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Ari Fitz keeps it 100 on “The Real World: Ex-Plosion”

24-year-old Ari Fitz is an Oakland, California native who didn’t have to travel far for the new season of The Real World because it’s back in San Francisco this year. “You can imagine my complete surprise when I found out I was just taking BART,” says the out model/filmmaker, who is one of the new castmates on The Real World: Ex-Plosion, premiering Wednesday night on MTV.

“It was actually fine,” Ari told us. “I was in the middle of a few projects and I was actually really excited because I can keep working on those things without having to kind of drop everything and move to a whole new town.”

We talked with Ari about the show and its new premise this time around, a Real World first: Seven strangers, picked to live in a house and then forced to live with their exes. Ari’s ex-girlfriend Ashley was one of those exes. She also dished on creating horror films, being a lesbian on reality television and how she ended up modeling.

AfterEllen.com: Did you go to school for filmmaking or is it something you picked up on your own?

Ari Fitz: No, I did not-not at all. That’s the crazy thing. I went to Berkeley. My whole little story or my spiel if you will, I grew up close by and I got a full ride to Berkeley, and immediately thought I needed to go for something tangible-engineering or business-so I got a business degree at Cal and after doing a lot of stuff in the start-up community, I just got sick of it and quit everything and was like ‘You know what? I’m going to work professionally as a model to be able to fund creepy horror films” which is what I’m doing right now.

AE: That’s a nice fallback plan! “I’m just going to go model.”

AF: [Laughs] It’s the weirdest thing ever but it happened. I bumped into a few photographers in San Francisco and they were like “Hey have you ever considered it?” I was like “Eh no.” I was never that interested. And then I met my agent and kind of fell in love. I started to book a lot of work and had all this free time and I was like “Finally, I can make films!” It was weird and serendipitous but it worked out because I’m actually doing the thing that i love.

AE: Do you act at all? Are you in your movies?

AF: Yes, I am but it’s kind of by default. Sometimes I’m like “I want a character that can do this and, oh whatever, I’ll just do it.” The short, The Anniversary, is actually me and my ex, so that’s kind of cool.

AE: What can you tell me about how you and your ex ended up in the house together?

AF: The big thing was, coming into the house, my ex Ashley and I were on the rocks, pretty much because of what I just told you. I was the golden child, I was the one that was making money, we had a nice apartment-we pretty much were on track to do the whole getting married, having a family and all that stuff and I’m 24 and I think I just got nervous and had a quarter life crisis, and was like “You know what? I need to be me, I need to live my life” and so we broke up. And I decided I would work as a model and make creepy horror films and started to feel more and more like myself. So really Ash and I, we broke up because of the classic, “It’s not you, it’s me” kind of thing. I needed to spend more time figuring out who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do, and I couldn’t do that when I was in such a committed relationship. It’s funny because, I rarely ever tell anybody about this, but one of the reason why I even said I was interested in going into the house was because of my relationship with Ashley. I broke off this perfect relationship and this perfect life, let’s blow some stuff up. Let’s do some crazy stuff and let’s go and experience one of the craziest things you can ever do, which is moving into The Real World house. What I know is we went on a day trip and everyone was relaxing. We were on some jet skis and then we come back home and suddenly all of our exes are living with us. I really don’t know how the process happened, I just know that I thought I had six roommates and suddenly had a lot more.

AE: The Real World and all the spinoff challenges are like their own little universe. What were your thoughts about the show before going on and have they changed since?

AF: I remember I watched The Real World back in the day and I remember my first experience being Ruthie, and seeing her being out and open about her sexuality and thinking “Woah, that’s cool! It’s awesome that she can just say that stuff.” So my thought on The Real World is it’s the quintessential reality show. It’s what opened the door for everything else-every reality show on air right now has some kind of reference or root in The Real World and it’s just awesome to be a part of history. And add that to the fact that he last time Real World was in San Francisco it was Puck, Pedro. It’s almost a lot of pressure being the only queer person in the house, and is the true local as well. With my roommates it was almost up to me to open them to looking different ways at sexualities, to different ways of loving people. I mean we got some kinky shit, I gotta tell you. We have some kinky stuff on the show that I’m proud of. I think everyone left a little more open, just in general. Open to interacting people who are very very different from who they are.

