A decade after her stint on The Real World, a hesitant Cameran was approached by Whitney Sudler-Smith about joining a Bravo reality series, then titled Southern Gentlemen, to be “the voice of reason,” to serve as a sort of Wendy to Charleston’s many Peter Pans.
“My role was to be kind of a sounding board/voice of reason for the guys,” she detailed. “I gave it to the guys like I saw it, but I tried to always do it in a lighthearted manner. I saw them as my brothers, and I still think of them that way.”
But she knew those men would deliver a hit show after her first time hanging out with Shep Rose and Craig Conover.
“Within five minutes, I knew that the show would probably take off. Both Shep and Craig had that TV ‘it factor,'” she explained. “They were both good-looking and tall (a rarity in Charleston), with charismatic and gregarious personalities. Although Shep talked on the phone for half the meal, I liked them both instantly. They also split the check and didn’t make me pay, which I thought was super nice. We left the dinner with an attitude of Well, here goes nothing!”
But Cameran had one edict she set for herself after her first experience filming a reality TV series left her very sick and burned out from the traveling, drinking and long hours: “A self-imposed two-drink maximum rule.”
“I actually encouraged my costars to do the same, but it fell on deaf ears,” she wrote, going on to admit she did get drunk “about four times in the course of six years…I’m fairly certain I fell down in every scene.”