Heather Chadwell is a bit of VH1 reality TV superstar. After getting her start with a brief appearance on The Surreal Life, Heather graduated to the first season of Rock of Love, where was runner-up to Jes Rickleff. Heather returned for the second season to help Bret Michaels choose another lady, then she was one of the competitors on I Love Money, and now she’s trying to improve herself on Rock of Love Charm School.
BuddyTV spoke to Heather about her many reality TV experiences. She spoke about the things she learned from Charm School, the current status of her relationship with Bret Michaels, the possibility of her showing up on the third season of Rock of Love, and her thoughts on Daisy De La Hoya’s new reality dating show. Continue reading to listen to our interview and to read the full transcript.
This is your third VH1 reality show behind Rock of Love and I Love Money, which just ended. What keeps you coming back for all of these reality shows?
I’ve had a lot of fun, and I’ve had some of the best times and worst times doing some of these shows. It’s been a really cool experience. I just did another little project for VH1, I’m not sure how many more I’m going to do. I’m really looking forward to working with all sorts of different people and different companies and networks and things of that nature. So I’m really looking forward to branching out and doing motion pictures and prominent magazines out here. Different types of television programs that I’ve got in the works right now, different ideas that have been brought to me by different companies. I’m just looking forward to branching out and doing a lot of different projects.
With this Rock of Love Charm School, there are a lot of girls who you’ve been on shows with before, either Rock of Love or I Love Money.
Yeah, it gets mundane after awhile, let me tell you.
When you’re on camera, is the relationship at all different than off the camera? Do you have relationships with them outside of the shows?
The more TV that I do, the less I like and the more I see of certain people, the less I like of them and the less I want to work with them on TV. Yeah, like Charm School, it was a different experience, it really was. It was probably my toughest one yet, but it meant the most to me, I think. Going into it I knew it was a self help show, it was all about improvement, and I knew that I needed that. And I was really excited to be working with Sharon. However I had done back to back shows and in between shows I’m traveling. So to do the same thing with the same people who you still don’t like and have no respect for, and you know how they are on and off the set and camera, it kind of drives you crazy after awhile.
Is there a big difference between on camera and off camera? Are there some people who are obviously fake and they just turn it on as soon as the camera starts rolling?
Well for me, I always push everything to the limits. The outfit I came in on the first day, I don’t wear that outfit. Me and my gay buddy went on Hollywood Boulevard two days before I left for Charm School, we decided to go get — I had to pierce my eyebrow before the show. It’s a show about transformation and I did go for the right reasons, to better myself, but I also realized that this is a production. I wanted to do something really colorful and jaw dropping and keep my name in everybody’s mouth. And it worked. I went and got the biggest hookerific outfit I could find on Hollywood Blvd and I came in there over the top, and everyone talked about my outfit the whole time. Well one time on eBay and be done with it, but I really wanted to think outside the box.
So I guess I could say I had fun with Charm School as well. After doing a few shows, you kind of want to add to it as well, like I want to push everything to the extreme. So there’s plate throwing and stuff like that, I don’t go around my house throwing plates. But you know, when you’re there, I tend to be more extreme and really scream more and be more animated. For some reason, it seems like I always do it when the camera is around. Now for the other people, the girls that are lying and conniving, they’re like that it real life. They are exactly like that in real life.
You talked about the transformation aspect of Charm School. Is there anything that you learned or you adopted into your real life from the show that has sort of helped you so far?
Yeah, actually I catch myself with my posture, because I had really bad posture. I always catch myself sitting straight up now. I learned some dinner etiquette, like at the dinner table how to place my silverware, I find myself doing that out to dinner now. One of the life coaches that came on the show, which will be airing soon, I’ve kept in contact with her. We’ve been playing phone tag and back and forth with e-mails where she’ll be my life coach out here. So I really did take in everything and I really appreciated everything that Sharon brought to the table like bringing in certain guests.
I listened to everything she said and I really opened up. I really did this show to 110 percent of my ability. I really went there, and I feel like I went there and I did what I planned to do. I don’t think that a lot of other people did, I think a lot of the other people went there for the wrong reasons just like a lot of other shows. All I know is I did what I thought was right and good-hearted and honest, and I’m proud of myself for that.
You came back to the second season of Rock of Love. Do you still have a relationship with Bret, are you still friends, do you still stay in contact?
Yeah, oh yeah. I see him every few months, I just saw him recently and then before that I saw him the month before. We were in Alabama and I had an event, they did like a Rock of Love week and they booked me on Friday night and booked Bret on Saturday. Me and my dad ended up staying, we went to the concert, he pulled me on stage, I sang with Poison, and then me and my dad got police escorted with his buds to his after party, we all hung out there. So we’re cool. He knows that I’m real, I’m honest, I’m genuine. Not all the girls that he’s met through the Rock of Love series possess those qualities, and I think he appreciates that.
There’s the new show, Rock of Love Bus, the third installment, which is premiering soon. Are you involved with that or not? Is he bringing you back again to judge these new women?
I really can’t say if I’m going to be on that or not, you’ll just have to wait and see. Certain things I have in the works — not saying I’m going to be on that show, but I’m saying with the magazine and the motion picture I can’t talk about as well — as far as Rock of Love 3, I can’t disclose any information about that show.
Is this news that Daisy De La Hoya, who you certainly had a run in with at the Rock of Love 2 reunion, is getting her own —
I think she should thank me. I got her a lot of press.
That you certainly did. So I’m wondering, what are your thoughts on sort of her having her own Daisy of Love reality dating show?
Daisy and I ran into each other at the Reality Show Awards and we were up for a nomination together for best fight. We had to sit next to each other at the award show and we got along fine, and I don’t have any ill will toward her per se. I don’t know why the production company or VH1 would give somebody a show that has very, very little TV and has very little experience with that when there are other who have really put their time and energy to their companies and made them good money. So to turn around someone — and like I said, this is nothing personal against Daisy, but it’s someone that has done very little TV, who has pretty much done just one project, and to just flip it when she hasn’t been in the public eye. I don’t really understand that.
But congratulations to her and if I were her I would take it as well. It’s their company and it’s their network, if that’s what they want to do with their time and their money, then so be it. I will be doing my own show, I have had numerous ideas that have been brought to me and I just don’t know exactly which one I will choose yet or what network I’ll be on. But everyone can stay tuned to myspace.com/hchadwell, anything I’ll be doing I will be posting there.
-Interview conducted by John Kubicek
(Image courtesy of VH1)
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.