AE: Did you have any racists or homophobes to deal with?

AF: One thing that you’ll know about me is I am pretty explicit about my identity-the things that I like, the things that I dislike. I’m very open. So I came into the house ready to defend everything. Like I was ready to be like “OK, there’s going to be that guy that’s like ‘F the gays!'” or whatever. And that actually, to me, I felt like, the reception was different. It was different than you’ll see on any other show. I won’t say it was negative or positive, I will just say it was different for me. And I’m really interested to see how more queer people on reality TV will go about existing, if that makes any sense at all. I came in with one expectation and left with another, given my identity in the house.

AE: Were the cameras allowed to follow you into any queer places?

AF: Oh my god, I mean, yes. We did everything. We did all of those. Because it was my home, I was going wherever I wanted to go. I can never escape! One of my favorite bars in San Francisco is Q Bar and we were there-I want to say almost every Tuesday night. We did a lot of stuff. We did Pride. A lot of really fun and queer things and some roommates were absolutely freakin’ down like holding it down, wearing whatever they needed to wear, super about it. And some were nervous and uncomfortable but I think all of them experienced it, whether they liked it or not.

AE: So you the only queer person in the house, besides your ex?

AF: I think a lot of people don’t feel comfortable being open. So I’d say I’m the only explicit person. I think the pressure was put on my by myself. I felt an obligation, once I found out the show was in San Francisco and me being from Oakland. I was born and raised here, I’m a Bay kid. I knew immediately that i would have to take on that role and have to be the person that kind of chaperoned my roommates and showed them different things because that’s how the Bay does it! That’s just how I feel like San Francisco is very warm and open and we just like to make sure people leave knowing there are different ways of living. I feel like the thing is I grew up as a person who had to take on a lot of responsibility and coming into the house, I wanted to make sure that my roommates felt comfortable, felt open being honest with me because I was very open with them and I think that naturally put me in this place so I just had a lot of responsibilities. So I think that pressure was kind of put on by myself.

AE: Are you prepared for people to want to know all the intimate details of your life?

AF: I think yes I am. Yes, it’s funny-I was hanging out with a friend and I got this text message from a girl I’d met a long time ago and she’s read all this stuff on some blog about me and told me what the world was saying about me. Just weird to know people would spend their Tuesday evening, instead of going out and getting a cocktail, are focused on me. It’s very kind of weird and jarring. I’m just focused on work right now. I want to make sure that I don’t kind of let what happened in the house stop me from doing what I was planning on doing, which was creating films. Everything needs to fall into that so regardless of stalkers or anything, it all needs to feed into what I need to do, which is filmmaking.

AE: That’s great because you have something that people can connect with outside of Ari the person. They can also become a fan of Ari the filmmaker.

AF: That’s why I did it. Imagine-I’ve never created. When I was in the house I was working on my second film. Before that I just held a camera for the first time and created something. I am really just trying to figure out how to make filmmaking career happen out of nothing and so to have an opportunity to show people my work. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. That said, I don’t know-I don’t think I’m ready yet to see how people respond. In the house I was genuinely myself. I was Ari 100 percent of the time. I’m sure that there are things I’m going to look at going to have to call my mom and say “Hey, so about that…” I think there’s a lot of feelings tied into what’s going to happen after the show, but until then, I’m just tied down, focused on work and it gives me a way out, kind of, instead of getting caught up on the gay fame that will happen.

AE: Do you think people have preconceived notions about what it is to live in the Real World house that are incorrect?

