Ex Buckwild cast member discusses pay, synthetic weed on set and hooking up with Salwa

The dude on the other end of the Tyler Boulet fist fight that aired on Buckwild shared some interesting insights into the show at a local viewing party during an impromptu interview.

On episode 5 he was labeled simply as “Jesse B” but his full name is Jesse Boardman and he works as a server at the Recovery Sports Grill in Charleston. The Charleston Gazette got him to field some questions and his answers were pretty darn interesting.

Q: How did they pitch the show to you?

A: “They were coming to us, looking for people for a TV show. I was just sitting on my John Deere tractor, havin’ a beer. They were, like, ‘We like this guy!’

Q: So, the episode’s fight was at a party?

A: “Yeah, it was at the girls’ house. The girls have a cabin in Sissonville. The caption on the show tonight says ‘Tyler Fights an Unwanted Guest.’  Well, I was brought to the show by the MTV crew, drunk. And then I got into a fight. So I don’t know how they’re going to play it out…”

Q: Did they get you drunk?

A: “No, no, no. I was drunk before I got there. They called me, lookin’ for me. I was passed out at a bar, and waitin’ for a ride home. They come and picked me up instead and took me to this party.”

Q: They knew you were drunk, though?

A: “Yeah. Really drunk.”

Q: Is anyone going to make a living off this show? Are they paying good wages?

A: “Well, let’s see. I’m gonna be on two episodes it looks like, but I got paid for eight-and-a-half. So, I got paid $8,500 for the first season.

Q: What about the putting of a swimming pool in the back of a coal truck [as seen in one of the first episodes]?!

A: “That was an idea by Shain, the main guy on the show, but was just enforced with money by MTV — something we would do if we had the money to do and we already had the idea for. But MTV was like, ‘Well, hell, we can get that together.'”

Q: So, they rented the truck and..

A:“No, no, no, the dump truck came from a friend of Shain’s, and then they just made sure that everything made it to work to where, you know…”

Our man was asked about the authenticity of the show and he had the following to say:

“There’s some stuff I wish they’d do a little bit different. They did a lot of editing around things that make things look like they aren’t. But I guarantee you, I tell everybody now: the show is not scripted. There was times when they’d be like, ‘OK, guys, let’s all go muddin’ and have a campfire today.’ And then we’d do it, and they’d just film it and see what kind of reactions they would get out of it.”

Two other interesting tidbits from Jesse. I don’t now why but something tells me he’s talking straight and shooting from the hip:

“I don’t know how many of you all actually watch the show, but I have a thing with Salwa on the show where we got together and we hooked up. But then they cut all that out because obviously I’m not a cast member no more. So for somebody random to be with one of the cast members, it didn’t even mean anything for the show.”

And…

“I think that they did really well keeping it PG-13. I remember one time that we were at a cabin in Summersville filming, and they caught two of the cast members smoking synthetic weed out in the woods and told ’em next time they’d do it that they’d be kicked off the show and never be allowed on MTV again. So, it’s not as bad as people thought it was going to be. I think a lot of people are let down by that because the worse it is, the more people want to talk, the more publicity it gets. And then it just kind of got ‘kidded’ down a little bit.”

Pretty interesting stuff there from Jesse. My favorite part was him verifying that the swimming pool dump truck idea was the master-work of Redneck MacGyver, Shain Gandee. I ain’t skeerd to admit I’m a big Candee Gandee fan!

To get Jesse B’s full interview head here.