Michele Grey is an aspiring model/actress/director/producer/writer who’s greatest claim to fame so far is the MTV’s True Life episode “I’m at a Crossroads in My Relationship” which aired February 1, 2010.
In the episode Michele struggled with the desire to end her relationship with her architect boyfriend Chris Henshaw, who’s about 10 years older than her. (You can view the full episode at the end of this post.) She expressed frustration with Chris because she felt he treated her like a child, and she viewed him as a father figure. This was emphasized by footage of Chris worrying about her eating habits in a parental tone which induced a juvenile whined response from Michele.
Of course, the most fascinating part of the episode wasn’t exactly the manufactured storyline of their struggling relationship, it was Michele’s life as she attempted to make it in the entertainment industry. MTV crews followed her going to a non-paid photoshoot, and if you visit her website, you’ll see she’s done quite a few photo-shoots. In many shots she looks awkward and uncomfortable with the camera, but she’s a pretty girl and a lot of her shots are really striking.
When she’s not vamping for the camera, she works at home in Chris’s apartment editing a film she wrote, directing, and starred in, a really low-budget film called Love Fever. MTV shows her editing a scene, and complaining about the ending. In case you were curious and want to know more about what exactly she was editing, here’s the trailer, which, presumably was also created by Michele:
LOVEFEVERTHETRAILERnew
Uploaded by MicheleGrey. – Full seasons and entire episodes online.
During “I’m at a Crossroads . . .” we also see Michele on location in South Carolina filming a scene that involves highly affected theatrical screaming (not done by Michele) that bares no resemblance to realistic portrayal of a human reaction. In other words, the acting appears to suck.
Here’s the trailer to that movie, which is called The Afflicted:
THE AFFLICTED Movie Trailer from Lee Dashiell / Osprey HD on Vimeo.
On MTV’s site, the only comments on this episode are negative comments about Michele, because she comes off as whiny and ungrateful to her boyfriend Chris, who appears to be loving and supportive. It isn’t explained, but it seems as if Chris is supporting Michele, and most of the laborious work she does is unpaid. It’s fabulous to have someone act as a patron while you pursue your dreams, but it’s grating to watch someone be resentful and ungrateful about being able to work all day doing unpaid modeling shoots and editing your independent film that will probably never make you a dime. From the footage in the trailer, Michele’s labor of love is just another of scores of unwatchable amateur films hobbled by undeveloped writing, directing, acting, and editing skills.
Regardless of all that, we do only get a small glimpses of a situation with these episodes, and Michele herself responded to all of her haters:
Well I know most people hate me but get real if any of you think this show is reality your are greatly misinformed…. they followed our life for 5 months, they rearranged events and they completely cut out most of chris. I look like the bad guy because Chris is never talking… did you notice that. They were not around for most of the really big fights and events that occurred. This is not even a tenth of the whole story. I am not a saint but Chris is not a Saint either. All they got were the little day to day squabbles that everyone has (which they used only my side and self admittedly made me look like an immature *****) They needed an angle and they used that to portray our relationship. Chris would not be in this relationship if i treated him like that. And OMG the dinner table we had a very pleasant, great dinner which 3 producers behind the Camera instigated and made us discuss the relationship. “No start talking about the relationship now” I would not have discussed it there at all if the cameras were not around. He has only met my parents once before because he hates them… yet another issue that makes me question my relationship (wouldn’t you?)
You can watch the full episode below and make your own decision:
