Regular readers of Ensemble will know how hard we stan Vanderpump Rules, and in particular the girlies of the show. Say what you want about Bravo, but it gives us complicated, messy, intelligent women, who have to co-exist alongside dumbass men. During its epic 11 season run VPR introduced us to many of these queens including Ariana Madix, Kristen Doute and Scheana Shay.

For the unfamiliar: the reality series follows the staff at SUR (Sexy Unique Restaurant), owned by former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Vanderpump. Its opening – described as ‘the darkest thing to ever appear on Bravo’ – featured domestic violence, drug addiction and a scandal where a young waitress named Scheana was asked to leave after her affair with RHOBH cast member Brandi Glanville’s husband came to light. Two years later, SUR’s staff got their own spinoff, sparked, Scheana claims in her new book My Good Side, by the drama and fallout from that affair.

In the NYT bestselling memoir, Scheana breaks the fourth wall on the making of reality TV. Interestingly, her take is never ‘a woe is me, I got badly edited’ one. Rather, she explains the business side of reality TV: expectations on cast to perform on camera, pay negotiations and who to talk to about your personal life when you’re not sure what you want public (in the book Scheana reveals her husband Brock had an affair two years prior). All of this nuance is fascinating, especially considering Scheana’s openness about struggling with OCD and intrusive thoughts, and how a lack of control in your professional life can play into this.

As a VPR superfan, I was thrilled that Scheana found the time to chat with Ensemble in her only New Zealand interview (her daughter Summer Moon is half Kiwi, husband Brock’s family lives in Hamilton) about loving cats, bad home decor, Ariana and climbing cringe mountain.

My Good Side (published by Hachette) is out now. Vanderpump Rules and The Valley are available to screen on Hayu.

Above: Seth Rogen (as Kristen Doute) and Rose Byrne (as Scheana Shay) recreate the infamous 'Suck a dick Diana' scene from VPR season 3 on a recent episode of WWHL.

Rebecca:

It’s wild to me that you've been made to feel a certain way about being a ‘homewrecker’ when the show’s success is largely based on a bunch of hot people all having sex with each other, and you never really dipped your pen in the company ink. You say you were attracted to Shay because he was a normal person. Was it important to you that you never dated the core cast?

Scheana:

I'm so thankful I was in a happy relationship because it's so messy in that group… I'm glad that I was never a part of that .

Rebecca:

But you certainly were bullied when the show first started and that's obvious to everyone. It's interesting reading about your childhood high school experience because SUR was very much like a high school, right?

Scheana:

That's exactly what it felt like: a real life version of Mean Girls.

Rebecca:

Despite all of this, how does it feel to know that you're the favourite cast member of people like Lady Gaga and Seth Rogen?

Scheana:

That is just wild to me. I feel like real recognises real. They are real ones. I’ve met both of them. I worked with Seth Rogen on a spoof short film. Getting to be on set, and sing with him and harmonise Good as Gold – iconic. And I recently went and saw Lady Gaga host and perform on Saturday Night Live. I saw her at the party after and she was so excited to see me and I was like, you are an icon of all icons. That's just the highest honour, I swear.

Rebecca:

It's interesting that you wrote this book while The Valley's been playing out. You're giving yourself a voice at a time when it feels like you don’t really have one. This season there was that iconic moment where you were like, ‘yeah, Jesse's girlfriend's dating a Baywatch guy’. And I was like, yay Scheana has arrived. But the rest of the season was more of a smile and nod kind of scenario.

Scheana:

Um, yeah.

Rebecca:

So, will we see more of Scheana in season three of The Valley?

Scheana:

Maybe. We’ll see what they decide on for season three. Hopefully everyone's back. It’s already  a big cast, but they also are my friends.

Rebecca:

In the book you write about finding out your husband Shay was engaging with other women online, and that you didn't know who to talk to as it can be ‘risky’ confiding in fellow cast members. I find that behind the scenes stuff fascinating, and it seems like a really stressful way to live your life, especially if you do have OCD tendencies, like yourself. How does that kind of chaos play out, if you have ODC and intrusive thoughts, and are on a show where you're supposed to expose every intrusive thought? How do you know where to draw the line?

Scheana:

I'm still figuring that out. I often say the wrong thing at the wrong time or maybe the right thing at the wrong time. I don't know, I always get myself in trouble somehow. I try to just be as authentically myself as possible. My intrusive thoughts I don't think are ever going to completely go away. It's just how I manage them and what I choose to spiral on. I try to do the best that I can, but it's challenging at times.

Rebecca:

One of the things that came across in the book is your work ethic, and that always came through on the show as well. When you were at SUR you were working hard, you weren't doing shots in the [infamous] back alley. In the book you talk about working with the producers to film scenes that would make the show better because that's your job. Does that make it hard for you to then draw a line? For example, you say that you choose to get married to Brock on camera, because it would make a good story and you'd get a better day rate while you were in Mexico.

