Beauty and the Geek

The season of the social experiment known as Beauty and the Geek is nearly at an end.  Unfortunately, each week marks the end of their transformation for one team, and this week, that team was made up of William and Jennifer.  They notoriously didn't get along throughout the entire season, but toward the end, they began to respect each other and cooperate.  They spoke to BuddyTV about how they felt their relationship evolved, how they were portrayed on the show, and their favorite moments on Beauty and the Geek.  Unfortunately, we lost audio with William toward the end of the interview.  Below, you will find an audiofile and a transcript. 

Hey everybody this is Debbie from BuddyTV and I'm talking to William and Jen from Beauty and the Geek. Let me ask you first, was the whole Beauty and the Geek experience what you thought it was going to be?

Jen: Yeah. I definitely was very, you know, optimistic going into it and I looked forward to meeting new people and learning new things and hopefully teaching somebody something. It was definitely a great experience and it was a great opportunity and it was definitely everything I expected and more.

William: Yeah. I went in there expecting to be amongst some really, really brilliant people and I was hoping to meet some really great personalities look at them and hope to share mind-sets with someone and get some better experience with things I'm not really familiar with.

And you both struggled a lot with your relationship, probably a lot more than any of the other teams. Why do you think that was?

William: I felt jabbing Jen when she found out I didn't want to be her partner, like out of anybody's I didn't want to be her partner, and just getting along beyond that ... she was angry at that and I could pick up on it. It seems like I dropped the ball on that. What really stood out when we were out of sorts was the superheroes challenge when Jen thought I was neglecting her when I was trying to put together the costume.

Jen: Yeah. And I feel like what really started it was the fact that I did remind William of the kids that used to tease him. So, me being an athlete and what not right away kind of a self-fulfilling prophesy ... you think that we're not going to get along, we're not going to get along you know. So it was just a big challenge for me to try and have him open up to me and realize that I'm not like those people and that I'm here for him and here for us and I want us to do well. It was definitely kind of hard. And I definitely admit to being pretty hurt you know, when I found out that he didn't want to be my partner because I was an athlete. It wasn't really until later that it was because I apparently remind him of those kids. So I didn't really understand I guess, or really know how deep he was with that. I was really confused at first but I still tried to work with him and stuff, but you know you could definitely sense that there was some tension between us. It just really didn't help matters.

Do you think that the editing on the show portrayed your relationship accurately? Or do you think that it was a little bit skewed?

Jen: Um, I think for the most part it did portray our relationship accurately. They really played up and emphasized our fighting and all the negative parts, but it really wasn't until the end that they tried to show us getting along and the good parts. But you know there was definitely a few moments earlier on where the group would be playing chess or something like that. There were also good moments too that they didn't show.

William: Yeah, I feel that they portrayed us accurately. There were a few good times, but those good times weren't as common.

A lot of our BuddyTV readers thought that you were being really unfair to Jen. So how would you respond to them?

William: Unfair to Jen. I'd respond that I think I was being very fair. At the time she was being extra aggressive and I don't really deal well with aggressive people and I was mad. I wasn't really thinking about anything else but how angry I was. I don't think any of your readers know what it's like to be that angry all the time and trying to find some good about it. And true sometimes I said some mean-spirited things, but they were basically trying to get out how mad I was. Like when I said I was going to put here in a fat suit I was very much just trying to make a joke to the rest of the geeks because I was, again, mad. I alleviate being mad by making jokes.

When you both watch the show now, how do you feel? Do you fee like you would have done things differently? Or are you pretty pleased with how it went? You did make it pretty far in the competition.

Jen: For me I feel like from day one, even after I found out that William didn't want to be my partner, I did still try to work with him, be nice to him. There were definitely frustrating, moments of frustration when I couldn't get through to him. I'm not sure what you meant about me being aggressive but I guess maybe I was trying to get my point across that I'm not a bad person. You know I'm not like these people and if you just give me a chance, you can see that we may have some things in common and we might be able to work together better. Which, I mean, is what happened in the end but definitely I felt like I did all I could to try and make the team work. And try to approach William as much as possible just to say: ‘Hey, let's work together.' Normally it would get heated up because I still felt it was hard for me to get through to him and he was still like: ‘Nope, you are like those people,' and therefore I'd get frustrated ...

William: You were also really stubborn too. I would also try ... there were also times that I would try to talk to you and you would shut down because of what I said, or what I said earlier. So you were unbelievably stubborn, so ...

Jen: Yeah, we're both kind of stubborn people, so that didn't help matters.

William: I think we both get easily offended, so when we get offended we don't want to deal with the other person, we just want our space.

Jen: Yeah. I'm not like a ... I really don't like confrontation and I really don't like fighting so I kind of just sometimes, wanted to stay away from it. I know William feels the same way. So we just wanted to avoid one another sometimes, just to avoid that animosity and the fighting and things like that. It's not a nice feeling to have, you know?

You made it pretty far in the competition, so you must have had a lot of fun moments as well. Tell me what has been your favorite part of being on the show?

Jen: I really enjoyed the Mexico trip, you know despite that we were fighting ... it was kind of the bad part of it. I really enjoyed being at the Mayan pyramids and what not, just all of that stuff. And you know there's definitely a lot of moments they didn't show that we had a lot of fun with, like the greased watermelon game we played in the pool. Stuff like that. I actually went on a date with Will, which I thought was pretty fun and I enjoyed that and I would have liked for them to have shown that. So those were some of the good moments that they weren't able to show I guess.

William: Yeah, I was a big fan of the watermelon polo. You play it in a pool, you grease it up with vaseline. One player grabs the watermelon and tries to put it to the other side of the pool and obviously you have people trying to block it and trying to get through.

Jen: It's watermelon football.

(Laughter) That's funny.

William: Yeah, that was good times. There was also a thing with the geeks called an “Awkward Avengers.” Every time we'd all get together we'd have this really awkward silence, and then we'd make jokes and then I'd just kill a conversation out of nowhere.

Jen: Captain Conversation.

William: It was Conversation Killer and it was Captain of Awkward Avengers. That was a good time. I guess it's just one of those things where you had to be there. I'm not really sure how you can put that into print but, that was a good time.

What's your prediction for next week's finale?

William: Looking forward to just seeing everybody again. I really had a good time with Katie before she left. She was really nice and I want to see her again and find out what she's doing. See what's going on with John and hopefully congratulate David.

So you think David and Jasmine are going to win? Hello? I think we lost him. Okay, well how about you Jen?

Jen: Yeah. I hope Dave and Jasmine win. I think that that would be really cool because I feel like they've really come a long way. And they were, I think, they've even transformed more than Sam and Nicole have. Because I really felt like Sam, he's already pretty smart and I really feel like him being an actor really helped a lot with the challenges. Being able to memorize lines I think really helped him with being able to memorize the study material. And also being an actor, he's used to performing in front of people and he feels comfortable in that atmosphere whereas a lot of us don't. So I think that also helped with the challenges. And then with Nicole, I feel like there's definitely ... I don't even feel like she is a geek. She's very pretty and she's very social and I think really that, she really didn't have much to transform with to begin with. So I feel like between those two teams, definitely Dave and Jasmine. They had a long ways to go and they've really done well. And I really hope that they win.


-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of The CW)