Very confusing article to follow:
http://www.popsugar.com.au/celebrit...mer-Tully-Smyth-Reality-TV-Interview-35637358
Big Brother's Tim and Tully: Still Living the Dream One Year On
by
Genevieve Rota 05/9/14
Of all the contestants on last year's
Big Brother, two stood out from the crowd as the most polarising — whether they were loved passionately of hated passionately, one thing couldn't be denied: Tim Dormer and Tully Smyth got people talking.
Tim won the show, walking away with $250,000 and a confirmed legion of fans, while Tully had a tougher time of it with
an army of haters ready to pounce when she left the house six weeks before the finale.
Now, as the 2014 iteration of
Big Brother draws closer (it starts Monday night), we thought it was high time to catch up with these two. They've been busy: they went to Splendour in the Grass together in late July, Tully's just returned from a trip to the UK and Tim's living his dream hanging out regularly with icons Terri, Bindi and Bob Irwin. We spoke with the chatty pair — who seem as close as brother and sister — about how the past year has treated them, what they struggled with upon re-entering the real world and why they still get emotional talking about the
BB experience.
POPSUGAR Australia: What are you both doing with yourselves now?
Tim: It’s a year on. Both me and Tully are really passionate about the media industry and I’d love to keep working in radio and TV, I’ve got a finger in both pies at the moment. I’m still living the dream a year on. I know it sounds lame but it’s true, we’ve been really lucky I think.
Tully: Yeah, I think Tim and I have both been really lucky in that we’ve been able to get enough projects and opportunities to keep things going a year from when we left the house. Same as Tim, I want to pursue presenting, I’ve been doing a bit of travel blogging, and still keeping my blog and Instagram going with social posts, fashion stuff. But yeah I think the dream for both of us is to do TV presenting.
PS: What surprised you the most about your newfound fame, and how did you cope with it?
Tully: Splendour was crazy; that’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I thought the crowd would be too cool to come up and say hi but that was nuts. I think people just knowing your name and feeling like they know you personally, like people coming up to you and making comments on your dog or what you ate yesterday — that’s still really bizarre to get used to.
Tim: I think that’s the beauty of
Big Brother, like the nature of it is that it is quite voyeuristic, and they’re watching us live, eat, sleep and go to the toilet even. We’re in their [viewers’] living rooms! I was on there for 101 days, almost four months, so now they’re really familiar with us. They’ll run up to you and say your name like an old friend, and that’s so funny ‘cause they go, “Oh, I know you! I feel like I know you, this must be so weird.” It is strange, but rather than feeling like it’s an invasion of privacy, I kind of . . .
Tully: It’s flattering.
Tim: Yeah, it’s really flattering! And we’re both doing what we’ve always wanted to do and
Big Brother’s opened up a lot of opportunity and it’s because people watching the show connected with us. So you never know, the next kid that comes up to you might have spent $50 of his hard-earned money so I could get a lot of opportunity in my life. So I’ll always have time for anyone that comes up to say g’day, because you never know. They might’ve really connected or gotten something out of my experience on the show.
PS: And what about any negative comments or Instagram bullying?
Tully: I think we were probably two of the most polarising people on the show, so we’ve both got our fair share of . . . You know, there’s a lot of love, and the love has always been overwhelming, but we’ve both copped our fair share of flack. At the end of the day, I mean . . . You just ignore it. We signed up for it.
Tim: It’s about engagement. And at the end of the day, we’re the ones that people still talk about and remember from the show, so love us or hate us, you care about us. That’s all that really matters at the end of the day.
Tully: And while people do feel like they know us, it’s important to remember that we were on a TV show and at one point there were 21 of us and you saw a minute of us a day. So while they feel like they know us, I think as long as my friends and family still love and support me I don’t really care what people say on social media.
Tim: And with people like Tully, you read some of the comments people make about her appearance and stuff, I don’t get comments about my appearance — I think girls get it a lot worse. And I just think, gosh. It’s harder for girls. I was really lucky on the show; being in there longer meant Australia got to see all of me and maybe I didn’t get bad edits. Sometimes I think Tully is remembered for things that I don’t think are her best qualities . . . And I value her so much more now and I don’t know if people saw that on the show.
Tully: Tiiiiiiim! That’s a bit sweet.
PS: Would you say the past year has been a positive or a difficult one?
Tully: Um, it’s probably been the hardest year of my life if I’m honest. I came out to a bit of a media uproar. As Tim said, I am still lucky that I am able to be doing what I want to be doing, I’m able to pursue what I want to pursue. In terms of my personal life it’s been a really difficult year. But it’s only made me stronger; I’m a different person than I was a year ago. I definitely feel stronger mentally and emotionally, but for me it’s been a really difficult year.
Tim: Yeah, I always say to people, out of the whole Big Brother experience over the past 12 months, winning the show was the easiest part of the whole thing. It’s a constant readjustment of your perspective and I don’t want to get a big head or . . . people promise you the world after the show and you have to find out what’s real, who you can trust and like Tully said, it’s all about the connections with your family and protecting that personal life. That’s what’s real at the end of the day. Reality TV, all that stuff is just, I don’t know, a TV show. That’s the saddest thing about the whole experience. Tully and I, more than anybody else in that house, really had a personal connection with the house if that makes sense, and Big Brother [the person]. We both were quite emotional in there at times because I don’t think —
Tully: I wanted to stay in there forever.
Tim: Yeah, I didn’t want to leave! And so coming off the back of it for the last 12 months, you realise it was a personal experience for us but for everybody else it was a TV show.
Tully: And there’s a new one now . . .
Tim: And the network doesn’t care about us [laughs].
Tully: I feel like I’m going to watch the new one and be like, “Get out of my bedroom, you’re in my bed. Get out of my bedroom, you’re in my house!” [Laughs]
Tim: Well, they’ve stripped the house! That is no more. What that experience was is no more and all we got are really good memories. You’ve got to think of the positives more than the negatives.