July 8, 2024 • 19 mins
We’re getting to know our new Bachelorette, Jenn Tran!
She shares everything about what kind of guy she’s into and Ashley might use those clues to predict who gets Jenn’s final rose.
We find out that Ashley and Jared played a MAJOR role in Jenn’s introduction to Bachelor Nation, and Jenn shares a shocking secret about her hair!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast
with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hey guys, welcome to the Almost Famous Podcast. Today's the
day we have Jen Trenon. Hello, Jen the Bachelorette.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Thanks for having me. I'm very excited.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Oh, you must be doing so many of these interviews.
I'm gonna try to make it as fun as we can.
So off off the top. You just got lip filler
for the first time, and you said it's the first
thing that you've ever gotten done. You've never you never
had botox.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Yet, never never had botoks yet. I never had any
other fillers or anything. My boobs are real, So yeah,
my hair is real.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
But did you have hair reel the whole time on
the show.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
It is.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
It is real.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
There's just maybe like a lot of hairspray in it,
but it is very much my own.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Oh my gosh, your hair is amazing. I thought that
it was definitely there was definitely extensions in there.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I know.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I think I saw so many comments. I was like, no,
it's mine. I grew I need credit for it.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Oh, we have to give you credit here. I'm glad
that I'm bringing this up because it deserves all the
credit in the world. No.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I mean I've just never gotten any work done, but
I've always wanted to just like just like a little tweaks.
Like I feel like people are so against it sometimes,
and I'm like, well, if it's out there and I
can like tweak something that I'm looking at in the
mirror every day that I really don't like, then I
might as well give myself a little boost of confidence.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, you look amazing and you look great in all
the promos. Are you going with your PA school? I
know that this is like probably like the boring stuff
to talk about a career, but with PA school, what
do you want to do with it?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So is it a sthetics?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
No, well, I don't know yet. I'm not totally sure yet.
I really really like working in the emergency room. So
I had a rotation that's before I left. You know,
you're helping somebody feel better in some kind of way,
you know, whether that's emotional or physical. But I really
want to work in the er because I just I'm
the kind of person that gets bored really easily. So
(02:05):
I like having like different cases all the time. So
I want to start in that. I mean, I do
maybe want to like work part time in aesthetics at
some point, I think it's fun.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Oh, oh, it's so fun. I was going to say,
if you're going into esthetics, I've always been like the
career that I could have taken had I not gone
in this pop cultury route would have been like kind
of opening my own being a PA and opening a medspa.
So hey, we'll see, maybe the roads will lead us
(02:37):
there and we can work on that together.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I kind of like, retire and open up a medical spa,
Like that's definitely in the works for later later on.
I guess retire and opening up a business, Joe makes sense,
but like, retire from like the er and then open
up a medical spot.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I like, your all your goals, all your goals are great.
We see that there's a couple doctors, nurses pas in
your cast list. Was that something that got guys possibly
like further because you had that in common.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Oh, it definitely made me. It definitely made them hotter
to me, because I think it's really like when you
were able to when somebody's in the medical field and
can understand the things that you're talking about and can
understand what your day to day life is, it just
kind of makes things easier and you don't have to
explain so much. And also, I think people in medicine
(03:27):
themselves are really really compassionate people, So to just kind
of have that box already ticked off was really cool.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
What's your normal physical type?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Normal physical type? I usually go for like tall, dark
and handsome, like very basic. I feel like I've always
dated brunettes, mostly love some facial hair, and yeah, that's
been pretty much like my physical type.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
When you saw the guys come out of the limo,
were you like, Okay, great, good, Bat's going to be
hard to decide or were you thinking it's going to
be hard for me to be open to everyone because
there was a couple that stand out so much.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
So the thing is I think that with like there's
obviously like physical attraction and then emotional attraction. I think
the thing that wins me over most of the time
is more emotional attraction. So, yes, there were a lot
that were physically attractive, but I was also like trying
to emotionally connect with them too, and so once I
really got to kind of like get to know a
(04:33):
lot of them, that's where I was like, oh, okay,
like I'm in trouble you know.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Okay, So was there anybody that you after going through
the whole season, have been like, oh, I love that
I let that one go. So you've arked too early.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
God, No, I don't have regrets about anything. I'm just
like not that kind of person. I think everything happens
for a reason, and I'm really confident in a lot
of my decisions while I was in the process.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
So yeah, amazing. Well you are the first Asian American bachelorette,
and congratulations and thank you for bringing the diversity to
the show.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
What does that mean to you?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, it's just been really surreal. I feel so honored
and so grateful a lot to be in this role.
