Jennifer Tilly can’t hide her excitement about being promoted to ‘Friend of the Housewives’ on season 14 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
The 65-year-old Oscar nominee enthused that her new job, which gives her more screen time and access to extravagant cast trips, feels like “working with Martin Scorsese.”
She continued saying Vulture that the “sharp left turn” in his career has been stimulating.
“My boyfriend always says that if he won $40 million, he would want to go to space and experience zero gravity,” she explained on Bullets Over Broadway. “For me, being on Housewives is experiencing zero gravity.”
Tilly, best known for playing Tiffany Valentine in the Child’s Play franchise, also admitted she was “more excited to meet Kyle Richards, Erika Jayne and the other ladies than I was” when she met Elizabeth Taylor.
Jennifer Tilly can’t hide her excitement about being promoted to Friend of the Housewives on season 14 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills; seen in 2022
“I’ve been asked if I want to be on the show and I’ve always said ‘No, no.’ This year, I was like, I just want to do everything differently. I’m trying to take on challenges,” she revealed.
Still, Tilly confessed, after a month of filming RHOBH, that doing the reality show has been “the most challenging thing” she’s ever done.
One of the struggles is anticipating how it will be presented on the show.
The actress noted how producers “can do anything” with the material and edit it to make you “the girl next door” or “the villain.”
“They can make you grumpy or patient. It depends on what they want to show, what’s going to work in the story,” she reflects. “Even when some of the housewives were very bad on the show and fans were throwing mud at them, I felt empathy for them because I thought, ‘What they’re doing is making up a story out of nothing.’ You come in without a script.”
Tilly also said she is not fazed by the clashes and heated fights between the cast.
“In real life, if you’re at a restaurant and people at your table are yelling at each other, you’re mortified and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m hanging out with these rude people. ‘ But when I’m sitting at a table with the Housewives, I feel like I have a front row seat at the Super Bowl,” she enthused.
Speaking about her co-stars Garcelle Beauvais, Jayne, Dorit Kemsley, Richards and Sutton Stracke, the professional poker player said she likes “all of them” and appreciates “what they do.”
Tilly admitted she was “more excited to meet Kyle Richards (pictured last month) and Erika Jayne and the other ladies than she was” when she met Elizabeth Taylor.
The 65-year-old Oscar nominee also enthused that her new job, which gives her more screen time and access to extravagant cast trips, feels like “working with Martin Scorsese” (the legendary filmmaker pictured above in March 2024).
“I’ll just say that it’s a great challenge. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but I’m very happy to be able to do it,” she stressed.
Tilly, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in the 1994 film Bullets over Broadway, has appeared in several films, including Bound (1996) and Bride of Chucky (1998).
Tilly’s promotion comes after the departures of cast members Crystal Kung Minkoff and Annemarie Wiley.
The upcoming season will also welcome its new full-time housewife, Bozoma “Boz” Saint John, who previously served as Netflix’s chief marketing officer.
The successful businesswoman, who was born in Middletown, Connecticut, moved to Ghana when she was six months old and spent her childhood living in Nairobi, Kenya and Washington, DC.
Tilly was spotted with her co-star, Garcelle Beauvais, and said she likes the entire cast and appreciates “what they do” (pictured together in July 2024)
At age 12, she and her parents moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. She eventually attended Wesleyan University, where she graduated with a degree in English and African American studies.
Throughout his career, Saint John has worked for PepsiCo, Beats Music, Apple and Uber, among others.
In 2020, she launched a podcast with journalist Katie Couric called Back to Biz with Katie and Boz, in which they discussed topics including the economy, the coronavirus pandemic, as well as systemic racism and criminal justice reform.
Last year, the mother of two published her memoir, The Urgent Life: My Story of Love, Loss, and Survival.
According to her description, she reflects on the loss of her husband, Peter, who died of cancer, grief and coping with “the ups and downs” while learning to live with “her brokenness.”
She and her late husband, the father of her two children, were married from 2003 until his death in 2013.
Tilly’s promotion comes after the departures of cast members Crystal Kung Minkoff (far right) and Annemarie Wiley (far left); the cast of RHOBH season 13 photographed last year
