West Wilson’s Secret to Thriving on ‘Summer House’? Not Being a ‘Monster Asshole’
Since its 2017 premiere, Summer House has had a tight core cast: Lindsay Hubbard, Carl Radke, Kyle Cooke, Amanda Batula, and Danielle Olivera. From time to time, production brings in new faces to see how they click with the OGs, but it’s rare for newbies to make an impact. Paige DeSorbo and Ciara Miller cracked the group. And with Season Eight, West Wilson has joined their ranks — a near-instant hit with the cast and fans alike.
A Missouri native, West, 29, is sweet and lovably goofy — the kind of guy who cooks everyone dinner on his first night in the house, or falls asleep next to Cooke and accidentally cuddles with him in the middle of the night.
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It was a chance meeting with Hubbard at a restaurant in New York City that led to West joining the show. After he was laid off from his job as a video producer at the sports website Bleacher Report, she put him in touch with production. “It’s so random but you have to say yes to stuff,” he says, “especially in New York.”
His bromance with fellow Summer House rookie Jesse Solomon and love connection with Miller have consumed most of his story lines, but West has had vulnerable moments onscreen too, opening up about his unemployment journey and sharing heartwarming relationship advice from his great aunt. In a world known for fame-thirsty egomaniacs, hotheads, and cheaters, he’s an oasis of affable Midwestern energy.
In keeping with his aw-shucks charm, West deflects when asked why he thinks he’s so beloved among Bravo’s male stars: “I hope it’s because of me,” he says. “The answer could also be [that] it’s a low bar.”
Summer House is such a longstanding series with a lot of history. How did you feel entering the house as a newbie?
People always think [cast members are] lying when we say we didn’t watch Bravo shows before doing a Bravo show, but I really didn’t watch anything. I just convinced myself not to have expectations. It’s not the first time I’ve done a share house, so it was a very natural situation to be put in as someone who likes to go on trips with my friends and drink in a house. But when you walk into the house and there are all the cameras and there’s no music, that’s very startling.
Once you knew you were joining the show, did you go back and watch any old episodes?
I watched Season Seven. I’ve done media and production for a while so I put on my detective cap and wanted to see how this is cut, all the cameras, and just kind of investigate a little bit. But I also didn’t want to watch a zillion seasons and start having preconceived notions and opinions. I’m happy that I kind of went into the house blind because I think inevitably, if you were to watch any show, by nature you’re going to form opinions. I would much rather meet people at face value and go from there.
How did you adjust to having cameras around all summer?
A stranger holding a camera in your face is going to be weird for anyone, but by the second weekend I felt pretty much like family with the cast and crew. The best thing ever is when you make a joke and one of the camera guys starts laughing and they’re trying to hide their face so the audio doesn’t pick up, that’s when you know a joke was awesome. You adjust to it faster than you think, to be honest. You have to or else you’re going to be afraid.
How does it feel for you now to watch episodes back?
This might make me sound naive but there’s a lot of storylines that I was unaware of in the house. I mean, I talked to Carl obviously about his situations with Lindsay but the girls have a lot of things going on that I didn’t know about. That’s kind of who I am anyways — I’m not really that drama-focused, so when Jesse and I are wearing goggles in the pool while other people are having serious fights that probably have a little more history to them, Jesse and I weren’t aware. But I guess since I’ve done on-camera work before, watching myself back is less weird than it maybe would have been. There’s always times you say stuff and you’re like, “Oh, I was drunk.”
You’ve really been embraced by the Bravo community as a favorite — people love the energy you’ve brought to Summer House. Why do you think viewers are connecting with you so much
Maybe the dudes before me were awful. I have no idea. I made a promise even before we started filming that I was not going to sell out for TV and I didn’t want to do it if I felt I would be pigeonholed into whatever narrative that a white guy from Missouri could be pigeonholed into. I’ve always made an effort to stay who I am and just be authentic. I think it was just the right balance of being extroverted and trying to make friends but also not trying too hard to prove anything, even though I was new. I’m just happy that sticking to who I was is being embraced.
People are also loving your friendship with Jesse. Why do you think you guys connected so much over the summer?
I think anytime you go through an odd or unique experience with anyone it bonds you. For both he and I, this was our first time doing something like this. That whole being thrown into the fire aspect brings you closer to people. We’re also close in age and we kind of operate similarly outside of the house. We both go out together in the city and have the same sense of humor. It just worked out perfectly. Kyle and Carl can go through their late-30s, early-40s trajectory together and then Jesse and I could go through our goggles-in-the-pool-type moments and just let those two friendships exist together.
What was it like to film Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen?
When we film Summer House, things move slow. But Andy’s in there cranking stuff out by the day. So I got in, got dressed, got mic’d, met him, and it was rapid fire. I blinked and I felt like it was over. He’s a Missouri guy so I knew I’d like him and I think he knew we’d get along, too. It was great. I walked out on stage and picked him up. He was easy on me, too. He kind of grilled Kyle and was easy on me.
When you were on WWHL you mentioned there was one night when some of the guys kissed but it didn’t make the cut on TV. Is there anything else that you’re surprised didn’t make the show so far?