And it's like, it's kind of funny because growing up,
I never really had a role model of an Asian
American in the media because there weren't a lot, and
so to now kind of become that role model in
the media now and to lead my own love story
and be a main character is huge. It's kind of
(05:36):
full circle and it's really healing to me, and I
know that it's going to inspire so many other Asian
Americans as well in terms of like being able to
see themselves on screen and being able to see their
stories in whatever way that they can relate to on screen.
It's so important to be exposed to things that are
different than yourself will also alike to yourself, so that
you can see the potential that you could have. You know,
(06:00):
to know that you're not you're not alone, and you're
not different.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I remember you telling Joey that you were almost concerned
about hometowns because you didn't think that your parents were
going to be super receptive to this whole process of
finding love in this obscure type of way.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah, total, How did they play a role in this season?
And how did they react when it was like not
only am I gonna go on the show, I'm actually
going to be the lead now.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Uh. They reacted the exact way that I thought that
they were react. They were like my mom was like,
are you sure you want to do that? She was like, listen,
I'm not gonna be on TV, so you're gonna have
to hire a fake mom. She was like okay, So
she was still like I'm not doing it, so it's crazy.
But now she's obviously been so so supportive and like
since i've taken the role and kind of explained to her,
(06:52):
like I like my thought process on everything, and like
just gave her a window into like how I was
feeling about it. She kind underst me a bit more
and it was easier for her to come to terms
with the fact that I was going to do this
and she's been so supportive.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Okay, that's good. So does she end up making her
TV debut?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Oh yeah, okay, yeah, she definitely makes her TV debut
and she does not hold back.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, I'm excited to see the hometowns. Then, is that
when we're going to meet.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Her during Meet the Family? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Okay, oh yeah, that's right. Not yeah, that's further along. Okay.
So Ben and I play this game where we go
through the cast and we see like we like kind
of like do snap judgments on them, and some of them.
There is this one like a monumental moment for me
because everybody always makes fun of the cast photos, right,
(07:46):
and how like they never are as good as what
they look like in real life. Right, It's so crazy.
So I said, there was this guy at the end
of the cast list, Tomas, and I was like, this
guy looks like a nerd bomber, and then I looked
at his Instagram and I was like, absolutely not. This
guy's super hot.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Oh my gosh, yeah, totally. It's funny how these photos
like I sparely get the worst angles because I didn't
even like my photo and I was like, I feel
like I looked completely different. It's it's crazy, I know.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So I was gonna say, did you when you saw
the cast list when they came out, where you're like,
this is representative of my guys or not?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Oh like when the photos came out, yeah, a few
weeks ago. Yeah, I I don't know. I think I
thought so for me, you know what, you're.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Always you're already yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Credit, So for me, I was like, yeah, this looks
exactly like like all of them.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
All right, well, I'm excited to like kind of meet them.
Let's go through a few right now. Aaron is already
getting a lot of buzz they have. They have like
a commercial with him in it because he's well it
helps that he's Noah's brother. What can we can you
tease anything about your relationship with him?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yeah? I mean he was always very intentional since the beginning,
and he came in on a motorcycle. So yeah, it
was definitely a really good connection.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Okay, Sam n reminds us of like, well some sort
of like country bad boy. Is that what he's like?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
I would say you're pretty accurate in that. Yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
So, okay, can you give us a And then Matt?
