Derek Arteta was fired by Donald Trump for using the term "white trash" last night, much to the consternation of everyone watching.  It was a surprise firing, completely unexpected, and Derek's seemingly unfair termination was one of two firings in last night's episode (the other being Jenn Hoffman).  Derek stopped by and talked to us about his time on The Apprentice.


Was The Apprentice something you had always wanted to do?

It’s funny. I’m such a reality show whore.  I’ve tried out for The Amazing Race four times, I was semi-finalist on Big Brother a few years ago and The Apprentice is a show that I never really had an interest in.  I watched it, but I always felt like the people on the show were way too sort of serious and that I wouldn’t do well on that kind of a show.  I was actually recruited. 

An assistant at work was friends with somebody in casting and this person in casting sent an email saying, “Listen, do you have any lawyers, we’re really looking for some LA type of lawyers, and haven’t been able to find any that we like.”  So I sent her an email (this casting person) and said, “Listen, I think this is bullshit because you had an open casting call three months ago and I can’t believe you haven’t found somebody you like who is a lawyer.  If it’s not bullshit, email me back.”  She called me like thirty seconds later and she said, “You’re going to go into the finals, we’ll slot you into the finals of casting and it’s either sink or swim.”  Fortunately I swam.  I think the same thing happened to Kristine [Lefebvre] as well; Kristine was also recruited for the show.


Now that you’ve been on The Apprentice are you interested in using that to get on a show like The Amazing Race?

Yeah.  I’m not using this show to promote a business or me being an actor or anything like that, I just went on to have fun.  And now that I’ve been on there I would love to do it again and The Amazing Race is something that I’d love to get on.  Kristine and I have talked about partnering up and doing The Amazing Race, you know, applying for it.  Angela [Ruggiero] and I have as well.  You may see in the coming months one of us making a video and trying to get on there yet again.


How would you rate the overall experience of working with Trump; working with the team?

Working with Trump was fun.  He’s exactly like you see him on TV.  He’s bigger than life.  On TV you don’t see his funnier side.  I mean, the guy is really fun, he’s a fun guy.  He joked around with me a lot.  Like with Pollo Loco, he was like, “Alright Derek don’t eat too many of those Pollo bowls.”  And when I came out to him, he was kind of shocked.  He was like, “You mean, you don’t find Ivanka attractive?”  And I was like, “No, not really.” 

He’s just a fun guy, but you don’t want to cross him either.  You don’t really work with him.  The only time you’re really seeing him is during the task when he assigns it to you and like our reward.  When we had dinner with him, the very first episode, that was a two-hour dinner.  The producers had said that was the longest he’d ever stayed with a cast.  He spent a long, long time with us and that was a pleasure to be able to get to know him a little better.