we are, we’re pretty comfortable in who we are, and we’re not going to create a lot of drama because it’s just ridiculous.
Speaking of your interactions with the other people, we saw you briefly on one of the episodes of That’s Amore. I was just wondering who from the original show are still your close friends. What has come out of that show?
I really thought that we’d probably be closer than we have been, but I think it’s just all of us being super busy. Dani and I will see each other when she’s in L.A. and we’ll go to dinner, or if I’m in Miami or Fort Lauderdale we’ll go to dinner. E-mails with Steven, and I’m friends with momma’s boy Michael in Boston. Bobby, we talk on the phone sometimes too. I think we’ve all got things going on, so we haven’t stayed as tight as I thought we would. Going through an experience like that you really feel like you’ve made best friends forever, and then it just sort of goes away when you get back to the real world.
So what are you doing now? Are you trying to pursue anything off of A Shot at Love, or are you just getting back to what you were doing before?
I actually did finish a short comedy tour, and like most of the other people I’ve been doing club appearances all over. I’m going to be going international probably in the next month or two, because they just finished watching the show, so they’re still really hyped about it. I’m actually starting up with a hosting gig that starts on Friday. I’m not doing the acting thing. I think a lot of people do acting, but I’m not a very good actor. I did a little bit of stand up before I went on the show, so this has just sort of given me some better material to work with.
As far as relationships, I don’t know if you’re willing to be that personal, but having been on the show and had that exposure, has it affected your ability to have relationships or interact in relationship settings?
I’m like the most typical lesbian in the entire world. I met somebody coming off the show, like three weeks after the show, and we got our U-Haul like a week later. We’ve been together since, so I’m in a relationship. I think it’s a little bit of a relief that I met her before the show came out, because I found that you don’t really know who to trust. It sort of feels like everybody wants something from you, and you’re like, “Dude, I did a reality show once, what the hell do you want? What do you need from me?” But people seem to think that you’ve got this magic power or something, and that they can get whatever that is off of you. It’s draining. Having met her, and she’s super fantastic, I branded her with my name, got my name tattooed on her.
Well that’s definitely a good thing then, definitely better before the show starts airing, because then you don’t know about the motives and it just becomes really suspicious.
Exactly. Yeah, I really like that. I’m in a relationship, and a lot of people have pursued, but my brain isn’t there.
That’s great. Actually, the second season is starting on Tuesday. Are you planning on watching the second season of A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila?
Yeah, I’ll actually be doing a video blog for MTV and a column on the show every week. So if you go to MTV.com on Wednesday, my written blog will be there as well as the video blog with my opinions and thoughts. I’m excited for it. Some of the girls saw me on MySpace and stuff and have come to some of my appearances, and they seem really cool. I think it’ll be a really good season.
Also, just recently the first season of A Shot at Love came out on DVD. Did you get your copy?
Oh my God, did it? I didn’t even know that.
Oh, it came out on Tuesday. It came out yesterday in fact, on Tax Day.
Really? I haven’t gotten a copy, so maybe I’ll call someone up and see if they’ll send me one. I really wanted one too. I was trying to download it, but you can’t bootleg it off of anything. That’s really good, I definitely need a copy of it. I had no idea.
Definitely. It’ll be interesting to see what sort of extras it has. They bill it as “uncensored,” so who knows what kind of stuff is in there.
Oh, I didn’t even think of that. There’s going to be some good stuff. There was so much good stuff that they didn’t show, like really good. Oh, I’m excited. I’m so glad you told me that.
What was the best thing that they didn’t show us that you can tell us?
There was one point of me alone, there was one point where I just snapped. Not angry, I just felt pent up and cooped up, and I did a striptease for just a couple of girls, but it was like all over the place, on counters and stuff. It was some seriously good footage, but I don’t think they could have shown that on TV. And then, I think the other thing that was just raw fun was when Ryan passed out, and we just messed him up with all kinds of things. The boys were doing stuff to him, putting shaving cream and stuff on him, and the producers looked at me and were like, “Don’t let them do that, he’ll get it all over his bed. It stinks.” And I was like, “You guys, stop being pussies. What are you doing? That’s so lame.” They thought I was going to be like don’t do it all, and I’m like, “If you’re going to do it, do it right.” I pulled out all kinds of cool stuff. I have these supplements that are shaped kind of like a dildo, and so we put them on his butt, and like painted his toenails. We were just having a lot of fun, then I took off because he started to wake up because two of the girls came in. I got away with it totally. He had no idea that I did it, and he blamed it on two of the other guys. I told him later on, but it was just really good. It was fun, it was lighthearted, it was good times.
(For more on Amanda Ireton, visit her official MySpace page at myspace.com/msk1tty)
-Interview conducted by John Kubicek
(Image courtesy of MTV)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