We were like, Matt has such an interesting look. How
does how does he play in the house?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
I feel like he really gave off so much like
sweet boy energy, you know, so I think it's gonna
be a lot of like you're just gonna be really
surprised by his personality for sure.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Okay, Grant, Grant looks like he might be too good
to be true.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
I don't know if I would say that. I think Grant, Yeah,
I mean, he's very good looking. He played basketball. I'm
a sucker for athletes.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
So all right, can you give us like five guys
that we should be on the lookout for? Are you
allowed to?
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Am I allowed to? I don't think so? Sadly, unfortunately,
I think that that would be giving away way too much.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Come on, Okay, fine, then I would love to. Like
later in the season, we do this thing where we
ask we like narrow down to the names and then
we say which guy. Basically, can't you keep a straight
(10:55):
face with when you're when you're saying his name, because
that's telling. But I can't I go through thirty names
with you right now.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
To way too money. Thank God, I'm gonna practice my
poker face until then.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Well okay, wait, let's let's practice your poker face right now,
real quick? Do you have a happy ending?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I'm very happy with the way things panned out, and
I'm very happy with Yeah, I'm very happy with the ending.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Are you engaged, Ashley?
Speaker 3 (11:24):
No, I can't tell you.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
That, okay, but are you smiling? I need to get
your reaction, your body language, all that.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah, I mean I'm happy with the way things ended
for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Interesting. So they're not letting you say you're engaged or
that you're with somebody, because sometimes they let you say that.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Oh okay, all right, all right, Well easy question for you.
You love to foster cats, So what happens if the
guy that you pick doesn't like cats or he's allergic
to cats?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
He's gonna just have to take a bed and troll
every day that we're together.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Every day he's gonna go have to get the weekly shot.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
He's gonna have to get like an IV of beta.
Drill at that.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
That's how important the cats are to you. I love that.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I love they give you a boost of serotonin like
nobody else can do.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
That is so cute. My son is obsessed with cats.
I am, like, maybe very mildly allergic. When my sister
and my mom are definitely allergic and I can't get one.
I would totally get one, but I mean then they
can never come and visit and help.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
So honestly, I'm mildly allergic too, and it is it's
so painful because every time I touch my eyes right
after him, like yeah, like you know, you shouldn't be
doing that, And then I'm like, sure, I shouldn't be
having a cat in the first place. But it's fine,
It's all worth it.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
What did you do that was different from Joey? Like
did you go into your season being like love Joey?
He was a great bachelor. But I'm gonna do I'm
gonna edit this part.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I don't think so like I I mean, I don't
really know his mentality going into it or like how
he made his decisions. But for me, I really tried
to do it in my own way and be as
authentic to myself like as possible, and like as you
saw on Night one, like, I take kissing somebody in
that level of affection very seriously. So for me, I
was like, I'm not gonna kiss everybody on Nightline because
(13:20):
I know myself and I know I'm not gonna have
a connection with everybody. But I also wasn't gonna restrict myself.
I wasn't going into it being like I'm not going
to kiss anybody. But I left it up to me
and how I felt with each individual relationship.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Okay, I was gonna say, have you were you a
Bachelor fan for a long time?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Okay, so funny enough. No, I my friends and stuff
would watch in college and I would be like, I'm
not into reality TV, Like I don't do that. And
then after college, I got into Matt James's season, which
is the first season I watched, and then I watched
a couple of seasons after that. But I my first
real exposure to Bachelor Nation was actually you and Jared
What which is hilarious because this just came to my
(14:03):
memory right now.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
As I look like a crazy person right now, She
tells me that I played her role.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
A huge role actually, because it's funny. I like, I'm
such a hopeless romantic. I've been through so many toxic
relationships and I think I was just like in the
deep like rabbit hole on YouTube of like looking up
like love stories or something, and yours and Jared's came
up like your interview talking about like, yeah, your time
on the show and how you were chasing him and
(14:29):
he didn't like you at first all too much whatever,
And I was like, that's my that's the story of
my life. This is gonna be me, Like I'm going
to turn the bad boy into loving me.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
What that is so crazy? You watched it without having
watched us on Paradise.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Yeah, so then after I went thank you. Yeah, well,
it was like it was a really beautiful interview. And
I think that was around the time of your wedding,
or maybe I saw it and then saw your wedding,
but either way, it was it was really really beautiful.
