Teen Mom returns tonight with an updated look – stars interact with producers on camera – and a new name – Teen Mom OG. Speaking to TV Guide, Maci Bookout, Amber Portwood, Farrah Abraham, and Catelynn Lowell opened up about Teen Mom‘s return and the controversy surrounding Farrah.
When asked why they agreed to do Teen Mom again, Maci shared, “I felt like I was such a different person when the show last aired. I’ve really grown up, and not just because I have a kid and responsibilities, but mentally and emotionally. I thought it would be cool to show how different we are and how far we’ve come in the past two or three years since we’ve been off the air. Also, to show people that just because the show went off, it doesn’t get any easier. When you’re teen parents, it’s hard forever. The struggles don’t go away; they’re just different.”
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Um, the preview clip shows Maci sitting in a big truck in a parking lot, waiting for Ryan Edwards, and complaining about Ryan in front of Bentley. And Maci and Ryan failing to communicate effectively. But she’s totally changed… and so has Amber… #sarcasm Amber said she wanted to show viewers that she’s not all about the yelling and the negativity we’ve come to expect from her… but, on the preview clip, we see her invite Gary Shirley to her house solely so she can yell at him and kick him out of her house. HaHa.
“When I first got out of prison, I wanted to prove myself, obviously, and show everybody that I’m not that addict from back in the day,” said Amber. “I want to show the changes I’ve made and everything is pretty positive. I sometimes get in little fights with Gary, but he’s probably the only person in my life I fight with. It’s gotten to the point where we don’t communicate that much unless it’s about [Leah]. I also wanted my name to be cleared, and I felt like I should have that right. I think people expect negativity and yelling, cussing, and fighting from me – cussing hasn’t really stopped – but when things happen to me now I’m aware of everything in that situation. I’m not fogged up. I can make a good judgment.”
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Farrah – whose special brand of delusional crazy I just can’t quit – said Teen Mom is beneath her now but she agreed to return for Sophia‘s sake.
“I was reluctant, as you’ll see, to come back, and it was awkward and interesting for the executives to call me and say, ‘We need you back.’ The reasons were more for Sophia, and if anything, I’d like her to be a part of something that she was a part of from her birth,” explained Farrah. “For myself, I feel like it’s going backwards in my life and I’ve moved on. So it was a little difficult but I’m letting it be open. If it’s adult entertainment that people are curious about, and that’s what [the show] pushes to see a lot of, then I hope the others can expand their thoughts about being so small-minded.”
About the negative reactions to Farrah being included, Catelynn shared, “We thought it was no big deal, but sitting down and thinking about it and talking to our other cast members too we were nervous about her coming back. We felt like, a good idea for ratings, but a bad idea for the whole moral compass of the show. We did this show for a reason and that reason was to educate girls and teach them to better themselves and maybe wait to get pregnant, and we still feel like it’s not all that great [to have her back] because I don’t want young girls thinking you can just go out and basically sell yourself. That’s not a good moral compass to be giving to young women.”
In response to that, Farrah said, “There’s definitely no excuse for one person being the oddball and being negative and that is just sad and I wish her family all the best.”
When asked what she hopes viewers take away from this season, Farrah said, “I don’t really hope for certain things, but you get to see way more sides of me than ever in the past. It’s very entertaining, my life, and Vegas is a wild roller coaster between doing AVN work, hosting huge nightclub parties, day parties. It’s pretty intense for me to even live and I can’t believe I’m there. I’ve really grown as a woman from writing all these erotic romance novels, [doing the] sex tape, traveling, and working. In my little family nothing is ever the same, everything keeps changing for the better, and I only like to have positivity and progress around me.”
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Teen Mom OG breaks the fourth wall and shows production, allows the cast to talk about being on camera and how reality TV has affected their lives, etc.
“I love it,” said Maci. “Before, such a huge part of our life was hidden and it was hard to be 100 percent real because we’re pretending we’re not on TV or that we don’t have a million followers on Twitter. Also, there are many situations in the past when we’re filming a scene and we’re aggravated and all of our anger is escalated because there are people in your house, audio, lights, cameras and then you have a kid running around who can’t get up because [production] doesn’t want to mess up the scene, so on top of the aggravation from what’s really going on, you have all this other sh–. It will really show how overwhelming being on a TV show is.”
Maci, Amber, Farrah, and Catelynn talk new relationships and new babies in the interview, which you can read in its entirety on TV Guide. Teen Mom OG kicks off tonight at 10/9c on MTV. Reality Tea will be live-tweeting all the drama.
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Photo Credit: MTV
