Schwartz said he would "never" do reality TV before he joined season 1 of the Bravo hit
Credit: Michael Buckner/Getty; Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Tom Schwartz originally moved to Los Angeles in 2009 to pursue acting
- He was hesitant to join Vanderpump Rules due to the stigma around reality TV and his desire to be an actor
- Season 12 of Vanderpump Rules introduces a new cast after a major shakeup following the “Scandoval” controversy
Before he was a household name thanks to Vanderpump Rules, Tom Schwartz had dreams of being an actor.
"I wanted to be on a procedural. I never wanted to be a star or a movie star. I didn't want to do movies," Schwartz, 43, admitted on an episode of the More Life with Carl Radke podcast. "I wanted to be a procedural… but never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would end up on reality TV."
Schwartz, who appeared on the Bravo reality show until the season 12 cast shakeup, admitted that he originally moved to Los Angeles in 2009 as a "leap of faith" to pursue his acting career after spending years "scheming" to leave his job as a distributor.
Three years later, Schwartz would star alongside his roommate and best friend, Tom Sandoval in the inaugural season of Vanderpump Rules. The pair were joined by Jax Taylor, Stassi Schroeder, Kristen Doute and Scheana Shay.
But before Schwartz agreed to join the cast, he admitted he was "a low-key hater" of reality television and was hesitant about joining it.
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"Bill Langworthy, our executive producer, famously created The Hills, which is one of the biggest shows ever on MTV, and I remember being a hater. I did not like that show," Schwartz admitted. "I was just like, I would never do that. I'm an artist, I'm an actor. Meanwhile, I had no acting credits whatsoever."
Part of the reason for his "hater" mentality, he admitted, was because of the "stigma" that was attached to it at the time.
"Now you could be a superstar," he continued. "But like in my mind back in the day, if I was going to be on reality TV, it would forever compromise my artistic integrity. That's how I thought. Again, like I had done, maybe one non-union commercial for like Modelo at that point."
Since joining the show, Schwartz has appeared on a handful of other reality shows, like Stars on Mars and The Valley, though he only has a couple of uncredited acting roles for Two and a Half Men and True Blood.
Season 12 of Vanderpump Rules sees the long-running regulars replaced with an entirely new cast — a move that came just shy of two years after "Scandoval" rocked the reality show when it was revealed that Sandoval was cheating on his longtime partner Ariana Madix with costar Raquel Leviss. A source previously told PEOPLE the decision to replace the entire cast was meant as a "fresh start."
“There had been a long pause in production, and nothing had really changed among the cast since the [season 11] reunion,” the source added. “The network felt there was no path forward with the group in that capacity.”
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