Oh thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
That's I'm so kind. All right. So I was going
to ask you if you had a role model going
into it, like what kind of like bachelorette you wanted
to be? Was like they're a favorite, or did you
want to pick and choose?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Not really because I hadn't really seen a lot of
the seasons of the Bachelerette yet, but like after watching
Matt James' season, I did watch Michelle young season, so
I definitely saw how she moved about her season and
she was so poisoned to coffin.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
She was an amazing bachelorette.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah, and I was like, I'm a chaotic mess, Like
I don't know how you even got into this, So
it was it was hard. I was like, I don't
know if I fit this role. But I did have
a phone call with her, like before I even accepted
the role of the Bacherette, because I really wanted to know,
especially from a person of color standpoint, like how she
felt about everything.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
How did you feel about everybody being like, oh, but
we wanted it to be Maria Daisy.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah. I mean it's tough because I got so when
I was announced, I didn't have my phone in and
we went right into filming. So I went on this
like incredible journey for myself and like just like learn
so much about myself and was so happy about it.
And then I came back and I saw all of
these comments, and like it was a mix of like
racist comments, it was a mix of just like I
(16:15):
wanted this person on this person, she sucks, she's boring.
It's like all of this hate was just like building
up one on top of another, and it was really
disappointing to see. And it was hard to see for sure,
but you know, at the end of the day, it's
it's old news. And for me, I'm just excited for
everyone to see my journey and to be able to
really embrace all of it.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Well, I'm sorry that you had to see it, ever,
but at least you did see it at the you know,
at the end of filming, and you were able to
just kind of like get whisked away. And now nobody
everybody is like, well right, we are happy and excited
for this, because you know, thats just people. Their attention
span is like two seconds in this franchise. So yeah,
(17:01):
everybody's going to be stoked to watch your first episode
in the whole season.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Thank you. Yeah, I mean what really here? For me
was like, I know, like people can just be so
critical and for me, I was like, what do you mean, Like,
do I not deserve to find love? Like, that's that's crazy.
Did I say that somebody doesn't deserve to go on
a journey to find love? So I really just hope
like people continue to like be open minded and open
their hearts.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
I'm sure they will. Yeah, what are your other? What
was your Who's like your best friend from the show?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Uh? Star Skyler? So she lives in Florida and we
like see each other all the time, you have sleepover.
So it's really nice to have someone be able to
kind of understand like that part of the show and
that part of my life because nobody else really understands
it as much as her. And she's like just such
a well rounded, like genuinely good person too.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Did I saw a TikTok that you were able to
tell the ending to one friend of yours, the sky
one of those friends as well?
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Yes, I definitely did. Well. That Star was the one
in that TikTok? Oh?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Sorry, is the one of the tico? Okay?
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yes, okay, So you had to tell your one bachelor
friend how it all goes?
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Yeah, so go knocking on her door if you want
to find out.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
That's awesome. I got one more question for you, what
is how do you deal with the stage fright that
you have when you're the bachelorette, because now you are
on such a public stage and basically every single way
you did a TikTok about about that about your stage.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yeah, no, I remember. It's honestly, I still get nervous
all the time, like doing interviews and making speeches or
just like being on a camera in general. It's like
obviously very it's not it's not a normal thing for me. Uh.
It's not something I'm used to. And I'm definitely getting
more used to it as time goes on because it's
just been exposed to it so much. But I really
(18:56):
just try to be myself as as much as I can.
And and you know, sometimes I'm like I'm having an
off day, I'm not as funny as I can be.
Or sometimes I'm having a really good day and I'm like, oh,
like I really was, like I shined and I was
like one hundred percent myself. But I think I just
need to remember that I'm human and I can't be
like one hundred percent all the time and some days
(19:17):
I'm just gonna have bad days. And hey, that's the
reality of it. I'm human.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Well, I think You'll be very relatable and people are
going to love that about you and we're just really
excited to watch this hopefully happy ending for you. So Jen,
thank you so much for joining us and hopefully we
can talk to you mid season.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Thanks for having me. Yeah, I can't wait to talk
to them.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Bye bye.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Follow the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast on
iHeartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts
This is the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast
with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hey guys, welcome to the Almost Famous Podcast. Today's the
day we have Jen Trenon. Hello, Jen the Bachelorette.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Thanks for having me. I'm very excited.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Oh, you must be doing so many of these interviews.
