Areeba Emmanuel was one of the five (5!!!) women booted from The Bachelor last night, much to my dismay. Areeba – right from the bloody get go – arguably became one of the biggest names on the show this season. So PEDESTRIAN.TV hopped on the phone with her to chat about, well, everything. Here’s what she had to say.
PEDESTRIAN.TV: So I have to ask about that first cocktail party when Zoe-Clare [McDonald] confronted you after her redhead rant, what was that even like?
Areeba: It was pretty crazy, because I had no idea interrupting her chat with Locky [Gilbert] would lead to that. And I had no idea of anything about the whole redhead situation that was happening during the whole cocktail night. I didn’t get to see any of that. Not once did she tell anyone or myself – no one mentioned anything about the colour of her hair.
Then what she did to me, I guess she confronted me, I was just like, ‘what the hell is going on?’ It was just so funny. So I just kept eating my sandwich and laughing, which is what I do best. I just laughed.
PTV: The whole thing really opened up a conversation about how bad it looked that a White woman was talking to a person of colour about being discriminated against. What are your thoughts?
A: It was really funny, as I mentioned I had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. But watching it back I was like, ‘Do you know who you’re talking to?’ Like [laughs] it’s embarrassing.
PTV: Have you spoken to Zoe-Clare since?
A: No! And I don’t plan to.
PTV: So were you happy with the way you were portrayed?
A: At the end of the day it is reality TV show. I’m going to own everything that I said because at the end of the day I did say it. So maybe it was a little harsh, but at the end of the day it is what it is and it is what I said.
PTV: Some people think you copped a bit of villain editing? Do you agree?
A: See that’s the thing, everyone is like, ‘She’s the villain, she’s the villain’, but I don’t think I went on the show to be the villain. To me, what I was – I was mean so I’m going to call people out on their bullshit. It’s my opinion at the end of the day too, which I’m allowed to have, so if me being outspoken and talking about how I feel is a villain then I guess so.
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PTV: Do you think the portrayal of women this season has been accurate or do you think some women have been edited to look better or worse?
A: A lot of people have been edited to look really good actually. For example: Irena [Srbinovska] and Bella [Varelis]’s red carpet entrance, they’re walking in like it’s some sort of fairytale. And then my bit when I was walking in, it was like, ‘BOOM’. I guess they do have characters. But a lot of it is what you see is what we saw too.
PTV: And what was it like being in the mansion because it just seemed like there was such a divide between the women?
A: Yeah, and it was surprising because we had a minder [a person assigned to guide on set] obviously and she said this was the first time there was a divide.
PTV: Oh!
A: Yeah! Apparently this was the first time ever that they had a divide in the house. But it was a bit crazy because from day one what happened was – after the Zoe situation – I feel like everyone just went to the other side. And then it was pretty much just me and Juliette [Herrera] left on the other side. And we can both relate to each other a lot because she’s exactly like me in a lot of ways, she’ll say it how it is.
Then Kristina [Abramoff] came our way, but a lot of the girls said – I’m not going to name names – ‘If you do speak to them too, no one will like you in the house’ so the house was divided from day one.
PTV: Wait, what?
A: Yeah, so apparently we were the bad girls! We were the ones you had to watch out for, so then everybody went on one side and we were on the other. At the end of the day, we just didn’t care. I didn’t come to the show to be their friends, so it really didn’t bother me. But I was so happy and blessed to have Kristina and Juliette by my side.
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PTV: So what was the vibe like in the mansion between yourself, Juliette, Kristina and the other women?
A: I mean, like we would make our own food. They would have Mexican night, for example, and we weren’t a part of that, so we always did our own thing. So we did speak to them, but not – it was just polite.
PTV: There’s a rumour going around that Juliette was the mean girl of the mansion. As her close friend, what do you think about that?
A: It’s just a rumour, it’s not what’s been shown. I feel like some of the girls are obviously not happy with how they’ve been shown on TV and some of the girls are not happy with their screen time, and I just think it’s quite sad and a desperate move to then give dirt to a podcast about other girls.
Juliette, she’s crazy but she’s an amazing woman. She has so much to give, she is definitely not the villain. Like if you do her right, she will be by your side.
She’s not the bad girl, if you think I’m the bad girl, she’s exactly like me. If you want to call that a bad girl, then I guess go for it. I just think some girls are not happy with how they’ve been shown so far or how much camera time they’ve gotten, so they’re just going to try to give as much dirt as possible on the girls that have been getting camera time. It’s a desperate move.
The Bachelor continues tonight on Channel 10.
