Shane Coopersmith dished his Below Deck experience, including the way producers misled him and gave him a bad edit.
Right after Captain Lee Rosbach and bosun Eddie Lucas fired Shane for his inexperience, laziness, and several other things, Shane shared his side of the story. The California native chatted about his Below Deck experience on the podcast Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef.
Producers knew Shane never worked on a superyacht
Shane has spent years acting and modeling. Last year, over Thanksgiving, his cousin suggested Shane would be a good fit for Below Deck.
The audition process was already underway, but Shane sent a tape via the website anyway. He got a call back right away and was deemed a good fit for the show.
Shane knew going into filming he was there to do a real yachting job. He also spilled that producers knew he had no experience working on a superyacht. Shane did reassure producers he was a hard worker though and could do the job.
As for why he was hired with no experience, Shane thought it was because the show wanted to promote sustainability and have a low-key crew after the male toxicity of Season 7.
“They shouldn’t have hired me. Like there’s no way I was prepared for that boat. And they threw me on to like the top-notch, biggest boat, super tough and then throw cameras and you’re filming me. It was a tough job, you know?” Shane expressed on the podcast.
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Shane was misled and inaccurately portrayed
The environmental activist has repeatedly said he went on Below Deck to help make the yachting world more sustainable. It was the message producers told Shane would be promoted.
Shane had no idea what to expect when he boarded the yacht. He quickly realized things were not as he was told.
“I did not understand the archetype that I was going to be while I was on the boat,” Shane said. “And then basically by the second episode of the season, I saw the archetype that they’re putting me in. And I was a little disappointed. They did a little bit of sustainability, the first episode. Then they kind of ditched that. Then they just decided to put me as like the lazy kid that doesn’t work hard, which is so incredibly false.”
Despite realizing Shane was not being edited correctly, he didn’t reach out to producers.
“They have their own agenda. I wanted to blame them, but you know, I signed up for their game at the end of the day, and that’s how they like to run it,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s very admirable to tell you the truth, but that’s what they want to do. They have their own agenda to make money, I guess, and get fans. And they want to do that by making other people look bad, but I signed up for their game, and I played it.”
The Below Deck experience was far from what Shane Coopersmith thought he was getting himself into. Thankfully Shane has the support of those who know him best, which was perfectly fine with him.
Shane will forever be bummed sustainability was not shown the way he was promised, but it has helped him promote this cause. Plus, he made good money while on the show to support his surfing trips.
Below Deck airs Mondays at 9/8c on Bravo.