I'm gonna try to make it as fun as we can.
So off off the top. You just got lip filler
for the first time, and you said it's the first
thing that you've ever gotten done. You've never you never
had botox.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Yet, never never had botoks yet. I never had any
other fillers or anything. My boobs are real, So yeah,
my hair is real.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
But did you have hair reel the whole time on
the show.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
It is.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
It is real.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
There's just maybe like a lot of hairspray in it,
but it is very much my own.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Oh my gosh, your hair is amazing. I thought that
it was definitely there was definitely extensions in there.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I know.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I think I saw so many comments. I was like, no,
it's mine. I grew I need credit for it.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Oh, we have to give you credit here. I'm glad
that I'm bringing this up because it deserves all the
credit in the world. No.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I mean I've just never gotten any work done, but
I've always wanted to just like just like a little tweaks.
Like I feel like people are so against it sometimes,
and I'm like, well, if it's out there and I
can like tweak something that I'm looking at in the
mirror every day that I really don't like, then I
might as well give myself a little boost of confidence.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, you look amazing and you look great in all
the promos. Are you going with your PA school? I
know that this is like probably like the boring stuff
to talk about a career, but with PA school, what
do you want to do with it?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So is it a sthetics?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
No, well, I don't know yet. I'm not totally sure yet.
I really really like working in the emergency room. So
I had a rotation that's before I left. You know,
you're helping somebody feel better in some kind of way,
you know, whether that's emotional or physical. But I really
want to work in the er because I just I'm
the kind of person that gets bored really easily. So
(02:05):
I like having like different cases all the time. So
I want to start in that. I mean, I do
maybe want to like work part time in aesthetics at
some point, I think it's fun.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Oh, oh, it's so fun. I was going to say,
if you're going into esthetics, I've always been like the
career that I could have taken had I not gone
in this pop cultury route would have been like kind
of opening my own being a PA and opening a medspa.
So hey, we'll see, maybe the roads will lead us
(02:37):
there and we can work on that together.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I kind of like, retire and open up a medical spa,
Like that's definitely in the works for later later on.
I guess retire and opening up a business, Joe makes sense,
but like, retire from like the er and then open
up a medical spot.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I like, your all your goals, all your goals are great.
We see that there's a couple doctors, nurses pas in
your cast list. Was that something that got guys possibly
like further because you had that in common.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Oh, it definitely made me. It definitely made them hotter
to me, because I think it's really like when you
were able to when somebody's in the medical field and
can understand the things that you're talking about and can
understand what your day to day life is, it just
kind of makes things easier and you don't have to
explain so much. And also, I think people in medicine
(03:27):
themselves are really really compassionate people, So to just kind
of have that box already ticked off was really cool.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
What's your normal physical type?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Normal physical type? I usually go for like tall, dark
and handsome, like very basic. I feel like I've always
dated brunettes, mostly love some facial hair, and yeah, that's
been pretty much like my physical type.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
When you saw the guys come out of the limo,
were you like, Okay, great, good, Bat's going to be
hard to decide or were you thinking it's going to
be hard for me to be open to everyone because
there was a couple that stand out so much.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
So the thing is I think that with like there's
obviously like physical attraction and then emotional attraction. I think
the thing that wins me over most of the time
is more emotional attraction. So, yes, there were a lot
that were physically attractive, but I was also like trying
to emotionally connect with them too, and so once I
really got to kind of like get to know a
(04:33):
lot of them, that's where I was like, oh, okay,
like I'm in trouble you know.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Okay, So was there anybody that you after going through
the whole season, have been like, oh, I love that
I let that one go. So you've arked too early.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
God, No, I don't have regrets about anything. I'm just
like not that kind of person. I think everything happens
for a reason, and I'm really confident in a lot
of my decisions while I was in the process.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
So yeah, amazing. Well you are the first Asian American bachelorette,
and congratulations and thank you for bringing the diversity to
the show.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
What does that mean to you?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Yeah, it's just been really surreal. I feel so honored
and so grateful a lot to be in this role.