AF: Yeah, I think the big thing is just-a lot of people watch these shows and they don’t associate the people they see with actual human beings, like the actual ability to decide what they want to do and I was really really happy with the fact that I was allowed to do whatever I wanted. I think a lot of people get nervous about reality TV and think everything is contrived and there’s some guy telling you what to do or where to go. That doesn’t happen. It really is just people living their lives, and because you spend time with people, conflict naturally comes up, drama naturally come sup, sex naturally comes up. That’s the big thing. We’re looking at huge screens of pixelized versions of people, but they’re actually people. I don’t think that comes across a lot and hopefully-especially thinking about Ash and I being on TV as token lesbians or whatever. I want people to recognize she and I are people, and the things that we say to each other, the things that we do to each other, it’s because we felt that way in the moment, it’s not because there’s someone standing over us with a coffee and a clipboard saying, “Hey can you guys do that over again?”

AE: I assume that the conversations you and Ashley are having are the same that the straight people are having, which helps to normalize things, too.

AF: Oh my god, yes. I always wonder what people think about lesbians and reality TV. A lot of people are assuming that because we’re lesbians on TV we’re going to be super extra, like we’re going to be all over the place – loud and crazy and the most drama. Or we’re going to be like all lovey dovey and kissy and all that stuff. At the end of the day, the conversations I had with Ashley are the same conversations that everyone else had. I think more people should see that so part of the reason why, after I got over the initial shock that my ex was living with me and I had that to deal with and my film things to deal with and my roommates to deal with-I was like “Oh my God this is too much.” Once I got over that, I was just happy to know that our relationship was going to be put out there and I’m hoping relatable. So that part felt good. By being very vulnerable and exposed like that I’m actually doing somebody some kind of service.

AE: Did you have jobs?

AF: There were no jobs. But I’ll tell you, just because there were so many people in the house, there was always something going on. You can imagine: Think about babies, right? There’s a group of babies and one baby starts crying. What do all the other babies start to do? They all start throwing fucking fits! That’s what would happen in the house. One relationship issue would come up and suddenly “Oh you know what? I’m mad about that too!” So it’d always be crazy. So there were no jobs but there was a lot going on at all times. I was focused on myself, so that allowed me to stay out of some things. Plus I was booking some modeling work and kind of paying bills that way so there you go.

AE: Some people think that you get paid tons of money to go on the show. Is that a myth you want to dispel?

AF: Definitely a myth. We were doing rock climbing or something and I heard people behind us saying, “Oh yeah, The Real World is this show where they give you tons of money to go out and get drunk.” That’s so not the case. We’re not paid tons of money at all to do this experience. We’re all twenty-somethings funding our work and the things that we want to do. … I was still paying my rent, I was still paying things with my own money and I think that’s one thing people should know about. Just because we’re on TV, it doesn’t mean that we have these beautiful little checks that come in and fund the crazy things we want to do. If that was the case, we’d be doing a lot more crazy shit.

AE: As people watch the show this week, what do you want people to know about you?

AF: I’m a person and shit happens and there are things I’m going to look at and go “Oh, I could have handled that differently” or “Oh I could do that better.” But at the end of the day, I was 100 percent. I was me. I think a lot of people look at these screens and think, “Because this person is not standing in front of me, they’re not a person.” I had a good time in that house and we all enjoyed ourselves and we all learned a lot. We got down and we broke down and became more and more people, who we are as people. I think all of that flows into the fact that I went in there with a mission. I want to do something that a lot of people talk about but don’t really actually achieve and that’s I want to create art and I want to get paid to make my art. I feel like so many people run around and say “Oh I’m a musician. I’m an artist. I’m a filmmaker.” But very few people actually get out there and do it. I want to be that person that shows it’s OK to get out there and do it and it’s OK to actually create. I am a person and I am an artist. I’m a creator and I’m focused on that.

AE: And if nothing else fails, you can just go model!

AF: [Laughs] I have the most glamorous life ever!

AE: What a nice back up career!

AF: It is work!

The Real World: Ex-Plosion premieres Wednesday, January 8 at 10/9c on MTV. For more on Ari and to watch her short The Anniversary, visit arifitz.com or follow her on Twitter @itsarifitz.

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