Sewers of Paris: I Accidentally Found Myself on MTV (501: The Real World/Danny Roberts)
Added 2025-01-02 17:00:13 +0000 UTC
My guest this week is Danny Roberts, one of the stars of Real World: New Orleans, which originally aired on MTV in 2000. Danny was planning to become a teacher and wound up on the show through a series of coincidences, accidents, and last-minute changes of plan, so he was a little unprepared for the fame that he soon found thrust upon him. To say nothing of the weird — and sometimes awful ways — that fame took control of his life. But fortunately, he was able to find a way to take control back.
Check out Danny’s work with History UnErased at https://unerased.org/
I recorded this interview with Danny for a video that I’m working on about The Real World’s cultural impact. That’ll be coming your way on YouTube a bit later in January, so stay tuned for that — and subscribe to my free email newsletter to get a heads-up when it goes live, at mattbaume.com.
Comments
I remember him...sounds like he's still living with the damage that much exposure can do to a person. I was JUST trying to explain this to someone. Few really know what its like to be famous and everyone wants something from you. But when one day you say NO, suddenly the story becomes what an asshole you are. In our over exposed, over sharing world, many seem to want to jump on the fame wagon but its nearly impossible to be ready for the microscopic examination it can do to you. You could especially see it back then, MTV would not let them turn it off. In fact the production seem to be waiting for those moments when the cast most wanted to turn it off or was struggling with something "real" to bring everyone back next week. I could hear the pain in his speech when he was describing this. I guess it could be one thing if some deal was struck and they were paid well...but clearly that wasn't the case either. Great interview.
Darren Simon
2025-01-04 22:42:49 +0000 UTCI really don't remember Danny, but he impressed me a very smart, well spoken guy. Interesting interview.
Jim
2025-01-04 15:32:00 +0000 UTC
