E! Entertainment debuted a new talk show with host Andy Cohen entitled, For Real: The Story of Reality TV, and it featured the original cast members from the very first season of The Real World, including Eric Nies, who claims The Real World saved his life.
Eric and the rest of the cast recently sat down with Andy Cohen to talk about their lives since the franchise debuted nearly three decades ago.
Eric tells Andy, “If the Real World didn’t happen and my life didn’t go the way that it did, I might have been dead.”
He goes on to say that he was suppressing childhood wounds and was self-destructing. He began using drugs when he was young.
He says in a way, the Real World “kind of saved” his life because it forced him to look at the things about himself that he disliked and wanted to change.
Eric suffered physical, verbal, and sexual abuse
Eric opened up to Andy and the cast, exposing that he suffered through verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. His troubled youth lead him to try multiple avenues to heal himself.
One of the avenues Eric talked about was ayahuasca, which Eric claims can help you “actually go into your self conscious mind” and “access the files of your soul’s existence in many, many lifetimes.”
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew, also known as the tea, the vine, and la purga. It is made from the leaves of the Psychotria viridis shrub along with the stalks of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine.
Andy jokingly asks Julie if she’s going to do ayahuasca with Eric. Smiling, she replies that it does sound tempting. Comical roommate Heather B. exclaims, “No!” and laughs, giving a thumbs down.
Norman turns to Heather and tells her ayahuasca could be a new drink for her.
In true Heather fashion, she ends the clip with a funny comment first answering Norman saying, “that sounds like a good drink name but not uh…” then turned towards Eric and said, “Mushrooms?! Like you trippin’?!”
Fans of the show, which premiered in 1992, will remember Eric Nies as the model from Season 1 who went on to gain fame on the hit show, MTV’s The Grind, a popular dance show in the 90’s.
Andre, Heather, Becky, Norman, Kevin, Julie, and Eric are reuniting
The entire original cast will appear on Paramount Plus (a new streaming service) next month in a new series, The Real World Homecoming: New York. CBS All Access will become Paramount Plus next month.
Paramount Plus released a teaser trailer this week, getting OG Real World fans excited again about seeing what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.
The Real World Homecoming: New York premieres on Paramount Plus on March 4.