The Love Island USA cast opened up about their hopes for the Beyond the Villa spinoff as they showed support for Austin Shepard following his relapse.
“I think for all of us — especially me — some of us weren’t shown enough where people just form these opinions and they see clips and they think that they know you or have an idea of you as a person,” Clarke Carraway exclusively told Us Weekly about her concerns coming off season 7 of Love Island USA. “That’s not at all the case.”
Season 2 of Love Island: Beyond the Villa, which premieres Wednesday, April 15, offered the cast the chance to show a different side of themselves.
“All of us know each other pretty well. We get to see the full personality while we’re living it in real life in the villa,” Clarke continued. “But taking the opportunity to do Beyond the Villa — and to be able to showcase your personality and who you truly are — was a lot of our hopes and one of the reasons for us wanting to do the spinoff.”
Belle-A Walker, meanwhile, pointed out that not every Islander lasted long on Love Island USA, adding, “Most of us on Beyond the Villa weren’t in the villa for a very long time. So when the cast was released, a lot of the audience was like, ‘Really? These people?’”
She continued: “A lot of people refer to us as side characters and I feel like it’s because they didn’t get a deeper look into our lives. I do think that Beyond the Villa is a good opportunity for them to get to know more about us — and hopefully they’ll learn to love us as well.”
Peacock’s Love Island USA follows a group of singles who have to pair off in order to stay in the show’s luxury villa in Fiji. The contestants — who are referred to as Islanders — live in isolation and are under constant video surveillance. They must be coupled up to remain on the show and to stand a chance to receive the prize of $100,000.
Nearly a year after their season aired, Bryan Arenales, Gracyn Blackmore, Jeremiah Brown, Clarke, Amaya Espinal, Hannah Fields, Pepe Garcia, Iris Kendall, TJ Palma, Andreina Santos, Chris Seeley, Belle-A, CoCo Watson and Taylor Williams all signed on to appear in season 2 of Beyond the Villa.
“It was a little hard because I feel like now we move with a different intention. In the back of your mind, you’re always going to have a thought of how every move that you make is going to be perceived — even off camera,” Hannah explained to Us. “So I think that maybe I took a little play into it. Because obviously in the villa you have no clue what’s going on at all. You come out to a huge reality check. Now we at least can process our thoughts in real time, think about it and then move forward.”
In addition to the main cast, the trailer for Beyond the Villa teased appearances from Nic Vansteenberghe and Austin, the latter of whom recently revealed that he suffered a relapse while filming scenes for the spinoff.
“I’m friends with Austin and I’m very close with the person he’s with. So I’ve known a little bit along the way,” Bella-A told Us about supporting Austin behind the scenes. “I’m proud of how vulnerable he’s been with sharing his journey. He’s very strong with seeing and recognizing where he needs help and how he seeks the help.”
Bella-A confirmed that Austin is “doing so much better.”
“He is doing so amazing,” she added. “I’m so proud of him for recognizing that and putting in that work.”
They got a text — and found love in the Love Island USA villa. The beloved British dating show made its way across the pond in 2019, following a crop of American bombshells searching for The One in a luxury tropical villa. In season 1, eventual winners Elizabeth Weber and Zac Mirabelli had a connection […]
TJ, meanwhile, clarified that the cast didn’t “really know” that Austin was struggling.
“Iris and I, we both reached out and just sent our regards,” he told Us. “If he needs any help, he can let us know and we just try to be there for him. Because it is a tough time. But at the time we had no idea.”
Amaya, who was briefly paired off with Austin in the villa, weighed in as well, saying, “It’s very inspirational for Austin to come out and be so open and honest about this story. I feel like that’s something that is very hard to navigate. So the fact that he’s being vulnerable and the fact that he’s in a better place now mentally — that’s all that’s important. As long as we could show our support, that’s all that matters.”
Looking ahead, the cast is excited for Peacock viewers to see how they spent the past summer together. They also revealed who from season 1 of Beyond the Villa — a.k.a Islanders from Love Island USA season 6 — offered their advice.
“I got some advice from Kendall [Washington] . We did Love Island Games together. He was filling me in on how his experience was and what to expect,” Chris recalled.
Bella-A, for her part, gushed over Leah Kateb, Serena Page and JaNa Craig‘s support.
“They were really, really sweet to me. They were big sisters to me along the way. Whenever I would have a tough day filming, they would just remind me, ‘Just remember how loved you are and the people in your life know you,’” she said. “‘Whereas the viewers, they might get to see just a little cut-up version of you.’ We film for months so it’ll be easy for the viewers to curate something in their head. But it’s nice to have that reminder of ‘You know who you are and there are people around you who love you and know who you are.’”
New episodes of Beyond the Villa air Wednesdays on Peacock.
