Claim to Fame 's Jane apologizes for all that crying and reveals what fans need to know about her famous aunt
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Warning: This article contains spoilers for Claim to Fame season 2 episode 3, "Head Shots and Thick Plots."
Since the first episode of Claim to Fame season 2, Jane had a notebook filled with guesses for her fellow contestants' celebrity relatives and became a go-to for help figuring out clues. On Monday's episode, the house's crimson-haired matriarch with a penchant for getting teary-eyed found herself as the week's guesser and incorrectly predicted that Chris was related to Elvis, which meant she was shockingly eliminated after only three episodes.
Chris may not be related to the King, but it turns out Jane is the niece of other Tennessee music royalty: Dolly Parton. She also revealed her name is not really Jane, it's Jada Star, a moniker given to her by her mom's famous big sister.
Below, EW catches up with the latest eliminee, who is not actually a redhead (she dyed it to look further removed from her famous blonde relative), but is a performer. Her first single, "Keeper of My Heart," from her upcoming solo album, is out now. The song she wrote for the episode 1 talent show, "My Favorite Jonas," dedicated to the ABC reality show's cohost Franklin Jonas, will be available later this week.
ABC/Gizelle Hernandez; Kevin Winter/Getty Images Jada Star a.k.a. Jane on 'Claim to Fame' season 2, her aunt Dolly Parton
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Hi Jane, or I guess I should say Jada. Why did you decide to go by Jane in the house?
JADA STAR/JANE: Not like I'm even remotely close to famous, but I did work at Dollywood for about nine years in the family show with my real name. I wanted the people watching to be surprised, so I changed my name to that and, also, it was a little nod to my dad. We have an Aunt Jane and every time they called me Jane I thought of my dad and that helped me out a little bit.
I need to know what Carly's meltdown was like for you in that first episode. Could you really hear her screaming inside the house?
No one expected that reaction. To be honest, I don't think she expected to have that reaction either. And so when it happened, we went from really feeling a lot of compassion to when she kind of acted out a little in her anger. It kind of hit that mom button in me and I thought, Don't yell at Hugo, that's not his fault. So I said something kind of not nice at the end and I felt bad later. It was intense, I will say. It was a roller coaster that night. But afterwards and after getting annoyed, I wanted to give her a big hug and be like, "I'm sorry you felt so bad."
Someone else who seemed to activate your mom button was Travis. Did you feel bad about helping people figure Travis out last week after you were the one he chose to show Shayne's clue to?
I know, I still love him so much. I apologized to him immediately after it happened and I hugged him when he left and I said, "I'm so sorry" and he's like, "Cool." And then later we talked about it and we worked it out. The only thing that you guys didn't get to see is that when I came and told the house what he showed me, Shayne already knew. He had already told a few people and they had told her that he was gonna bring me the clue. So I tried to give them an answer that wasn't really true. I had to say something and when it looked like it really hit him so hard and it made him so sad, it just broke my heart.
You did say on the show that you have a psychology degree and were telling some lies for gameplay. Every time you started crying, was that strategy?
No, that wasn't. I know that sounds really silly. This is just me joking about myself, but my Lexapro was working so hard when I was in the house. I have general anxiety disorder. I thought that was gonna be enough for me, like my little medicine, but in that environment I was really kind of on high emotional alert all the time. When I see myself back crying all the time, I just want to crawl under the house.… I'm so sorry, America, I know that was so annoying. It annoys me. That wasn't fake.
We saw Karsyn put together your clues after the team challenge pretty quickly and share with Chris. Were you aware of them being onto you?
I was not. I thought that Karsyn and Chris were two of my strongest allies. I also thought Gabriel was my ally. So this has been very surprising to see afterwards. But no grudge is held for any of them, because we had to try to win. I'm actually flattered a little bit that I was kind of seen as scary for a minute because I am a very sensitive person and I didn't know if I could really hang as hard as I did. I burned out real fast, but I still am really happy with the run I had on the game.
You say Chris was one of your closest allies, but you did pick him for your guess. Tell me about that choice.
I was feeling very weak and sad after what happened with Travis and knowing that people knew who Shayne was and knowing that things were starting to get found out about people. I had a physical clue for Chris.… But in the back of my mind, I knew I was not 100 percent.… Honestly, I was relieved when I found out that I was wrong. I know that sounds really weird. At that point, I knew emotionally that I didn't have the stamina or the constitution to stay in this type of game.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Dolly Parton performs at the 37th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
What was your Aunt Dolly's reaction when you told her about doing the show?
She was really proud of me. In my family, which is full of such amazing, bright, shining, loud, talented people, I am very quiet, surprisingly. And so she was really excited and kind of impressed that I did this scary thing. She knew it was scary for me. She knew that leaving my husband and my teenager was gonna be damn near impossible for me to do. She said "I'm very proud of you and you've made a good choice for yourself and that's what you need to do. And I want you to be yourself and this will help you in the future. Let people get to know who you are." Except for people that love Travis, now they hate me. I'm so sorry, everybody.
In the end, you said you wanted to do this show to tell the world Dolly Parton is exactly who we think she is. Can you share something about your aunt we might not know?
The thing about her is that you guys already know everything. She's shown you guys everything for like 60 years of her life. She's the most genuine, honest, real person, and she is my role model. She taught me that even though I may feel like an awkward, weird person, just be that person, because the people that love that person are who you need in your life, and the people that don't, you don't need in your life. Strangers love her as much as I do and she's my aunt, and that is so heavy and so beautiful and so special and magical. And so I want the people that love her to feel safe and comfortable knowing that they can love her and that she is that good person. The world is so ugly and scary and gross and there's not a lot of people we can look up to, but I can tell you for certain you can safely love her and look up to her and know that she's got everybody's back.
Claim to Fame airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
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