Lala Kent is teasing what Vanderpump Rules viewers can expect from the show's upcoming ninth season. Kent teases how the show will address the controversial exits of former SURvers.
If you recall, the production company and Bravo jointly let go of Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute in June 2020, after past racist actions against former castmate Faith Stowers came to light amid the surge of the Black Lives Matter movement. New additions Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni also got axed due to their past homophobic and racially insensitive social media posts. In December 2020, Jax Taylor and his wife, Brittany Cartwright announced they were leaving the series while last season's newbie Dayna Kathan confirmed in April 2021 that she was not returning for Season 9.
"I think that the viewers will be surprised," Lala told Entertainment Tonight of how the exits are handled onscreen. "Because even myself, someone who's a part of the show going into it, I had my concerns. We lost amazing people on the show who brought a lot of stuff, and I think just what we gave and how everything was addressed, it was real life. I think everyone's going to be pleasantly surprised with how the season turned out."
Lala says she typically describes each season of Pump Rules as a "s**t show," but this time she's calling it "authentic AF."
"Everyone brought their own special things that I had never seen before," she teases. "It's very interesting when you take people out of a group dynamic, how some people kind of change and do things where you're like, 'I haven't seen this before. What is this?'"
As for the dynamic within the cast? "We're definitely not getting along," Lala continued. "This is a very resilient group of people. We're talking about people who have slept with each other's boyfriends and they're still best friends, so even though it looks like something from the outside, we're a group of passionate people but we definitely have a bounce back. I think that's why people keep watching the show and it's like, 'How does this happen?'"
"If everybody were this big of a hot mess, they would be handing camera crews out to every Tom, Dick and Harry on the street," she shared. "From a personal, real-life person, obviously I was disappointed [in castmates] in many ways. But as someone as a viewer, it was like, 'Bravo! This is gold.' I'm turned on by all of it."
Lala says the cast is well aware that they're making a show meant to be entertaining, and they'll deliver that entertainment no matter what.
"I think it went amazing," she told Entertainment Tonight of filming. "I was very unsure about what it would look like and I just feel like we're back to our roots. These are friendships that we've had for, with myself, I've been friends with these people for seven years and they've been friends beyond. I just felt like it was very real and organic, and that's what we pride ourselves on with this show, is showing our real lives and issues that we have with each other. It was really a great time."
Photo Credit: Bravo Media/NBCUniversal; Courtesy via Lala Kent/Instagram
