Everyone is already talking about 'Fade Street', which is being billed as 'Ireland's answer to 'The Hills'. Linda McGee caught up with that stars of the show Cici, Vogue, Dani and Louise to get the low-down.
Linda McGee: What can we expect from the show?
Vogue: Louise, you're good at that! The sensible one!
Louise: I suppose you can expect the highs and lows of young women, the highs and lows of work, relationships and living with someone, because I'd never lived outside my mum's house before, except when I was doing a J1, when you're with loads of people. So it's a really different environment, and as well we didn't know each other before the show.
LM: So when did you all meet?
Louise: I met Vogue on the first day that we were doing our interviews and then I met Cici when we were in Pygmalion one night.
Cici: Yeah, I met you guys on a night out. We met then and it all kicked off.
Vogue: And I met you at casting and stuff.
LM: So will we get to see you guys meeting on screen?
Louise: Yeah, we've been filming since June.
Cici: Yeah, you'll get the natural reactions. You'll see people meeting people for the first time. It's not awkward but it's awkward at the same time. It's not awkward because we're not focusing on the fact that the cameras are there but you know... I ended up meeting these girls and we're really good friends now. So you see it every step of the way, of us getting to know each other, from acquaintances to kind of getting to know a bit of personal information about each other, to then becoming friends.
LM: How difficult is it to ignore the cameras?
Louise: You don't notice them. I thought it was really weird because the first day we ever filmed at all, I saw the crew and I was being mic-ed up and I thought 'Oh my God, this is so weird' and then two seconds into when they started filming the scene it was completely normal. You forget the camera is there because when you're meeting new people for the first time you're so interested and intrigued and you're asking so many questions that everything else beyond the relationship you're having with the person at that time isn't important.
Dani: I mean, you could be filming for hours and hours and hours and you're out partying or clubbing or whatever, so I'd say about 7 or 8 minutes into it, they're completely at the back of your head.
Cici: Yeah, not even [that long]. They're good at being invisible. They're good at their job.
Vogue: Yeah, like my sister, about a half hour before she started filming she was like 'I don't want to do it. I'm not doing it' and I was like 'Come on' and she was like 'No, I'm too embarrassed' and then after the first one she was like ringing her friends going 'They said I was deadly on camera. I'm definitely doing it again'. She just didn't care.
LM: What made you all want to take part in a show like this? What did you hope to get out of it?
Vogue: It was an opportunity that we were never going to be given again. It's not like they do shows like this all the time. It's not like everyone gets to do a show like this. I was a bit iffy and I was like 'No, I don't think so, it's too embarrassing' and then I was like 'God, if I see this on telly and I never took the opportunity, I'll just be p**sed off.' So that's why I did it.
Louise: I think as well, for me, I was approached when I was out working in a nightclub by one of the producers and she was like 'You'd be really good for our show' and, obviously, at the time there had been a few things in the papers about a possible 'so-co' thing and I was like 'God, that sounds awful' because people were getting the wrong end of the stick about what the show was about. And then I actually met the producers and I was like 'Yeah, this could be a bit of fun' and you know, you have to take opportunities. It's a recession. Things don't just fall on your lap like this every day, so I went and met the producers and they just sold the show to me because I realised I could definitely use this as an opportunity. All they wanted from me was for me to be myself. It was one of those things where I was like 'Well, that's great. There's no pressure there' and I can still carry on with my life and still get exposure at the same time, so it was really good.
LM: And had you guys watched shows like this before? Is anyone a fan of 'The Hills'?
Dani: I have never watched a full episode of 'The Hills' until I started doing this, and then I think I felt like I had to sit down and see what the hell was going on.
Cici: Yeah, you know I love trash TV! This isn't saying that this is it! I mean, everyone saw how 'The Hills' ended. We all know what the story is. This isn't LA. We don't have a silver spoon in our mouths and we're not driving daddy's cars. This is real life. This is the highs and the lows, financially as well as emotionally, you know. So I think it's much more interesting and much more easy to relate to. There's no use sitting there watching these girls, you know, with their amazing designer clothes and they've just got their hair blow-dried. You know, it's not like that! This is just what every young person who is driving to be successful will be able to relate to.
LM: Everyone watches these types of shows and thinks 'it must be scripted'. Is what we're going to see 100% real?
Vogue: You don't pay me enough to learn lines so no, it's not [scripted]. I wouldn't do it if I had to learn lines. It's too hard.
Louise: I'm not an actress. I couldn't act to save my life. If you put me on the stage I'd probably cry, you know. I want to do event management. I'm not an actress. I never want to be an actress. So there's absolutely no way... I wouldn't even be bothered trying to pretend to be someone I wasn't.
Dani: From the very beginning, our producers and directors said 'It's real'. This is reality. It's done in the same kind of structure as 'The Hills', you know, like the set-up of it and the way it's filmed but it is real. This is actually real, you know what I mean. From the very beginning, our producers and our directors wanted it to real. So I think we'd be disappointed if we had to learn lines.
Vogue: Yeah, too much effort.
Louise: I'm studying and I'm working. I really wouldn't have time. My head would be melted by now if we were learning lines.
