Young & Restless’ Eileen Davidson Gets Real About the Housewives: ‘I Was in Shock… Nobody Has Your Back’
She admitted that she “learned a lot about other people and what they’re capable of. And me too.”
While daytime fans know Eileen Davidson from her work as Young & Restless’ Ashley and Days of Our Lives’ Kristen/Susan (among others!), there’s a whole segment of fans out there who love the soap star from her three seasons on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Ultimately, though, she had one of the shortest tenures on the show. And we can kind of understand why.
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The actress talked with Soap Opera Digest about the experience for their podcast, and while she remained upbeat about it and managed to laugh at a few of the stickier aspects, it was clear that the reality show was not all sunshine and rainbows.
While Davidson maintained that she does not have any regrets over doing Housewives, she did admit that “there was definitely a learning curve. And I never really did learn the curve, let’s face it.”
She was, for instance, the only one who treated it like a reality show — as in, being her real self in it. Well, as much of her real self as could shine through. The show would edit things to make her look more like a “hick,” and that, Davidson insisted is not who she is. Then there was her wardrobe, with her showing up at events wearing the clothes she’d wear in real life.
“I remember Kyle [Richard]’s barbecues,” the actress recalled. “I was like ‘Oh, just a barbecue.’” She’d show up in a beach dress while everyone else was glammed up in gowns. “‘So, Kyle, you just told me summer dress, and you’re wearing a silk kaftan.’ I would always dress the opposite of what she said after that.”
Plus, there was the flack she got for her jump suits and overalls. And that was entirely premature because, she joked, she brought them back in style!
“I’m not lying,” she teased, “a year later, have we not seen jump suits and overalls everywhere?”
Above: Fitting in isn’t always easy, especially in Beverly Hills.
Credit: Priscilla Grant/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
Davidson’s purses were apparently a problem too. The actress is used to doing television, and normally, as she said, no one knows whether you’ve carrying a fancy purse or not. “I figure it’s a TV show, nobody’s going to know my crappy purse. Wrong,” she exclaimed. “I wasn’t planning on getting called out for it!”
And then there were style issues. As she mentioned, the soap actress was about the only one who approached the show as, you know, reality, so she’d show up for camera as herself. And like the rest of us, she didn’t have an entire glam squad backing her up every time she left her home, so sometimes she’d miss brushing the back of her hair, only to realize it after she saw herself on camera.
“Nobody has your back,” Davidson told Digest. “Nobody’s like, ‘Oh, you know what, your hair looks really bad from the back, Eilleen, you might want to comb it before you shoot the scene.’”
And some folks even seemed to outright make things tougher for her! After 40 years on television, the actress has learned which is her good side and which her bad side, and during rehearsal, the show would make sure she was positioned to catch her good side. But then they’d start shooting, she explained “and I’d be working with somebody who shall be nameless, and that person would take my spot.” Davidson didn’t want to cause a ruckus, so she’d go along with it but, she said, “You’re kind of on your own.”
One of the folks she definitely did not have a problem with, though, was Days of Our Lives’ former Billie, Lisa Rinna. In fact, she was a big reason Davidson said yes to doing the show. “
“We ended up having a lot of fun together,” the actress shared.
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Well, hey, so long as it wasn’t all bad and she had some fun, it never hurts to try something different! Nor does it hurt to leave that and come back where we love her most. After signing off of Real Housewives, Davidson brought Kristen back to Salem, then hopped back over to Genoa City with Ashley. And she’s been bouncing between the shows ever since!
After all that, we almost hate to send anyone else onto the show, but we’d be darned if we still can’t help but wondering who else would make a good addition to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. So why not check out a gallery of the ten soap stars we think should join the show before heading out?
