- Lisa Vanderpump and Stassi Schroeder tell PEOPLE about how their dynamic has changed since meeting when Schroeder was 21
- Schroeder started working at Vanderpump’s restaurant SUR 15 years ago and the two appeared together on Vanderpump Rules until Schroeder’s departure in 2020
- The pair are reuniting for season 2 of Vanderpump Villa, which premiered Thursday, April 24 on Hulu
Lisa Vanderpump has seen it all when it comes to Stassi Schroeder.
Fifteen years after Schroeder began working at Vanderpump’s restaurant SUR, the pair are reuniting for season 2 of Vanderpump Villa. In an interview with PEOPLE, they reflect on the ups and downs of their relationship and their first experience filming reality television together on Vanderpump Rules.
“There is always that element of, Lisa will always be somebody who I hope to impress — who I hope is proud of me and my choices,” Schroeder, 36, says.
However, Vanderpump, 64, sees things differently, as she points out, “You never tried to impress me when you were at SUR!”
“Yes,” Schroeder insists. “Even when you think I wasn’t.”
“I started working for her when I was 21, and so she’s just been a part of my whole adult life, at least in her own way,” she continues, noting that the dynamic with her former boss is “way less stressful now.”
“I was married when I was 21,” Vanderpump quips. “If that was you trying to impress me, I don’t want to see you when you don’t give a damn.”
Revealing that getting back in front of cameras five years after leaving VPR “just felt normal,” Schroder acknowledges that she always felt comfortable being filmed.
“I’ve never had a problem, which is diabolical,” the mom-of-two jokes.
Vanderpump then chimes in with a NSFW memory: “When you are running naked! Oh my goodness, I won’t mention that.”
“Good times, good times,” Schroeder laughs, later adding, “I feel like I’ve been doing reality TV since I was 16 years old, that it feels more right to me when I’m shooting something.”
“It’s very authentic,” Vanderpump says. “It wasn’t like we were putting on a show. It was kind of, ‘Okay, here we are. This is what we’ve got to do. This is the criteria.’ And I think if you can be that person on reality [television], where you can just forget the cameras and just kind of know what your objective is and what we’re doing and where we’re going. That’s hard to do. A lot of people can’t. You never acknowledge the cameras.”
Still, making her return with Vanderpump Villa, in which Schroeder watches over the staff of Vanderpump’s 12-century French chateau and reports back to the restaurateur, was an adjustment.
“To have Lisa there just made it — I don’t know how I would’ve felt if she wasn’t there,” she shares. “It’s like I feel safe with her. It’s someone that I’ve known for half of my life, and so it just felt like riding a bike.”
Schroeder also used her experience from VPR to pay it forward and give advice to the cast of Vanderpump Villa.
“I became really close with the staff, and there were a few of them that I’m like, I see you doing and making the same mistakes that I used to make,” she says. “And I’m like, I don’t want to talk down to you, but f—— listen to me right now.”
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Vanderpump Villa season 2 is now streaming on Hulu.
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