Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages, Instagram
Natalie Maguire and Marcus Johnson are speaking out about their new roles on the rebooted 12th season of Vanderpump Rules and revealing whether they felt they had to recreate the same magic brought by the OGs.
While Natalie reacted to her “crazy” label, fought back against claims of going after people’s boyfriends, and seemingly shaded James Kennedy, 33, Marcus offered an update on the challenges he faced with girlfriend Kim Suarez, defended Lisa Vanderpump amid her back and forth with Scheana Shay, and noted that their cast didn’t have “scumbags.”
“As soon as they said that they were going to start a new show with a new cast at SUR, I just knew it was never going to happen without me. I already knew I was a shoo-in, really. I didn’t really have to think too much about it,” Marcus admitted during a December 3 interview with Decider.
Natalie also didn’t have to consider much.
“Why would we say no? It’s going to happen at SUR regardless. I mean, we really are friends, so I don’t know how I would be able to stay out of conversations happening at work,” she reasoned.
Although many have suggested the rebooted series wouldn’t live up to the original, and that the cast would be pressured to replicate the group that came before them, Natalie said she and her co-stars “don’t have to replicate anything.”
“We’ve been at SUR for years now. It really is something different every day,” Natalie stated. “It really is so organic.”
Agreeing with Natalie’s assessment, Marcus said that once people watch the show, they’ll see how much different they are from the OGs.
“You probably won’t even be thinking about what happened before,” he explained. “They started in the restaurant and it kind of moved a little bit away from it. Now, we all work there and that’s our main paycheck. We all see each other more than a lot of our families and stuff. So you’ll definitely see that restaurant vibe more so with us.”
When asked about the moment in the trailer in which she was called “crazy,” Natalie admitted, “I think we’re all crazy and I’m just the only one embracing it.”
She then spoke of how Kim suggested she could go after someone’s man, signaling an incident involving their co-star, Demyana Selem.
“That story is a little bit inaccurate,” Natalie insisted. “I would never get involved with someone’s boyfriend. I had no idea when I started my involvement with my now ex that he was testing the waters with maybe someone else at SUR.”
After Marcus described himself as a “30-year-old DJ,” Natalie joked that not every cast needs a DJ, seemingly in reference to James.
“I think we need less DJs. But whatever. It’s just my opinion. Apparently, I live in my own world, so my world isn’t going to have DJs,” she stated.
Looking back on the drama he went through with Kim during filming, Marcus said he’s not looking forward to reliving the drama.
“It might really suck,” he noted. “[But] I think we’re going to try to navigate it. Our relationship has come with so many challenges already, so this is just another challenge. At the end of the day, we love each other. We went through some hard times, and you’re going to see that. But it’s just our relationship.”
According to Marcus, Pump Rules actually brought him and Kim “closer together.”
“You go through so much and it’s such a unique experience,” he explained.
As for Lisa, Marcus defended his boss against negative chatter — most notably by Scheana, who has accused Lisa of gaslighting her and using her to build her empire.
“If anybody has something negative to say about Lisa, it’s just because you’re mad that you can’t benefit off of having that relationship anymore,” he suspected as Natalie weighed in.
“Anyone wanting to have any beef with Lisa I don’t understand. I love her so much. She really is invested in us and cares about us,” she shared. “She’s big on loyalty, as well. If you do wrong by her, it’s hard to come back from that.”
Then, when asked if the cast was capable of a scandal like “Scandoval,” which saw Tom Scandoval cheating on longtime girlfriend Ariana Madix with their co-star, Rachel “Raquel” Leviss, Natalie argued that they’re “way smarter.”
“We can’t hide anything from each other for very long, so I don’t think it would ever get to that level. We really do love each other. I don’t know what that was, but that wasn’t real love. That wasn’t real friendship. That was some fake you know what,” she stated.
“There’s no true, true scumbags in our group,” Marcus added.
While Natalie and Marcus aren’t close with any of the original members of Pump Rules, they were both thrilled to have Tom Schwartz‘s approval.
“Schwartz is just freaking awesome. He’s not hating on it. He’s not thinking this shouldn’t happen, or we got a lot of big shoes to fill, all that type of stuff,” Marcus noted. “He’s just super cool and supporting us, giving us advice. I saw him the other day at a party. He was buying me shots.”
“I love that because it makes the people who love him and love the show excited to give it a chance,” agreed Natalie. “It’s like him telling the world, ‘It’s okay guys. I like it so you can like it.'”
Also during the interview, Natalie teased a potential cameo from Peter Madrigal, who has been featured on the show since season one.
“I think we’ll see him around. He’s at SUR, sometimes. If you’re in on a busy night, you might run into him,” she said.
Vanderpump Rules season 12 airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.