Brad Goreski and Jaymes Vaughan, two stars of the new reality series The Real Friends of WeHo, know audiences are coming for the messiness and the drama. After all, the show focuses on a group of sexy, successful gay men living in L.A. Todrick Hall, Curtis Hamilton, Dorión Renaud, and Joey Zauzig make up the cast alongside Goreski and Vaughn, so you know there’ll be plenty of tea spilled each episode. Still, Goreski and Vaughn hope that viewers ultimately end up taking something very different away from the experience.
In a word, Vaughan, who’s famously married to actor Jonathan Bennett, says he wants people in the audience to be left with a sense of hope. “I went through a really dark spot in my life. A lot of us that grew up queer grew up with a lot of hatred being tossed at us, whether it’s from ourselves or from our family, or from our church, or community, or teachers. And a lot of that got to me, and I let that affect the relationships I got into,” Vaughan tells PRIDE.
“I really never thought I’d like to hear you say, ‘I’m part of this couple’. Like that was never a thing that I thought would ever be something that was me, I just thought I would never have that,” Vaughan continues. “And so when I did find it a little later than I wanted to find it but found it, it was one of those things that I wanted to shout it from the rooftops, not only because I was so happy, but because I wanted a little me out there that didn’t have the hope that put themselves in all these dark places to go, ‘wait, I can’t have that, it is there for me.’ So I really just wanted to put my story of ‘hope’ and ‘hang in there’ out there.”
Returning to the medium that made him a household name as Rachel Zoe’s beleaguered assistant stylist on The Rachel Zoe Project, Goreski agrees that the show is frivolous, fun, and, yes, chaotic at times, but also sees it also as an opportunity for representation — at a time when it’s in especially dire need.
“To piggyback off of what Jaymes was saying, I think right now at this moment in time, and with the bills against LGBTQ+ people, the protests and bills against drag queens, all of the anti-trans movement, trans violence, all of these things that are happening within our community right now. I think it’s really important also to be out and about and to be out there being who we are and telling our stories,” Goreski tells PRIDE.
He’s hopeful that seeing the reality and relatability of his life can perhaps help crack open some closed hearts and minds. “I’ve been in a relationship with my husband, Gary, for 21 years, I’ve been sober for 21 years. And I will talk about that,” Goreski shares. “My hope is that, even if one person hears my story — or hears Jaymes’s story, or any of the other guys on the cast — and it’s like, ‘wow, this person overcame this, or I can relate to that.’ I think that’s a really good thing. Or if it opens up the door to somebody who isn’t exposed to a lot of people in the LGBTQ+ community, opens up their eyes a little bit [so they can] be like, ‘Wow... they have the same lives as us. Like, we do the same things.’”
Courtesy of MTV
That’s not to say that the show doesn’t bring the glamor and drama that tends to be associated with any “Real” branded shows. And as to who’s the messiest, though... well, Vaughan thinks it might be a six-way tie. “Ah, I don’t know, I feel like everybody likes to share that evenly,” he says with a laugh.
“God bless you Jaymes,” Goreski interjects. “Because I was like, ‘I think we all kind of take a turn,’” he adds, laughing.
“There’s definitely drama, there’s definitely a lot of heart. I think the thing that also I think makes us a little different is there’s a lot of very vulnerable storytelling because I think that the common thread that bonds us all together is our experiences growing up gay,” Goreski says of the show’s unique recipe for success. “Although they might be different, I think there’s something when you’re sitting down with another person from the community and sharing your experience, that helps you feel less alone and that helps you in a way kind of just like healing a tiny little bit.”
“Myself and Jaymes are also kind of the older guys in the cast [and] we have a little bit more experience than some of the guys in the cast. It was nice to be able to sit down and really get to know people on such a deep level so quickly,” shares Goreski.
Chaos, heart, representation, and queer friendships between six gorgeous gay men? Um, yes, sign us up.
