Abbie Chatfield has said Warner Bros. did an “amazing job” on the new reality dating show she is fronting “FBOY Island”.
“It was exhausting hours and the crew were just amazing,” she said ahead of the show’s premiere on Foxtel’s Binge on Monday.
She said while she hosts and is “the face” of the program, it’s actually the crew who have made the show what it is.
“The crew worked so hard on this. And there’s such long hours from everyone – from runners to camera people, to soundos, to the EPs and the producers and the story producers and the post producers – like everyone on that set,” she said.
“I’ve worked with a lot of them before, hair and makeup, styling, I’ve worked with a lot of them before and that crew, they’re just some of the best [in the country]. So amazing. So fun. We just had so much fun, despite the fact we were all [in] 37 fucking degrees, dying trying to make a reality show happen in three weeks.
“So I can’t overstate how important the crew are and I’m pretty changeable. But the crew as a whole [are amazing]. I just love them all so much. It was great.”
Chatfield also addressed some of the criticism levied at the show ahead of its release, and said she thinks once people actually see it, they will understand it is self-aware and doesn’t take itself too seriously. She also maintained the show is actually empowering for the female leads.
“I just hope people understand the jokes . I hope they understand that it’s silly. But [after] episode one, yeah, I think you’ll get it,” she said.
“Even in eliminations in “The Bachelor”, girls were fainting, vomiting, and it was so stressful the amount of stress in that room. Whereas on [“FBOY Island”] we literally had to be like ‘Stop laughing’, because so many funny things happened.”
She said in addition to the comedy, she wants people to recognise the show’s empowerment of women and how differently it’s approaching gender dynamics compared to competing shows.
“I want women to feel like they’re seen and they’re understood and that they get their kind of like redemption or like, they get some sort of solution to their pain – it isn’t direct but they get to see these women call out these men and there’s accountability and I hope they feel like, I hope they are cheering on the love stories, but I mainly hope that there is some sort of joy and silliness and laughing. It’s a silly show,” she said.
Plus, on the business side of things: “I hope there’s just good reviews and people like it and we can get a second season.”
