‘Buying Beverly Hills’ stars Farrah Brittany and Alexia Umansky on learning from mom Kyle Richards' tough times on 'RHOBH'
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Farrah Brittany and Alexia Umansky were no strangers to reality TV before starring on Netflix’s latest unscripted hit, Buying Beverly Hills.
As the daughters of original Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast member Kyle Richards, the sisters understood what it was like living in front of the cameras, and while their show centers on their careers at the Agency instead of interpersonal drama, they were still game to sign on to the Netflix show.
For the latest episode of In The Know’s pop culture interview series We Should Talk, Farrah and Alexia opened up about their experience filming the show (and how it compared to Housewives), what they make of the reaction to the first season, their thoughts on the nepotism conversation and much more.
Listen to Buying Beverly Hills stars Farrah Brittany and Alexia Umansky’s full episode of We Should Talk below:
On watching their mom, Kyle Richards, go through hard times on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
Alexia Umansky: Farrah is definitely a lot more in the loop with what’s going on, but I do think that with me still living at home, it affects me differently. I am very emotional, just like my mom, and if I’m being totally honest, it’s very hard for me to see a lot of the stuff that these women go through. It’s really nerve-racking, that’s for sure. My mom has had her two sisters on the show with her, and it gets rocky. Here I am going on a show with my sister (and possibly my other sister) and my father. That part was a little off putting, but we have very healthy relationships. We’re just different people. It’s different, but it was a little scary in the beginning.
Farrah Brittany: Obviously this [latest] season [of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills] hasn’t aired when we started filming [Buying Beverly Hills] last year, but this is probably — agreeably — our mom’s hardest season ever on Housewives. Seeing how she’s handled it thus far — obviously, she’s been an emotional wreck — the downs were very tough on her. That scared the s*** out of me, waiting for this show to come out, because we had no idea how it was going to be received or if any of that backlash was going to spill onto the show. I was looking at her and [saying], “How is she handling this?” She doesn’t read the comments anymore, and she’s doing her best to stay centered and not let all of that noise affect her or our home as much as she can. But, there are definitely days where she is really upset by all of it. It just scared me for the future. This is the world that [Alexia and I] are now in. It’s all fun and games when the audience is on your side, like they are now, but if that doesn’t stay in the future… I don’t want to be tied to the audience’s opinion either way.
On what they think of the nepotism conversation around the show
Farrah Brittany: I don’t think we ever denied that we’ve had major opportunities or advantages. We’re not sitting here saying, “We’ve had no different advantages than anybody else. We’re like everybody else.” We’re not saying that, so I completely recognize our privilege. That being said, there’s also a point to mention, which is that we’re in a commission-based business. It’s not like Mauricio owns the company, and we’re all just on salary taking away a job that somebody else could’ve gotten. That’s one thing I’ll say … I’m completely acknowledging that we’ve definitely had advantages. Being able to come into the business and be able to work with $20-million-plus properties? That’s not a normal thing, of course, so we do need to say that we recognize that.
Alexia Umansky: I struggled a lot with the feeling of nepotism and recognizing it and feeling this major sense of guilt for it — way before the show even started. I was so terrified walking into the office the first day, knowing immediately what I was walking into. Something that someone told me once that really, really stuck with me when I opened up to that person that I’m feeling guilty and feeling embarrassed to try was, she said to me, “It’s not how you get it, it’s what you do with it.” That’s what I tell myself all the time. Farrah and I, yes, we have so many opportunities in front of us, but we both work really hard. Our parents work really hard. We’re not lazy. We want it; we want success and we want to give our life meaning. We have goals we want to reach, and I hope that’s what people see.
Watch In The Know’s full interview with Farrah Brittany and Alexia Umansky below, and stream Season 1 of Buying Beverly Hills on Netflix here:
If you enjoyed this interview, check out In The Know’s recent chat with “Winter House” stars Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula!
The post ‘Buying Beverly Hills’ stars Farrah Brittany and Alexia Umansky on how ‘RHOBH’ prepared them for new Netflix show appeared first on In The Know.
