The Real Housewives of… the Alamo?!? Not exactly. Former former (yes I meant to double up) Real Housewives of Orange County star Slade Smiley is making the transition from reality TV to scripted programming with a role in the upcoming History Channel miniseries Texas Rising, premiering Memorial Day weekend!
Slade will be part of a mostly male all-star cast that includes Bill Paxton, Brendan Fraser, Ray Liotta, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jeff Fahey, Rob Morrow, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and Kris Kristofferson. “I have to clarify that my role is extremely small,” Smiley tells Mr. Housewife. “I think I’m only in one or two out of ten episodes.”
So how did Slade Smiley land an acting gig in this epic cable television event? It was all because of his reality show connections, he reveals. Texas Rising is being made by the same production company that handled History’s previous miniseries event, the hugely successful Hatfields and McCoys. “Coincidentally, they were the same production company that shot Marriage Bootcamp,” Slade says.
Now that I think about it, having a bunch of reality show couples with relationship issues living together in the same house isn’t that much different from the Hatfields and McCoys. Slade continues:
So it was because of our relationship with production and them shooting us for Bootcamp that I got approached by producers. They said, ‘Look, we’re doing this huge mini series. We think you’d be great. Would you be willing to read for us and audition?’ I said absolutely!
Slade says he will play the part of Bartholomew Fly, whom he describes as “a simple town [guy]” who is there to greet General Sam Houston (played by Bill Paxton) when Houston returns from winning the Mexican-American war. A rather scruffy Slade has been sharing a number of photos of himself on the set of Texas Rising in costume as Bartholomew Fly, including this one from Slade Smiley on WhoSay:
Slade tweeted this next official looking photo along with two of his co-stars and wrote that his fiancée Gretchen Rossi “loves it when [I] look like a cowboy.” He added, “I think I look more like an angry Jesus. lol.”
@russellstuart @GretchenRossi if Aliens and Cowboys can be a movie, so can Cowboy Jesus.
— Slade Smiley (@SladeSmiley) May 4, 2015
So can we expect to see more acting from Slade in the future? “Yeah. I just auditioned for another indie movie,” he tells Mr. Housewife. “We have a show that we’re co-producing that’s sitting with HBO right now and they’re getting ready to shoot the pilot. It’s been really fun for us. If there’s opportunities to act, I always want to embrace those opportunities.”
And if you’re curious what Slade’s better half has been up to, Gretchen has been hustling with her fashion line. Part of that hustle is sharing some really great fashion photos of herself almost daily that was “my new favorite thing” back in February. (Click the link to check out tons of pics!) Oh how I would have loved to have seen Gretchen decked out in some frilly petticoatastic Texas revolution fashion! Alas…
Texas Rising is a ten-hour, five-part miniseries event that premieres over Memorial Day weekend on back-to-back nights before airing every Monday night at 9/8c on History. Here is the complete schedule for Texas Rising:
PREMIERE Episode 1: Monday, May 25 at 9PM ET/PT
Episode 2: Tuesday, May 26 at 9PM ET/PT
Episode 3: Monday, June 1 at 9PM ET/PT
Episode 4: Monday, June 8 at 9PM ET/PT
Episode 5: Monday, June 15 at 9PM ET/PT