Cici: I think that's a reason that we're still positive about it, because we're not learning lines. Like I'll show up to a night out, sit down, have a few drinks, have the chats, might go for a dance, you know what I mean? It's completely effortless for us to do this, because they're documenting our lives. We don't have to do anything to fulfil their needs. So it's completely not scripted.
LM: How has living together been? Louise, you said you hadn't been away from home before. It must have been a bit of a shock to the system to suddenly be in a new place, while having to meet a new group of people and try to get on with them, all in front of cameras?
Louise: Absolutely. 100%. It's not that my mum does everything around the house but I wasn't used to kind of looking after myself, making my own dinners... but Dani does that. She's a very good cook.
Cici: Pot noodle!
Dani: Yeah, pot noodle and toast!
Louise: And just like cleaning up after yourself and all that kind of stuff, you know, the general stuff.
Vogue: I've lived on my own for years though. I don't live in Fade Street. I live in Howth, but I've always lived on my own... so I'm used to it and I'm a very good cook!
Louise: You haven't made me dinner yet!
LM: You're all hoping to pursue different careers from event management to modelling to art. Were each of you hoping that this show would serve to further your career options by opening up a few new doors?
Cici: That's the main reason that we're involved. I mean, we're not doing this to try and be reality TV socialite stars or to go to the opening of a bag of crisps. It's not about that. It's about showing people that we're dedicated to what we do. This is about what we do, as opposed to just doing nothing.
Louise: It's about making it in the times that we have. We grew up thinking that our lives were going to be laid out for us, well not necessarily, but in general people our age just didn't realise that it was going to come to this - the recession, people actually having to pay for things themselves and these people having loans and having to pay them back, so in general it's just hard.
LM: So would you expect younger female audiences to identify with you and see issues from their own lives mirrored here?
Dani: Yeah, that was the whole idea of the show in the first place. It's the only thing that's going to make a show, in recession Ireland, attractive to other people and watchable, is that young people can relate to us.
LM: What about the fame thing? Are you hoping for or expecting a certain level of fame?
Cici: It's not LA, do you know what I mean? It's not even the UK. Nobody here even wants to be a big fish in a small pond. To be that's kinda cringeworthy, you know. This is on a big scale for Dublin and for Ireland but none of us are going to be walking around thinking we're famous, or thinking we're a big deal.
Dani: There's a huge difference between being an Irish celebrity and a celebrity, you know what I mean?
Vogue: It doesn't exist really.
Dani: It's doesn't.
Cici: Unless you're Bono!
Louise: Because he's just huge.
Cici: Or Colin Farrell or someone... Nobody will know anything about this I'd say in the UK.
Louise: That's not important for us. It's being recognised and maybe impressing future employers and getting experience as well. We've been filming since June so we've all been working away improving ourselves, so we're completely different than we were in June anyway.
LM: So what we're going to see over the next few weeks isn't going to be really polished, is it? Will we get to see everything?
Louise: Oh yeah. We're not always wearing make-up either. We do look gross.
Dani: You get the dirt and the grit of everything.
Cici: I think we're all very strong personalities. There's not one who is kind of a bit of a doormat, you know what I mean? So we all defend ourselves. We all stand up for ourselves. We all have very individual and strong opinions on things. So you can expect that there is going to clashes, somewhere down the line.
LM: So there's high drama from the off?
Vogue: Loads of drama!
Cici: It's overwhelming to think how much stuff has happened.
Louise: And we're so lucky to have it documented so we can actually see it and relive it all over again!
LM: After filming this for the last few months, do you miss the cameras when they're not following you around now?
Cici: No.
Dani: Actually though, I do feel sometimes, because the cameras are so easy to forget there, I'll be on my way to Dunnes Stores and I feel like I have to talk louder or check if my mic is still on.
Louise: Yeah, it's the mic thing because you'd maybe be saying something, maybe a sly comment or something, and you have to be more aware of what you're saying. You think 'Oh God, the mic's there' and it's not there at all.
Cici: You could go to the loo and think you're being really sneaky answering the phone or ringing your mate but there's no avoiding it, because you completely forget. I've tried to get away with maybe popping off to the corner to have a chat with someone and just realising then a half an hour later thinking 'Oh God, they probably actually did catch that'.
LM: At this stage are you all really keen to see what the public reaction to the show will be?
Louise: I really hope everyone is just surprised because I think the build-up and a lot of the press has just been like 'rich D4 kids' or whatever.
Dani: And they've got it wrong.
Cici: How can you be negative about something you haven't seen? You can't.
Vogue: I think they will be surprised, definitely.
Cici: Oh completely.
Vogue: Because they all just think that we are spoilt little brats probably.
Cici: I mean you can look at my bank statements and see that I'm absolutely skint. So there's no way that they can say 'They're privileged' or 'They're spoiled' or that all we do is go to Krystle and drink champagne all night and go shopping.
Dani: It's more like sitting under the bridge with a few cans and then going to Penneys!
Louise: They can say this, that and the other about all the girls but I'd defend them down to the ground because I know they all work so hard and they deserve anything good that comes out of this show.
'Fade Street' begins this Thursday at 9pm on RTÉ Two.
