Bachelor fans claim the child actor who pushed the cake out of Cassidy Timbrook’s hands during the chaotic birthday party scene could have been directed by show producers.
This week’s episode saw The Bachelor Clayton Echard take on his first group date in the form of a child’s birthday party led by Hilary Duff. Cassidy Timbrook was soon labeled the show’s newest villain after ditching the party plans and ruining the birthday cake.
A photo posted on Clayton’s Instagram account of himself posing with the group of children who appeared on the show led eagle-eyed Bachelor fans to the acting credits of several of the children, however.
Eli Michael Kaplan, who has appeared in several movies and TV series, posted photos of himself in the act of pushing the cake out of Cassidy’s hands on Instagram.
Bachelor producers reportedly released a casting call for the birthday party
Bachelor fans took to Reddit to dissect the scene, with the group ultimately deciding that the action was staged. They also pointed to a casting call reportedly made by The Bachelor and posted by Reality Steve in September, 2021.
“We are looking for 10 fun-loving, sassy, questioning pranksters to attend a kids Birthday Party with our contestants in a Mansion,” the casting call read.
However, they did also call for “strong ‘in-the-moment’ improvisation skills.”
Reality Steve posted the entire casting call to his Twitter account.
Twitter fans joked that the producers had a hand in the cake drop scene
Other viewers took to Twitter to make jokes and memes about the possible scripted nature of the scene.
Bachelor child actors shared behind-the-scenes stories about the group date
Another of the children hinted that not all of the birthday party scenes were aired.
“Some of my other favorite moments were the games, grilling the bachelorettes to see their true character, water balloon fight, and smashing my face into a cake. They edited out the cake fight that immediately broke out right after but boy was that fun.” Ethan Allen Neeley wrote in his Instagram post.
Ethan is also an actor, singer, and ballroom dancer who has appeared in several commercials. Two other confirmed actors are Maiya Ennis, the birthday girl, and one of the RAMOS Actors, as named on Instagram.
Clayton himself addressed the claims on his Instagram by responding to a comment that said “Not the child actors” with “this was news to me.”
He also responded to another comment questioning who the children were by saying he just showed up to the party.
Bachelor fans use social media to question the authenticity of the scene
The cake scene can be viewed in slo-mo below as shown in the Reddit discussion regarding the episode and child actors.
Claims that this moment was staged followed online discussion that Cassidy may have been purposefully playing up the role of the villain.
The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise alumni Joe Amabile joined the conversation with this tweet following Cassidy’s actions at the birthday party.
Whether or not the scene was scripted, the episode left Clayton questioning if he could take a rose back on the most recent episode’s cliffhanger.
The Bachelor returns Monday, January 24th at 8/7c on ABC.
This show is getting like “Married at first Site Australia “ just so scripted..I no o get watch that show ..it is so fake!