VPR Showrunner Alex Baskin Tells All on Season 11 and Need to "Obliterate the Fourth Wall"
The Vanderpump Rules showrunner shared lots of behind-the-scenes secrets.
The Vanderpump Rules Season 11 finale shattered the fourth wall completely, as Lala Kent, Scheana Shay, Tom Sandoval, and Tom Schwartz discussed Ariana Madix's premature exit from Kyle Chan's event in San Francisco.
The last three minutes of the VPR finale were so shocking that the aforementioned cast members, along with James Kennedy, Katie Maloney, Lisa Vanderpump, and Brock Davies, didn't watch them until the three-part reunion taped in March 2024.
After Part 3 of the reunion aired on May 28, Vanderpump Rules showrunner Alex Baskin spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about why he decided to "obliterate the fourth wall to tell this story."
"Because the dilemma was about the lines, if any, between your real life and the show. And for Ariana, that was spending time with someone she wanted out of her life for the sake of the show," Alex explained, adding, "These were extraordinary circumstances."
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Alex also expressed his belief that "there was no other way" to structure the finale and reunion without breaking the fourth wall "because, fundamentally, this is what Ariana was talking about. She was saying: This is my life, this person is not in my life. And the argument on the other side was: Well, actually you’ve chosen to continue on the show, so he is in your life."
"You had to give voice to both those things," Alex said.
Why production decided to have the VPR cast watch the final moments of the finale at the reunion
Alex "thought that was the way to go about this," firstly, because, "not every cast member has been watching the show," he said, referencing Ariana's past comments about not viewing Season 11. "So I thought it was important to make sure they saw it."
"I also thought there would be a visceral impact if they had to experience it together on the stage," he continued. "And that, if they all had to see it at once, that it was something they couldn’t talk about before they were there. So I thought everyone would be accountable for what they said."
In addition to the fourth-wall breaking moment, the final few minutes of the finale also featured a montage highlighting photos and videos of the cast members from their first seasons. As Alex put it, "And then the editorial team did such a wonderful job with the montage and brought us back to prior seasons that I sort of had chills. When we were watching from the control room, we all got chills. It was a super emotional and a really charged moment."
Why Vanderpump Rules Season 11 was "the hardest season" to make
Now that Season 11 is officially a wrap, Alex is looking back on what it was like to film with the cast following Sandoval and Ariana's breakup.
"It was the hardest season that we’ve had to make. The group was really divided," he shared. "We went back into production not too long after the reunion, so you saw where the group really was. I think it’s a super powerful end of the reunion and there are a lot of unanswered questions that are playing out in real time."
He also noted that "the group went into the season with really challenged, damaged relationships. And you saw what happened when they got together."
As for the "really meta conversation" the cast had on Part 3 of the reunion about "what it means to do the show," Alex said, "It’s an interesting dialogue at the reunion where you have one group that is saying, 'If you sign up to do this then you have these interactions that become your real life,' versus the other side saying, 'No. I’m signing up to be who I am and to do it in a way that feels right and authentic.' There just wasn’t common ground."
"But we as producers are always saying we don’t force people to do things they don’t want to do," he added. "And that’s what you saw. We cannot force group harmony, or even group interaction. It’s a collection of people who are proceeding through this in a way that reflects who they are and where they are in their lives."
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