Queue And A

‘Southern Charm’: Shep Rose Used To Feed Pizza Slices To Teddi Mellencamp’s Pet Monkey

By Lea Palmieri @littleleap
Published April 12, 2018, 8:00 a.m. ET

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The man, the myth, the legend, Shep Rose himself, hopped on the phone with us this week to discuss season five of Southern Charm, and as always, he did not disappoint. Fresh off his spinoff show, RelationShep, he discussed his relationship status (ladies, listen up!), and yes, the healthy new lifestyle you’ll see him living this season. Shep also broke down his friendships with Austen, and of course Craig, and revealed where that apron with his name embroidered on it is now. Plus, the Southern Charm-er explained why his childhood friend and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills newbie Teddi Mellencamp had all the cool stuff at her house growing up. And yes, that includes a pet monkey.

When you came out of RelationShep and then went into the new season of Southern Charm, did your perspective change at all? Were there things that you approached differently?

I thought after season four, I was definitely trying to stay out of the fray as much as possible. I made some mistakes last season and I didn’t want to make them again.

Do you feel pretty good?

Yeah, I do. Geographically, I’m in my new house out at the beach and I’m trying to live a little bit more of a healthy life. I hope that translates on camera and I think it does. I think that’s part of my story this season. As far as RelationShep is concerned, I wasn’t seeing anybody. I was on the heels of RelationShep coming out and being done filming. I was single and I certainly wasn’t going to force it. I would never do that. So, happy to be single, [and] work on myself one thing at a time.

When I spoke to Craig, he was telling me about his new house and how it turned into a bit of a frat house. Did you feel like you needed to avoid that type of environment or were you over there partying as well?

No, no that’s exactly what my old house was. A complete fraternity house. I found myself over at Craig’s maybe two or three times…not very much at all, actually. I was happy to come to my fortress of solitude. It was important to me.

After RelationShep, will we see you dating again this season? Do you think you’ll ever show that on TV again?

A lot of girls, understandably so, are reticent to do that on camera. We found some great ones for RelationShep. You’ll have to watch, but there’s no big romance.

We’re going to see the rest of your birthday party in this week’s episode. What is the actual ideal birthday for you? Because I’m guessing it doesn’t involve Naomie yelling at JD?

Not at all. I think I said on the show that I like attending parties, not hosting them. I don’t really need to celebrate birthdays anymore. I’ve had a lot of them. I’d love to just go fishing somewhere out on the big boat, maybe spend the whole day. But I don’t think that many of my castmates would enjoy that. I don’t know if there’s enough Dramamine in the city of Charleston to make everybody not throw up over the side.

Craig told me that this is the best the friendship between you guys has ever been, which we’re all excited to see. What is it about your dynamic that you find people are so drawn to watching as the two of you interact?

It’s like a second language to us now. Cameras, no cameras, whatever: we drive each other nuts. I don’t understand why, but we trigger each other. But there’s really no anger or physicality or anything behind it all. It’s generally just The Odd Couple, Felix and Oscar. Completely different approaches to life and just everything, different personas. I mean, lord, I’m nothing like Craig. There’s nothing about me that’s anything like him. The biggest redeemable quality of Craig is that he would never hurt a flea. I mean, how can you really be mad at somebody who’s a pretty benign person? If he doesn’t want to admit this or that about himself, which I think he would agree that that has been a problem with him in the past, it’s just he and himself. It’s not like he’s spreading lies about anybody else or being harmful. I think he’s a little more introspective this season. Me and Cameron and a couple of others are at the point where we wish him all the best in the world. But that’s all we can do anymore because we’ve tried other methods and it’s just like “Look, it’s just you and yourself now.” And he’s not with Naomie. I like my friends single so they can misbehave with me, so there’s that, too.

Have you busted out that apron that he sewed your name on to?

Oh my god, I’m so mad about that. I washed it and it shrunk to the size of my fingernail. I forgot to incorporate that into future episodes, but I found it in the back of my car at the end of the season and I was just furious with myself. It would have been really funny to wear that to a party.

Now in his second season, what is your friendship like with Austin, especially since Chelsea doesn’t seem to be a thing between the two of you anymore? 

It’s as good as it ever has been as well. I was friends with Austin before filming, and any sort of riff between us last year was because of me for the most part. I think Austin is a little more sensitive than he leads on sometimes, which is totally fine. But I needed to learn that, and once you get through a couple of bumps in the road with somebody, it’s a “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” kind of thing with a friendship as well, so I think we’re on really good terms. I try to help him with advice and he does the same with me, so that’s a real good friendship. And he and Whitney have become a lot closer friends, which is good to see. So [when] Whitney comes into town from LA, sometimes Austin can shoulder the social burden. Whitney demands we roll out the red carpet for him, which I’m happy to do most of the time, but Austin gets to do it sometimes and it’s not on me.

From the first episode we’re seeing there’s this very girl power vibe surging through the season this year. Was that something you knew was going on or was it when you saw the episode you were like, “Whoa, all the girls are like banding together.”

No, I didn’t know that. Of course, I knew that everybody was generally single. So I probably could have predicted that if I sat down and thought about it. I never know what they’re filming if I’m not there. If something outrageous happens I hear about it through the grapevine, but I never know what’s going on. And part of that makes me a fan of the show because when I watch it I’m seeing things that I haven’t heard about or seen and so it makes me raise my eyebrows. I don’t really want to know what’s going on. I’ve told people in the past, “Shush, I don’t want to hear.” I want to watch it in several months.

Have you been watching your pal Teddi on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills? Have you spoken to her about her experience with that?

Yeah, we talk. I don’t really watch the kind of genre I’m on. What am I watching right now? Black Mirror, the new season is so good. And this show called Occupied and this other show called Dark. These are the shows that I watch. But I love Teddi. I’ve known Teddi for so long and we’ve had so much fun. I’ve spent a whole lot of time at her mom’s house growing up. It was on the beach, had a great pool, a trampoline, and they had a pet monkey. So all these things meant that this was the place I most wanted to be because I love monkeys, first and foremost. I used to feed it pizza. I think it liked me.

Was it allowed to eat that?

I mean if it wasn’t, nobody told me. I definitely would sneak it a slice every now and then.

I know that you’re a culture connoisseur. Is there anything else that you’re consuming or reading, anything that has you really excited?

Yeah, this book about Rolling Stone called Sticky Fingers. I’m in the middle of that right now. I love anything rock & roll biography, or hearing about my rock & roll heroes back in the day, but I’m always open to suggestions for good books. Nonfiction is a particular favorite of mine. I guess I’ll have to wait for the next PBS Ken Burns documentary to come out. I also saw the Garry Shandling documentary which was very good. One of the best comedy shows of all time was The Larry Sanders Show. I am very excited about the Andre the Giant documentary.

This being the fifth round of Southern Charm, was there anything for you that was still a new experience this season?

Everybody’s new dynamic. I told Naomie in one episode, “Look, I’m still trying to figure out who you are. I only know you through the lens of being Craig’s girlfriend. I don’t know your moods. I know you, but I don’t know you well.” I would never sit in a corner and talk to my friend’s girlfriend for very long, it wouldn’t look very good. Getting to know her is something that occurs and obviously there’s Thomas’s new girlfriend. Everything sort of shifted. It’s basically personal relationships. A lot of times when we’re not filming, I’ll see my castmates here and there. When filming, it’s a lot of exposure, it’s like you’re back in the saddle trying to figure it all out again. It’s always new, especially with this cast. I mean, good lord. Everybody is so different, dynamic, and can change on a dime.

Southern Charm airs tonight at 9pm ET/PT on Bravo. 

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