For years, reality TV was considered one of our most disreputable genres, minting niche stars who could only dream of parlaying their fame into social-media spon-con or casting consideration for “The Traitors.”
But has reality television now become the new Juilliard?
It’s a fair question, now that so many Oscar-contending actresses have emerged from this unlikely training ground. Jennifer Hudson offered the blueprint, seguing from a seventh-place “American Idol” finish to the 2006 film “Dreamgirls,” which won her the Academy Award. In 2022, Ariana DeBose picked up where Hudson left off, winning an Oscar for Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” 13 years after she competed on “So You Think You Can Dance.”
What once felt like a novelty now seems like a trend, as three of this year’s Oscar nominees — Jessie Buckley, Teyana Taylor and Emma Stone — also got their start in reality television. Did that high-pressure experience give them the grit and gumption they needed to succeed in Hollywood? And, if so, does that mean Cirie from “Survivor” is just one biopic away from becoming an award-season breakout?
Ponder those questions as I take you through three of this Oscar year’s reality-TV origin stories.
Jessie Buckley, ‘I’ll Do Anything’
Long before sweeping this awards season for her performance as William Shakespeare’s grieving wife in “Hamnet,” Buckley was a fresh-faced 18-year-old from Killarney, Ireland, competing on the British talent competition “I’ll Do Anything.” That 2008 series offered a very specific grand prize, as 12 unknown actresses vied for the lead role of Nancy in a West End revival of the musical “Oliver!”
Each week, Buckley and her fellow contestants sang live pop songs in an “American Idol”-style format, with their ranks winnowed by an at-home vote and a team of judges led by Andrew Lloyd Webber. And because it was a reality-competition show in the aughts, the contestants were also given gonzo assignments meant to help them overcome their inhibitions, like cradling live rats or delivering a stage kiss in front of their fathers.
Performing a mix of Broadway standards and pop hits from artists like Christina Aguilera, Buckley proved to be an appealing presence. Still, it was frustrating how often the judges kept trying to push this tomboyish young woman toward a more conventional model of femininity. It’s a real tribute to Buckley’s authentic self that you could still connect with her even when she’s forced to wear metallic eye shadow and garish hot-pink lipstick while strutting around the stage on perilous six-inch heels.
Did she win? No, though she got awfully close. Despite becoming Lloyd Webber’s favorite, Buckley finished second and was eliminated in the finale. Still, she outlasted Samantha Barks, the third-place finisher who later went on to land the coveted role of Eponine in the film adaptation of “Les Misérables.”
What does she say about it now? In a recent interview with British Vogue, Buckley looked back on the series with something like abject horror. At a time when she was still figuring out who she was, the judges’ browbeating took a toll.
“There was a lot that was really messed up,” she said, recalling the body shaming she and her fellow contestants endured. “As women, it’s such unfair objectification,” she noted, adding, “I really hope that a 15, 17, whatever-age woman never has to be brutalized quite like what happened on that show.”
Still, she had to admire the moxie her younger self demonstrated by making it through. “It’s bonkers, in hindsight,” she said. “I look back at it and I feel like, ‘God, you’re so brave.’ I don’t know if I’d have that courage now. And I don’t know if that was kind of innocence or ignorance.”
Teyana Taylor, ‘My Super Sweet 16’
If you were first introduced to Taylor through “One Battle After Another,” in which she played the fiery revolutionary Perfidia Beverly Hills, just know that the 35-year-old has already lived several lives before her current moment in the Oscar spotlight. Before turning 16, the Harlem native had already choreographed Beyoncé’s “Ring the Alarm” video and signed to Pharrell’s record label as a singer, rapper and dancer.
So what do you get the woman who’s already accomplished so much, so early? How about a 2007 appearance on the MTV series “My Super Sweet 16,” documenting her plan to throw a major rager at the New York Hall of Science, which her mother has rented out for her milestone birthday.
“I talk a big game about how fresh I am, but now I got to back it up by having the craziest, wildest sweet 16 Harlem ever seen,” the young Taylor tells MTV’s cameras. On that front, she more than delivered, arriving to her skateboard-themed party like a life-size Barbie doll, sealed in a pink box carried by shirtless hunks. Elaborate dance routines and a Pharrell cameo followed, as Taylor raked in over-the-top presents like a white Range Rover and a chromed-out, $8,000 bike.
“Yo, T! We ain’t on skateboards no more,” crowed a friend.