And it's like, it's kind of funny because growing up,
I never really had a role model of an Asian
American in the media because there weren't a lot, and
so to now kind of become that role model in
the media now and to lead my own love story
and be a main character is huge. It's kind of
(05:36):
full circle and it's really healing to me, and I
know that it's going to inspire so many other Asian
Americans as well in terms of like being able to
see themselves on screen and being able to see their
stories in whatever way that they can relate to on screen.
It's so important to be exposed to things that are
different than yourself will also alike to yourself, so that
you can see the potential that you could have. You know,
(06:00):
to know that you're not you're not alone, and you're
not different.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I remember you telling Joey that you were almost concerned
about hometowns because you didn't think that your parents were
going to be super receptive to this whole process of
finding love in this obscure type of way.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah, total, How did they play a role in this season?
And how did they react when it was like not
only am I gonna go on the show, I'm actually
going to be the lead now.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Uh. They reacted the exact way that I thought that
they were react. They were like my mom was like,
are you sure you want to do that? She was like, listen,
I'm not gonna be on TV, so you're gonna have
to hire a fake mom. She was like okay, So
she was still like I'm not doing it, so it's crazy.
But now she's obviously been so so supportive and like
since i've taken the role and kind of explained to her,
(06:52):
like I like my thought process on everything, and like
just gave her a window into like how I was
feeling about it. She kind underst me a bit more
and it was easier for her to come to terms
with the fact that I was going to do this
and she's been so supportive.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Okay, that's good. So does she end up making her
TV debut?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Oh yeah, okay, yeah, she definitely makes her TV debut
and she does not hold back.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, I'm excited to see the hometowns. Then, is that
when we're going to meet.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Her during Meet the Family? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Okay, oh yeah, that's right. Not yeah, that's further along. Okay.
So Ben and I play this game where we go
through the cast and we see like we like kind
of like do snap judgments on them, and some of them.
There is this one like a monumental moment for me
because everybody always makes fun of the cast photos, right,
(07:46):
and how like they never are as good as what
they look like in real life. Right, It's so crazy.
So I said, there was this guy at the end
of the cast list, Tomas, and I was like, this
guy looks like a nerd bomber, and then I looked
at his Instagram and I was like, absolutely not. This
guy's super hot.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Oh my gosh, yeah, totally. It's funny how these photos
like I sparely get the worst angles because I didn't
even like my photo and I was like, I feel
like I looked completely different. It's it's crazy, I know.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So I was gonna say, did you when you saw
the cast list when they came out, where you're like,
this is representative of my guys or not?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Oh like when the photos came out, yeah, a few
weeks ago. Yeah, I I don't know. I think I
thought so for me, you know what, you're.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Always you're already yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Credit, So for me, I was like, yeah, this looks
exactly like like all of them.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
All right, well, I'm excited to like kind of meet them.
Let's go through a few right now. Aaron is already
getting a lot of buzz they have. They have like
a commercial with him in it because he's well it
helps that he's Noah's brother. What can we can you
tease anything about your relationship with him?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yeah? I mean he was always very intentional since the beginning,
and he came in on a motorcycle. So yeah, it
was definitely a really good connection.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Okay, Sam n reminds us of like, well some sort
of like country bad boy. Is that what he's like?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
I would say you're pretty accurate in that. Yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
So, okay, can you give us a And then Matt?
We were like, Matt has such an interesting look. How
does how does he play in the house?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
I feel like he really gave off so much like
sweet boy energy, you know, so I think it's gonna
be a lot of like you're just gonna be really
surprised by his personality for sure.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Okay, Grant, Grant looks like he might be too good
to be true.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
I don't know if I would say that. I think Grant, Yeah,
I mean, he's very good looking. He played basketball. I'm
a sucker for athletes.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
So all right, can you give us like five guys
that we should be on the lookout for? Are you
allowed to?
