Eric Nies was on the first season of MTV's \The Real World."" He went on to work on MTV's ""The Grind."" He has a new documentary coming out on DVD with other former members of MTV reality shows. The Daily Cardinal recently spoke with Nies about getting on reality television and his early opportunities.
You have a new documentary coming out about your experiences of being on reality TV. What are some of those experiences?
There are just things about who we are and things that happened to us on our shows and things that have happened on the shows where we were misrepresented and were kind of portrayed in a different light as to who we really are and what we truly believe in and what is important to us.
How do you feel you were misrepresented? Do you think it was due to editing or do you think they tried to portray you in a certain way?
When you are creating a storyline you really don't have a choice. If something happens in the first week and then three weeks later something else happens that pertains to the first week, the producers have to do a job by completing a storyline.
You can't capture every moment of someone's life. They have to create a story and a lot of times they are not really concerned with who you are and how that is going to affect you emotionally. All they are really concerned about is completing a storyline, so they can get their job done by a certain deadline.
MTV casting directors came to campus on October 7 looking for new cast members for ""The Real World,"" and ""Road Rules."" What advice would you give to people who want to be on either one of the shows?
I would not advise anybody to do it. But I can say this: that if you are a powerful person and you are a very open-minded person and you are interested in trying to better yourself and you are interested in trying to evolve as a person, it would be a good thing to do. But if you are someone who is very scared and very fearful and insecure and things like that it is going to be a very difficult road.
When is ""Road to Reality"" coming out?
Probably mid-November.
Looking back on your experiences of being on ""The Real World"" and all of the stuff that has happened since, would you still do it?
I am very thankful for the opportunity to be involved in a show like that. I feel that it was necessary for me to experience something like that. I believe that things are meant to be. I've learned so much about myself and I was able to grow and to educate myself and also to spiritually grow through that experience. I do understand that sometimes your need to go through pain and suffering to realize the truth about yourself. I can't say for sure if I would do it again.
