Don’t expect any table flipping or hair pulling in Bravo’s Real Girlfriends in Paris. The new reality show explores six young American women who live abroad, and according to stars Anya Firestone and Emily Gorelik, there won’t be as much wild drama like we see on Real Housewives. But Anya and Emily still expect Bravo fans to connect with their show for completely different reasons.
“In terms of being different, we don’t throw cake at each other — we eat cake because we’re in Paris, and it’s delicious, and Marie Antoinette said we should,” Anya told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY ahead of the show’s Sept. 5 premiere. “So that’s completely different. We might argue during that cake, but our priorities are elsewhere,” she added.
Emily told us, “I’m 22 years old. I moved here three years ago. I wasn’t in America for my years of watching Bravo. Here, we don’t have easily streaming Bravo platforms. We all have such diverse stories all six of us. Completely different backgrounds — we weren’t born and raised in Paris. We’re all kind of navigating completely different stories, rather than just being Housewives. That’s what makes this such a special show.”
Anya, who has her master’s degree in French cultural studies, adds that viewers will see the “struggle” of young women adapting to life abroad in the show. “The struggle is real girlfriends in Paris. There are issues that have to do with things that maybe are not on a Housewives show,” she says.
The RGIP stars also teased some of their individual storylines we’ll see play out this season. “The past year has been a mix between dating and career and juggling that. I’m really young, so I’m learning how to balance things,” New Jersey native Emily told us. “I’m very excited for everyone to see me step foot into the fashion industry being completely inexperienced in it. But also, the conflict with what I’ve always told myself I really want to do, which is bringing my mom’s interior design business and growing it in a Parisian market.”
Anya is happily engaged to a French man named Mathieu, so she’s solely focused on establishing her business in Paris. “Viewers can expect to see an American woman who is entrepreneurial and who is so well versed in French culture. I have a master’s in French Cultural Studies and I’m licensed to give tours of any national museum and monument,” she shared. “There’s a lot of prejudice like, ‘Oh these Americans don’t know anything about French culture.’ I do, and I’m trying to take that mix of fashion, art, design, gastronomy, and put it together in a business.”
Real Girlfriends in Paris premieres Monday, September 5 at 9:15 pm ET on Bravo.