Jenni Pulos from Flipping Out revealed that the series was actually created from an idea she pitched to producers about her life as a struggling actor in Hollywood.
Pulos shared that she and ex-husband Chris Elwood were struggling actors at the time and making ends meet while working for Jeff Lewis. Reality television was still in its infancy but the couple had an idea to showcase what it was like to be an unknown actor in L.A. at the time.
“My ex and I had had this idea,” she dished on the Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast. “We were both struggling actors, comedians, rapper. And we decided to kind of put out this presentation of what our struggling life looked like.”
Since working for Lewis was a big aspect of Pulos’ life, she needed him to be involved in the sizzle reel. But once producers viewed the show, they realized they didn’t want to do a show about Pulos and Elwood’s life, but instead about Lewis.
Jenni Pulos had to convince Jeff Lewis to do the show
“And at the time we were both working for Jeff Lewis,” she recounted. “So that became something that he had no interest in. He was very successful with his own business. And still one of the best house-flippers in Los Angeles and very smart with real estate.”
“So I talked him into it in a weak moment to do this kind of reverse when they saw him in our presentation,” she continued. But producers saw a star in Lewis instead. “They said, ‘Wow, we want to see this guy.’ And that
was the birth of it all.”
“And when it did finally come around that it was going to be his life and not mine. And, you know, I spoke about this in the book I wrote, it was scary. Because I thought, wait a minute, this isn’t going to be a good look,” she admitted.
But Pulos quickly pivoted and embraced the direction
While the show direction was not what Pulos intended, she went with what producers wanted to develop. “I’ve got to bloom where I’m planted,” she said. “It’s a Bible verse and it’s also a gardening tip.”
“You gotta bloom where you are, you got to do the best with what you
have,” she shared. “And that’s what I’m trying to today also teach my daughters. Even though that didn’t look like what it was supposed to be for me, you know, just like this time right now, it doesn’t look to any of us. Like this makes no sense.”
“There has to be some good that’s going to come out of this,” she said. Pulos and Lewis ended up having a close friendship and bond but ultimately had a falling out when Lewis mocked Pulos’ acting career.
“We don’t see it when we’re in the middle of the thick of the mud, but you pull your bootstraps up and you keep going. You know, subsequently, I didn’t think things would transpire the way they did, you know, where we are here today, but there’s been so much good.”
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