Rylan shares secrets of his 'cloak and dagger' new reality show Hot Mess Summer
TV presenter Rylan had to have security guards while filming his new reality series Hot Mess Summer in Zante due to the secrecy surrounding the show. Hot Mess Summer launches Wednesday, 7 February on Prime Video in the UK & Ireland.
Transcript
00:00 How has it differed on Hot Mess Summer?
00:02 The heat was a factor. When I'm trying to wear trousers and a shirt, and everyone else
00:08 is in a bikini, that was quite difficult. But Hot Mess, I mean, you're on location,
00:14 you're in sort of a party capital with 12-year-olds, so I had to have security everywhere I went,
00:21 not in a weird way, but where we filmed, we were quite close to the main strip in Zak
00:27 in Dos Inzanti, and everyone's British, and I'm 20-foot tall, as you can see on this shot.
00:35 So it's hard to hide Rylan on an island. And even amongst the Greek community, my security
00:43 guard was lovely, his name was Adonis, and I had Stathis and Spyridon, and they all said
00:48 that the chat on the island is, "There is a man here who is famous and likes men." So
00:55 yeah, I was known. I was known on the island.
00:57 Do you think it was particularly hard keeping that secret?
01:01 It was really, really hard, because also I got there sort of three days before the show
01:04 starts for rehearsals and things like that, so I had to be hidden, because obviously the
01:08 contestants were on the island, but if they knew I was there, they'd then be like, "What?"
01:12 because they didn't know I was part of the show. So yeah, it was very cloak and dagger.
01:16 I felt like I was on the traitors for the first couple of days, yeah.
01:19 You guys are going to be running everything, top to bottom.
01:23 What was the most challenging thing of filming Hot Mess Summer as well?
01:27 I'd say the most challenging thing was obviously the reveal, because all of these guys think
01:31 they're going on a show called Party Summer. So we were all interested to see what would
01:36 happen when they found out they were actually there to work and that they'd been nominated
01:40 by their friends and family, and we had a few walkouts, a few storm offs, and then it
01:45 was, right, damage control. And obviously I had to go chasing after people, sit them
01:49 down, talk to them, say, "Look, if you don't want to do this, you don't have to, but you're
01:53 here. There's money on the line." So yeah, Mr. Keep the Peace for now.
01:58 Time to clean the bar down.
02:00 Are you winding me up?
02:02 No drinking on the job.
02:04 What do you think is the secret to your success? Although I think being so lovely is definitely
02:08 one of them.
02:09 I just think, yeah, just be nice to people. I made no secret of the fact I got ill a few
02:12 years back and actually I'm a few months off, and when I come back, all my jobs are waiting
02:16 for me, and that's because I've always treated everyone the same. I don't care if you're
02:19 my runner, the head of a channel, I always treat everyone the same. And when I'm doing
02:24 shows like this with the hot mess lot, they're all quite young, and I started at the age
02:29 that they pretty much are on the show. And so for me, just to say to them, "Some days
02:34 you get annoyed and they might want to take that out on the crew and stuff like that,"
02:38 but I'm like, "That crew are the ones that are here to help you. Don't do that. If you
02:41 want to take it out, take it out on me. I can take it."
02:43 How has fame changed your life?
02:45 Well, I'm rich now.
02:46 Yeah, that always helps.
02:47 That's quite nice. No. It's changed my life in many ways, obviously. I love my job. I
02:53 get to do shows like this where I go to amazing places, meet an amazing crew, great contestants,
02:59 make a great show. And obviously I've seen the whole series and watched it all back and
03:04 everything, and it's just so nice to be able to go, "We made that. We were part of that."
03:09 And especially where it's a first as well. I've been very lucky with some of the jobs
03:13 that I've done, but a lot of them have been inherited. So Big Brother, Supermarket Suite,
03:17 people have done it before me. So something like this, it's nice just to have my little
03:21 stamp on it and fingers crossed people like it.
03:23 [MUSIC]