Kristin Cavallari felt ‘used’ by MTV, doesn’t think teens should do reality TV
Although things worked out well for Kristin Cavallari, the former MTV star admits she didn’t know what she was getting into when she signed up for Laguna Beach.
“I was a junior in high school and MTV showed up and did open casting,” she says in the upcoming episode of Oprah: Where Are They Now?, according to E! News. “You grab this 20-page packet and then they would take your Polaroid, and from there, they did on-camera interviews. They sort of narrowed it down to these eight people.”
That initial group included Lo Bosworth, (Kristin’s then-boyfriend) Stephen Colletti, Lauren Conrad, Morgan Olsen, Trey Phillips, Christina Schuller and Talan Torriero. Kristin said they were all clueless high-schoolers who “were just going along with whatever MTV was telling us to do.” For example, Kristin said Stephen “never would have” taken Lauren out to dinner or bought her flowers if it wasn’t for the MTV producers who wanted to stage a love triangle.
“I felt very used and manipulated,” said Kristin, who was often portrayed as mean or jealous. “Being 16, 17 in high school, not knowing really how to handle your emotions or even realizing what’s going on, I put up a wall. I put up a really tough exterior because I felt like they were really trying to take advantage of me.”
Kristin said she “cried for hours and hours” after watching the first episode. She explained, “When I saw it air and saw the way that they represented me, I was really, really upset.”
By her second go-round on MTV’s The Hills, Kristin was older and wiser — which led her to an interesting conclusion: “I still to this day think you should be 18 to do a reality show, only because of my experience.”