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Am I allowed to? I don't think so? Sadly, unfortunately,
I think that that would be giving away way too much.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Come on, Okay, fine, then I would love to. Like
later in the season, we do this thing where we
ask we like narrow down to the names and then
we say which guy. Basically, can't you keep a straight
(10:55):
face with when you're when you're saying his name, because
that's telling. But I can't I go through thirty names
with you right now.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
To way too money. Thank God, I'm gonna practice my
poker face until then.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Well okay, wait, let's let's practice your poker face right now,
real quick? Do you have a happy ending?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I'm very happy with the way things panned out, and
I'm very happy with Yeah, I'm very happy with the ending.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Are you engaged, Ashley?
Speaker 3 (11:24):
No, I can't tell you.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
That, okay, but are you smiling? I need to get
your reaction, your body language, all that.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah, I mean I'm happy with the way things ended
for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Interesting. So they're not letting you say you're engaged or
that you're with somebody, because sometimes they let you say that.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Oh okay, all right, all right, Well easy question for you.
You love to foster cats, So what happens if the
guy that you pick doesn't like cats or he's allergic
to cats?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
He's gonna just have to take a bed and troll
every day that we're together.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Every day he's gonna go have to get the weekly shot.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
He's gonna have to get like an IV of beta.
Drill at that.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
That's how important the cats are to you. I love that.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I love they give you a boost of serotonin like
nobody else can do.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
That is so cute. My son is obsessed with cats.
I am, like, maybe very mildly allergic. When my sister
and my mom are definitely allergic and I can't get one.
I would totally get one, but I mean then they
can never come and visit and help.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
So honestly, I'm mildly allergic too, and it is it's
so painful because every time I touch my eyes right
after him, like yeah, like you know, you shouldn't be
doing that, And then I'm like, sure, I shouldn't be
having a cat in the first place. But it's fine,
It's all worth it.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
What did you do that was different from Joey? Like
did you go into your season being like love Joey?
He was a great bachelor. But I'm gonna do I'm
gonna edit this part.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I don't think so like I I mean, I don't
really know his mentality going into it or like how
he made his decisions. But for me, I really tried
to do it in my own way and be as
authentic to myself like as possible, and like as you
saw on Night one, like, I take kissing somebody in
that level of affection very seriously. So for me, I
was like, I'm not gonna kiss everybody on Nightline because
(13:20):
I know myself and I know I'm not gonna have
a connection with everybody. But I also wasn't gonna restrict myself.
I wasn't going into it being like I'm not going
to kiss anybody. But I left it up to me
and how I felt with each individual relationship.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Okay, I was gonna say, have you were you a
Bachelor fan for a long time?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Okay, so funny enough. No, I my friends and stuff
would watch in college and I would be like, I'm
not into reality TV, Like I don't do that. And
then after college, I got into Matt James's season, which
is the first season I watched, and then I watched
a couple of seasons after that. But I my first
real exposure to Bachelor Nation was actually you and Jared
What which is hilarious because this just came to my
(14:03):
memory right now.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
As I look like a crazy person right now, She
tells me that I played her role.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
A huge role actually, because it's funny. I like, I'm
such a hopeless romantic. I've been through so many toxic
relationships and I think I was just like in the
deep like rabbit hole on YouTube of like looking up
like love stories or something, and yours and Jared's came
up like your interview talking about like, yeah, your time
on the show and how you were chasing him and
(14:29):
he didn't like you at first all too much whatever,
And I was like, that's my that's the story of
my life. This is gonna be me, Like I'm going
to turn the bad boy into loving me.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
What that is so crazy? You watched it without having
watched us on Paradise.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Yeah, so then after I went thank you. Yeah, well,
it was like it was a really beautiful interview. And
I think that was around the time of your wedding,
or maybe I saw it and then saw your wedding,
but either way, it was it was really really beautiful.
