Dorothy Wang explains how 'Bling Empire' is more 'calculated' than ‘Rich Kids of Beverly Hills’

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When the trailer for the second season of Bling Empire dropped this spring, it teased the long-awaited reality TV return of Dorothy Wang. It had been six years since the end of Rich Kids of Beverly Hills, the fan-favorite E! show that first introduced us to Wang, and joining Netflix’s reality show based around a group of high society Asian socialites in Los Angeles felt like “the tailor-made fit” for her.

Wang’s latest gig didn’t disappoint — between sparring with co-star Kane Lim, befriending Christine Chiu and Jaime Xie, and rocking over-the-top glam looks that would give any Real Housewife a run for her money, she made a major impact. What’s more, when she moved to New York City in the Season 2 finale, a seemingly inevitable spinoff about her new life in the Big Apple promised more of Wang in the future.

For the latest episode of In The Know’s pop culture interview series We Should Talk, Wang opened up about what it was like returning to reality TV after so many years away, how Bling Empire differed from Rich Kids, what her drama with Kane Lim was really about and how life in New York City has been for her.

Listen to Bling Empire star Dorothy Wang’s full episode of We Should Talk here, and keep reading for highlights from the interview:

On why she chose to return to reality TV after so many years away: I do feel like it was always in the back of my mind. I always just felt like I had more to say and more to show and more stories to tell. I had more to put out there. This show was almost a tailor-made fit for me! I always read the comments and everyone was always like, “Why aren’t you on this show? There’s a show about wealthy Asians in Los Angeles and there isn’t Dorothy Wang?” Everyone was really gung ho about me joining, like, “I’d love to see you on the show!” When I was approached to do it, that was a real driving factor for me to do it. I just felt like it was what the people wanted.

On how Bling Empire compared with Rich Kids of Beverly Hills: On Rich Kids we were all younger, and everything flowed more naturally. We were young and raw and we were all big personalities. Individually, when we were all growing up, people were like, “You should be on a show! You’re so interesting!” We were these hyper, over-the-top personalities that all came together on one show. With this group, everyone is a little bit older, slightly more subdued, and it’s just a different dynamic. It’s not so much about people being over-the-top, but it’s more about their inner workings and their friendships and how they maneuver with one another. Maybe it’s a result of getting older, but it’s more about how you maneuver in society groups. It is more planned out and calculated. I did feel that a lot of it has to do with behind the scenes, like, “Oh, you’re going to be friends with this person? Then I’m going to be friends with this person.” It’s a lot of chess playing and a lot about how we’re going to be portrayed on camera.

On her drama with Kane Lim: With Kane, for some reason, nothing really adds up. If you watched, he says, “I’ve been friends with Dorothy for years,” and then later he says, “I’m not friends with her! I don’t know her!” and then, “I think we should be friends and go to lunch!” He contradicts himself constantly. The story with Kane is that 10, 15 years ago I’d be at the Louboutin store with my friend, Ezra, and he’d be like, “I just bought this and this! We should go to lunch!” And we would politely say no. It would happen over and over and over again for 15 years. [We’d be] politely declining; it’s fine. At a certain point, he started being nasty to my friend and would be very competitive on Instagram. […] He then tried to get me kicked out of the gym. You know when a fan turns into faux? He was nasty with me, and then when I was on the show, he was asking the producers, “When can I film with Dorothy?” And I already felt this type of way about him, and he just seemed like someone that was not nice and catty and all over the place. He wasn’t someone that I wanted in my life.

On moving to New York City and rumors she has a spinoff in the works: Hypothetically speaking, my life in New York was a really tough adjustment, with me being an L.A. gal. There was a lot of change. I’m not as wild and as risky as people might think, and, for me, I really wanted to move to New York and take that risk. I went to school at USC to be close to my family, and I never had my little Sex and the City moment where I left and was on my own. I feel like I missed my rite of passage. I wanted to be a little wilder; I wanted to date more and I wanted be out on my own. […] I wanted to shed my image, and I wanted to be somewhere where nobody knows me as much — to start fresh and have to make new connections. Everything in L.A. was a little bit boring for me and got a little too easy. I want to work to be able to get a reservation somewhere! I wanted to be a little bit more anonymous, start over, date new guys, meet new people and not have such a reputation. […] I have a great, fun, diverse group in New York that is really fun and outgoing. Now, I’m honestly having the best time.

Watch In The Know’s full interview with Dorothy Wang below, and stream Season 2 of Bling Empire on Netflix here:

If you enjoyed this interview, check out In The Know’s recent interview with “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Crystal Kung Minkoff!

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