Scheana:

I didn't know anything about a better day rate initially. It was discussed if we were going to even come back to the show on a day rate (for me, not Brock) [he would be unpaid]. I didn't know about the wedding until we started filming and they said, ‘well, here's what we can do’. We were doing it regardless. It was just a matter of whether we were going to have them capture it or not.

But I knew it was gonna be such a beautiful wedding with so many amazing moments that I wanted captured. So, you know, a vacation down to Mexico it was. And who knew everything that was happening behind the scenes – just so crazy [IYKYK: Scheana’s second wedding, to Brock, is where the infamous Scandoval affair reportedly kicked off].

Rebecca:

You mention not being able to work together as a cast to make salary negotiations. We've seen that tactic play out Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Is this a deliberate thing to make you all mistrust each other and actually divide friendships?

Scheana:

That's a great question. I want to say no, but I guess I'm not on the other side of it, so I don't know.  

Rebecca:

Because the behind the scenes story you tell about your anger at Katie going to Mexico during your wedding, and how you hadn't been invited to an earlier girls trip, it makes so much sense when you understand all those behind the scenes mechanisms around pay.

Scheana:

Yeah, that's why I was upset that I wasn't invited. She knew I was on a day rate that season and that would've meant a lot of money coming into my pocket if I was able to film those four days. Instead, I think I filmed one day that week.

Rebecca:

You say that you used to be a massive stoner. Does this explain those La-Z-Boy armchairs you had when you were married to Shay?

Scheana:

Oh my gosh, absolutely. Back then we were so disgusting. We would literally smoke in our apartment. I would never do that today. Why did I think that was okay?

Rebecca:

There's a time when a VPR editor admitted her favourite thing to do was to cut together cringe Scheana moments. [She was subsequently fired]. I have to say, cringe Scheana moments are what make you so iconic. Are you familiar with the concept of Cringe Mountain as discussed by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers on Las Culturistas?

Scheana:

Wait, say that again?

Rebecca:

There's a concept of climbing Cringe Mountain – you have to lean into your cringe and climb the mountain, and when you make it to the top of Cringe Mountain you've won.

Scheana:

That's so funny. If there's a cringe mountain, I've climbed to the top of it a couple of times.

Rebecca:

You've ascended.

Scheana:

Absolutely.

Rebecca:

You mention that you're no longer in contact with Lisa Vanderpump and she refused to pose with you for a photo at a Vanderpump Dog's event.

Scheana:

Yes.

Rebecca:

And she's also recently denied that she wanted to use your cheating scandal to get her show on the map. Do you think she has pricklier relationships with her female stars than the male ones?

Scheana:

That's a question for her, I guess. But everyone has always said she's a male sympathiser. And yeah, I have seen the girls be treated differently than the guys.

Rebecca:

I think we've all seen that from an outside perspective. She chooses to protect problematic men like Jax and Sandoval and James, and she's kind of played all the women off against each other, right.

Scheana:

I mean, it has appeared that way. Yeah.

Rebecca:

But also, do you think that Lisa holds it against you that you're a cat person, not a dog person?

Scheana:

That's a great question! No one's ever asked me this!

Rebecca:

You're the only cat owner on the show, everyone else had dogs.

Scheana:

That's true. Ally had cats too. But then James got Gram back, now Hippie.

Rebecca:

In the book you talk about the pressure of delivering a good show for the producers, specifically around the storyline where you and Brock toyed with getting married on James and Raquel’s engagement weekend in season nine.

When you watch season 10, it's obvious that Raquel is becoming quite unhinged and untethered. Do you think she wasn't experienced enough to deal with the producers and things snowballed into behavior she wouldn't have usually done?

Scheana:

Yeah she bit off more than she could chew, for sure.

Rebecca:

When you first started on reality TV, you were a server and hustling for tips. Now if you're on a reality show, you can get brand deals and have this whole offline revenue stream. So you're trying to service everything and you don't have a chance to grow like that, right?

Scheana:

Yeah, that's true. It’s so different today.

Rebecca:

Do you have concerns for the new rebooted Vanderpump Rules, how the ‘staff’ will cope?

Scheana:

I've talked to the two girls I’m friends with, and they know they can lean on me and if they have any questions, I'm here for them. I've tried to tell them to prepare for this, and from what I know it's a good group of people they have on the new reboot. So hopefully people are kind, but you know, that's wishful thinking. I hope they're able to just block out the noise.

Rebecca:

Quick fire questions: How many people's locations are you sharing at the moment?

Scheana:

70-something.

Rebecca:

Have you heard from Arianna yet?

Scheana:

No.

Rebecca:

When was the last time you had a goat's cheese ball at SUR?

Scheana:

Maybe six months ago?

Rebecca:

And a sandwich from Something About Her?

Scheana:

Longer than six months ago.  

Rebecca:

The last time you were at Jax’s Bar?

Scheana:

To be honest, a couple of months ago with my mother-in-law. For a karaoke night. She loves to karaoke when she comes out here.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.