The one thing I was most worried about got cut. One night you see us come home [from a bar] and you can tell I was wasted. Jesse, Kyle, and I stayed out, I was in the back of Uber and it was just one of those nights where I was like, “I’m going to have to pull the trigger.” I let it rip — got out of the car, and just yakked in the front yard for five minutes. I was like, “Dude, that’s going to be so gross. My mom’s gonna hate it.” But that got cut, thank goodness.
Your dynamic with Ciara has been a big storyline this season. Why were you drawn to spending time with Ciara last summer on and off camera?
She was the first person to make a welcoming gesture to me when I got there. I know in the first episode it probably [only] takes up a couple minutes of time, but marinating meat and cooking meat, making quesadillas, and setting the table takes a long time and she stood there with me throughout the whole thing. Not only was that a welcoming gesture from her, but in that time I also got to know her and unpack who she was. She’s from Georgia and I’m from Missouri, and we bonded over our non-Northeast upbringings and little Southern quirks. From the first night I just felt like we were already on a higher level of a relationship than I had with anyone else. And obviously, she’s a gorgeous human being, so that helps.
On Thursday night’s episode, you talk about how you don’t know where things stand between you and Ciara. You mentioned that you’re younger than other men she’s dated, and at the time that was filmed, you were unemployed. What was it like to pursue someone romantically on camera?
With confessionals and with continuous conversations, it’s almost like therapy in a way, where you have to think about everything and verbalize how you feel. By nature, I am not someone who does that, so, in a way, you’re being more vulnerable than you would normally. It’s probably healthy until it isn’t. It makes you think and reflect a lot more. That’s the good side of it, but you also overthink everything you could do and say, because you just never know.
In a trailer for the rest of the season, we see a clip of Paige having a conversation with you about Ciara, where she says she’ll kill you if you hurt her friend. What were you thinking in that moment?
I think at that point in the summer, we’d been filming for so long — you’re being filmed from the middle of the day Friday to the middle of the day Sunday — and if you’re overthinking a lot of stuff, it would just be exhausting. It is easier to just naturally have these conversations and be yourself. But I also haven’t watched the season back yet to where I see how things played out, so maybe I was just naive to that. You always want to be respectful, so I would talk about someone respectfully on and off camera. Maybe if you were a monster asshole, then you would have to try to channel the things you say, but I typically am not a monster shit-talker.
What’s going on with your dating life these days?
A lot of it, obviously, we’ll see on the show and at the reunion. This is a very new process for me. Objectively, I wouldn’t say reality TV breeds perfect relationships, and so figuring out how to navigate this whole journey is an ongoing process.
You’re working for Complex now, but when the show filmed last summer, you talked about getting laid off and your unemployment journey. How did it feel to open up about that on camera?
I was on such a high with the Bleacher Report job. That was all anyone wanted to talk to me about at family dinners and going out to bars. It was a sick job, and I thought I was kind of untouchable. You self-identify with your job a lot, because that’s all people fucking talk to you about. Then that moment happens where you lose your job and obviously financially, that’s what we care about the most, but for me the most humbling part was socially having to unpack that story. It’s embarrassing to get laid off. Even though it shouldn’t be personal, it feels personal. Looking for jobs is humbling, the whole process is humbling. You just get kicked in the nuts left and right. I learned a lot from it. It was a gross experience but it made me tougher.
What are you thinking about as you’re getting ready to film the reunion?
Well, one: My outfit. I feel like the outfits are a big deal. Then I think 90 percent of the drama is inevitably going to be Lindsay and Carl stuff. At this point in time, I haven’t seen the rest of the season but I would imagine that’s going to be a lot. I feel like the girls also have so much history that in the six months in between filming and the reunion, they’re going to find stuff to be mad at each other for. If they wanted to keep it fun, they could just keep the camera on Jesse and [me] and we’ll make jokes. I would prefer it to be rehashing fun giggles and silly times, but we’ll see.
Were you surprised to learn about Lindsay and Carl’s breakup last fall?
I don’t think [the wedding] being called off surprised me really at all. They were actively avoiding each other four months before the wedding, which is probably not great. I thought they could have just pushed it back but again, logistically, I’ve never planned a wedding so I don’t know. I just wanted to make sure I got my hotel money back. I think I did.
Have you seen them since the fallout?
I’ve seen Carl a lot. We went to a Nets game not too long ago. There’s a guys group chat as well that’s very active. I wanted to get the lowdown from both of them so I texted them, “You don’t have to reply but I’m here if you need anything,” and I think Lindsay wanted to get her story off. Jesse and I came over one night and she told us her side.
Would you film another season of Summer House?
Oh my god, yeah. It’s what I would be doing anyway. It’s so parallel to what my summer weekends already look like, so it’s fun to do it with funny dudes and hot girls.
Winter House wasn’t renewed this year but if Bravo brings it back, would you be willing to join that cast?
I would. I would lobby for a Bozeman, Montana, winter house and let me be the guide for all the bars and restaurants.
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