Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen - Season 16 (Kenya Moore, Cynthia Bailey, Eva Marcille)
On November 15th, Bravo launched, BravoCon—the first-ever convention and three-day celebration of the network’s reality programming and the “bravolebrities” who are behind the widely popular shows. BravoCon is everything fans love about Bravo TV in one space, complete with Bravolebrity photo ops, Instagram-worthy photo moments, live panels and shows like never before. The first-ever immersive experience of its kind designed specifically for the Bravosphere — where superfans and Bravo influencers can come together to celebrate their fandom while sipping the hottest Bravolebrity tea and contributing to the conversation of the network.
The inaugural conference brought together stars, producers, and executives from The Real Housewives of New York City, Beverly Hills, Atlanta, and New Jersey, along with cast members from Southern Charm, Vanderpump Rules, Married to Medicine, Vanderpump Rules, Shahs of Sunset, Top Chef, Project Runway and Below Deck, proving to be an unforgetable experience of its kind designed specifically for Bravo superfans. To kick off the weekend festivities at the convention, BravoCon hosted the largest Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen show yet, live from the Hammerstein Ballroom. BravoCon’s WWHL amassed 70 bravolebrities and provided series announcements and updates giving viewers a sneak peek of what’s to come.
Ahead of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, we spoke with several extremely well-known and charismatic bravolebrities from the Real Housewives of Atlanta franchise, Eva Marcille and Kenya Moore about their excitement for BravoCon, their thoughts on Bravo’s commitment to diverse programming and how the network has provided them a platform for their communities.
Dominique Fluker: How excited are you for the first-ever BravoCon? How is BravoCon different from any other conference?
Eva Marcille: It’s adorable! You know it’s the inaugural event, so to be at the first one, you know it’s going to be crazy but you don’t know what to expect but that’s kind of the cool thing about it. Anything can happen! It hasn’t happened before.
Fluker: As a leading African-American woman and star at Bravo, how do you feel knowing you are an integral part of the Bravo franchise? What kind of responsibility do you have with this platform?
Marcille: We just live our lives. I think what Bravo has done, is they have highlighted different lives in different communities around the world. We obviously are in Atlanta, we are beautiful black women and we show the diversity that is the faux pas, the good, the bad, the ugly, the sisterhood, all of that. I just hope the audience takes a little bit of who we are.
Fluker: How has Bravo brought diversity and inclusion to their programming?
Marcille: Bravo has done so much when it comes to expanding from color lines to gender bias to gender roles and really allowing people to show their lives, that don’t live a traditional and conventional life but represent the other millions of people who live the same lives just as to them.
Moore: I’m proud of Bravo, that’s one of the reasons I’m happy to work with them. They are employing women who are 40 and over, which is a huge feat in and of itself. When you cross 40, the jobs dry up, people don’t find you attractive anymore and that’s just the industry. So for Bravo to even have women in their 50s, making a seven-figure salary, that’s a beautiful thing. I love the fact that they are opening the doors to more diversity and inclusion and that’s how it really should be.
Fluker: How has Bravo given you a platform to lead and give back within your communities?
Marcille: You get the leadership impact highlight by default. You become an entertainer, then you become a role model. The whole leadership component happens by happenstance and it’s not on purpose but when you realize that you have it, then you decide to make something out of your platform to help people. This platform has given us the ability to speak about things that are taboo to talk about when it comes to sexuality, finances. There’s all kinds of things that I think allows people at home watching, to not feel alone because they are in the same kind of situations that we’re in but they think our lives are perfect.
Moore: I have to mention my hair care line, Kenya Moore Hair Care! We’re now in 2,200 Sally Beauty stores and I started it from Real Housewives of Atlanta. That is one of the great things about having a platform like this. You can really shine as a businesswoman. It’s amazing to be a double minority and a CEO of a company with an evaluation of well over 1 million dollars, all because I decided to invest in myself by using this platform.
Fluker: At BravoCon what kind of impact do you want to leave with your community?
Marcille: When it comes to my community, I take pride in being a black woman and being where I’m from. I hope to represent my community in a way that they are proud to call me one of their own and to let the world see who we are. I think the world can be very bias when it comes to black women. We are such a multifaceted culture.
Fluker: If you could give one piece of advice to millennial women, what would it be?
Marcille: If I could give one piece of advice to a millennial woman, it would be to save your money! Don’t take life so seriously. I say that because I started out in reality TV when I was barely 18 years old, now I’m 35 and have three kids, there were a lot of days when I thought the world was over, and that day passed. Life goes on.
Moore: I don’t know the key to happiness but the key to failure is trying to please everyone. So you just have to live your life the way you want to live it because they’re always going to be people that have something negative to say or have an opinion. It’s your life and you only get one.