Did she win? Though “My Super Sweet 16” wasn’t a reality competition, it could still be “won,” in a fashion, if the subject was willing to appear so obnoxious and entitled that she would forever be enshrined in reality-TV infamy. But the teenage Taylor mostly avoided those over-the-top tantrums, coming off less like a bratty princess and more like an exacting creative director. When insurance issues derail plans for an indoor skate ramp, she is upset mostly because it’s a blow to the party’s thematic cohesion.
That said, it wouldn’t be “My Super Sweet 16” without plenty of conspicuous consumption. “I get whatever I want from my mom,” Taylor brags, adding, “She’s, like, wrapped around my finger.” While shoe shopping, her mother, Nikki, balks at the expensive designer kicks Taylor insists on wearing to the party. “You’re willing to pay $700 for a pair of sneakers?” she asks.
Replies Taylor, “I’m wiling to take the $700 from you to pay for the sneakers.”
What does she say about it now? As Taylor’s star has risen, clips from her lavish televised soiree have resurfaced on social media. In a November story with The Hollywood Reporter, she pushed back on speculation that she landed “My Super Sweet 16” because of a silver-spoon upbringing.
“I’ve seen people saying I’m a … what’s it called? A nee-po baby? Nepo baby!” Taylor said. “I’ve seen all types of stuff, like I had this rich Chinese dad or a producer dad. I was living on 144th and Seventh Avenue, and my single mom was working her ass off in corporate America to provide for me. She wanted me to have a nice party!”
Emma Stone, ‘In Search of the Partridge Family’
She belted “Good Luck, Babe!” in “Bugonia,” danced to “Pocketful of Sunshine” in “Easy A” and sang an Oscar-winning duet with Ryan Gosling in “La La Land,” but real ones know that Stone first showcased her onscreen musical talents in the most unusual of places.
In 2004, Stone was a contestant on “In Search of the Partridge Family,” VH1’s misguided attempt to revive the 1970s sitcom about a musical family by turning the casting process into an “Idol”-like reality-competition show. Each week, actors auditioned for different roles on the revival by singing pop songs in front of a live studio audience, which is how the 15-year-old Stone (still going by her given name, Emily) found herself in a crop top, low-rise jeans and chunky bracelets performing “Bitch” by Meredith Brooks.
Today, the most surprising thing about the show is just how fully Stone committed to the cheese. There was no wink to the audience, no ironic detachment, no subtle signaling that she was above all of this. Instead, she attacked the material with a dorky gusto that might be hard to square with the Stone we know today, who works with the boundary-pushing director Yorgos Lanthimos and produces tastemaker indies like “I Saw the TV Glow.”
Still, all that earnest shimmy-singing ultimately proved endearing. It offered unexpected insight into who Stone is at her core. Even while singing an awkward competitive duet to Pat Benatar’s “We Belong,” it’s clear that she has always been driven by a simple love of performing. VH1 just happened to be the first place lucky enough to have her.
Did she win? Stone outlasted her competition and won the role of Laurie, though her victory came with a significant caveat: Despite all of that buildup, VH1 ultimately declined to order a full season of the revived “Partridge Family” sitcom. Only the pilot was produced and, according to Stone, production was such a mess that the writers removed their names and the network dumped the show someplace no one would ever see it.
“They aired the pilot at like 10:15 on a Friday,” she later recalled. “Some in-between time, not 10 and not 10:30 — like 10:15, one Friday.” Still, maybe that’s for the best: Had the show defied all odds to become a basic-cable hit, Stone probably wouldn’t have been available to shoot her breakthrough performance in “Superbad” just three years later.
What does she say about it now? Stone remains an avid fan of reality television and regularly mentions different “Real Housewives” franchises in interviews. Over the years, Stone has said her experience on “In Search of the Partridge Family” offered insight into the ways a reality show can warp its participants.
“I understand how contestants on ‘The Bachelor’ or ‘The Bachelorette’ must feel because you sort of go into a vortex where you’re like, ‘This is the only thing that matters,’” she has said. “You lose total perspective.’”
In an interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” her “Bugonia” co-star Jesse Plemons asked whether he could still watch Stone’s reality- competition show online.
“Unfortunately, yes you can,” she said. “You can find it on YouTube. Wait till you see my hair extensions, my spray tan and my acrylics.”
Kyle Buchanan is a pop culture reporter and also serves as The Projectionist, the awards season columnist for The Times.
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