Oh thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
That's I'm so kind. All right. So I was going
to ask you if you had a role model going
into it, like what kind of like bachelorette you wanted
to be? Was like they're a favorite, or did you
want to pick and choose?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Not really because I hadn't really seen a lot of
the seasons of the Bachelerette yet, but like after watching
Matt James' season, I did watch Michelle young season, so
I definitely saw how she moved about her season and
she was so poisoned to coffin.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
She was an amazing bachelorette.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah, and I was like, I'm a chaotic mess, Like
I don't know how you even got into this, So
it was it was hard. I was like, I don't
know if I fit this role. But I did have
a phone call with her, like before I even accepted
the role of the Bacherette, because I really wanted to know,
especially from a person of color standpoint, like how she
felt about everything.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
How did you feel about everybody being like, oh, but
we wanted it to be Maria Daisy.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah. I mean it's tough because I got so when
I was announced, I didn't have my phone in and
we went right into filming. So I went on this
like incredible journey for myself and like just like learn
so much about myself and was so happy about it.
And then I came back and I saw all of
these comments, and like it was a mix of like
racist comments, it was a mix of just like I
(16:15):
wanted this person on this person, she sucks, she's boring.
It's like all of this hate was just like building
up one on top of another, and it was really
disappointing to see. And it was hard to see for sure,
but you know, at the end of the day, it's
it's old news. And for me, I'm just excited for
everyone to see my journey and to be able to
really embrace all of it.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Well, I'm sorry that you had to see it, ever,
but at least you did see it at the you know,
at the end of filming, and you were able to
just kind of like get whisked away. And now nobody
everybody is like, well right, we are happy and excited
for this, because you know, thats just people. Their attention
span is like two seconds in this franchise. So yeah,
(17:01):
everybody's going to be stoked to watch your first episode
in the whole season.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Thank you. Yeah, I mean what really here? For me
was like, I know, like people can just be so
critical and for me, I was like, what do you mean, Like,
do I not deserve to find love? Like, that's that's crazy.
Did I say that somebody doesn't deserve to go on
a journey to find love? So I really just hope
like people continue to like be open minded and open
their hearts.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
I'm sure they will. Yeah, what are your other? What
was your Who's like your best friend from the show?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Uh? Star Skyler? So she lives in Florida and we
like see each other all the time, you have sleepover.
So it's really nice to have someone be able to
kind of understand like that part of the show and
that part of my life because nobody else really understands
it as much as her. And she's like just such
a well rounded, like genuinely good person too.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Did I saw a TikTok that you were able to
tell the ending to one friend of yours, the sky
one of those friends as well?
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Yes, I definitely did. Well. That Star was the one
in that TikTok? Oh?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Sorry, is the one of the tico? Okay?
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yes, okay, So you had to tell your one bachelor
friend how it all goes?
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Yeah, so go knocking on her door if you want
to find out.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
That's awesome. I got one more question for you, what
is how do you deal with the stage fright that
you have when you're the bachelorette, because now you are
on such a public stage and basically every single way
you did a TikTok about about that about your stage.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yeah, no, I remember. It's honestly, I still get nervous
all the time, like doing interviews and making speeches or
just like being on a camera in general. It's like
obviously very it's not it's not a normal thing for me. Uh.
It's not something I'm used to. And I'm definitely getting
more used to it as time goes on because it's
just been exposed to it so much. But I really
(18:56):
just try to be myself as as much as I can.
And and you know, sometimes I'm like I'm having an
off day, I'm not as funny as I can be.
Or sometimes I'm having a really good day and I'm like, oh,
like I really was, like I shined and I was
like one hundred percent myself. But I think I just
need to remember that I'm human and I can't be
like one hundred percent all the time and some days
(19:17):
I'm just gonna have bad days. And hey, that's the
reality of it. I'm human.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Well, I think You'll be very relatable and people are
going to love that about you and we're just really
excited to watch this hopefully happy ending for you. So Jen,
thank you so much for joining us and hopefully we
can talk to you mid season.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Thanks for having me. Yeah, I can't wait to talk
to them.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Bye bye.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
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