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Janet Caperna felt she was being “iced out” amid production on The Valley season three.
While admitting to having poor delivery skills, sharing what she learned in therapy, and teasing her upcoming drama with Kristen Doute, 43, and Jasmine Goode, 38, Janet gave her thoughts on Lala Kent, 35, being compared to Jax Taylor, 46, admitted to having hesitations about returning after season two, and explained an emotional moment that was shown on the trailer.
“[I was] feeling iced out at points, or people were kind of cutting me out. It just felt like, ‘Oh man, are my real friends going to start seeing me in the way that everybody else is?’ and that was a real dark moment and question I needed to ask myself,” Janet shared during an April 8 interview with Entertainment Tonight.
After worrying that her friends were going to abandon her as a result of fan backlash from season two, Janet got the reassurance she needed.
“I do have some really amazing friends on this cast who were like, ‘You’re crazy for even questioning this.’ And that’s, I think, what I needed to hear in that moment,” she explained.
Also speaking of the hate Janet got from viewers, many of whom shaded her as a “fan,” Jason Caperna added, “Everybody who’s on the show, everybody who actually knows Janet knows who she actually is, and when people start leaning into this narrative that’s sort of built up from outside people, it gets pretty frustrating.”
“I can see how it would hit somebody like Janet or somebody like anybody hard when they’re like, ‘This isn’t me. You know this isn’t me, but you’re trying to use this to your advantage to some extent,’ and it’s hurtful, and it’s tough to watch from the outside of that, too, just because it’s like, my wife is a good person. She has a good heart. She doesn’t do things with ill intent, so to have that out there and have that as a thing that people are trying to use to their advantage is frustrating to see.”
While Janet was involved in several dramatic interactions with her castmates during season two, she said that the main issue was her delivery.
“I think at times my delivery is off and there’s ways I could’ve said things better, and I’ll think you’ll see me this season try to rectify and apologize for the way I handled certain things. But at the end of the day, things happen. We have to talk about it. So it’s maybe more of an apology of like, the delivery at times than the words behind it,” she explained.
Prior to the start of filming on The Valley season three, Janet sought the help of a therapist to help her gain tools to deal with the “anger and sadness” she was feeling.
“I was like, if I’m going to do this, I need to really understand how, what tools I can gain and how I can film with certain people with the anger and sadness I feel around certain topics … so that if I do start feeling angry about a certain topic or sad about something that’s going on, that I don’t necessarily let my emotions get the best of me in these moments, that I can stay calm and have level headed easier conversations instead of blowing up,” she reasoned.
“I’m still not perfect but I do feel like there were definitely moments and conversations that you will see where instead of like, blowing up or like yelling about something I like take a breath, I like listen to what’s happening and I’m like, ‘Okay, let me like express myself in a way that’s not coming from a place of anger or hurt,'” she continued.
As for her biggest challenge amid season three, Janet said she and Kristen had “a lot of tough conversations,” as did she and Jasmine.
“I felt like my conversations with Jasmine ended up becoming productive. In the first couple episodes, you see kind of the worst in our friendship, at its lowest point, but we have really worked to get to a better point, and I adore Jasmine,” she revealed. “We’ve been friends for many, many years … you have your highs and lows. We definitely had some low points this summer. We had some tough conversations, but we got to a productive place.”
Responding to Danny Booko‘s suggestion that Lala had filled the shoes of Jax, Janet denied that Lala had been a pot-stirrer.
“I think Lala is very brave, and she has a sober eye on things. So when Lala says, ’This is what happened, and I didn’t like it,’ I have her back. When everybody’s talking over each other and screaming, Lala’s … dead on every time,” she stated as Jason called Danny’s take “super offensive.”
“We’re saying that a person who was at a point in their life where they needed to go to rehab for several months, Lala, she’s taking that role? No,” he declared. “Lala is a very level-headed person. She speaks her mind, and just because you see a strong woman speaking her mind doesn’t mean she’s a raving lunatic.”
Regarding her hesitations to return to The Valley, Janet said she always considers exposing her life to the cameras.
“I feel like if you don’t question every single season, whether it’s the right decision, then you’re not doing it right,” she noted. “Sharing your life on camera is no joke, and so I think if you don’t do this every single year, is this right for us? Is it right for our family? Like, should we be doing this? It’s just something you have to ask yourself every year.”
Janet then said that she ultimately decided to return to the show because she was already a part of the friend group.
“All of us are friends or enemies at times, but it is real … and I can’t imagine what I’d do all summer if I wasn’t a part of it. I’d be like, what are you guys doing without me?” she said.
The Valley season three airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.