Kyle Richards may be drawing from her own life for Paramount Network's new series American Woman, but that doesn't mean she has any plans to ask those reality TV co-stars of hers from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills to grace the scripted series with a cameo.
While speaking with E! News at the premiere event for the new dramedy, the Bravolebrity admitted that the idea of her or one of her co-stars making a cameo on the show was addressed—and quickly quashed by the executive producer. However, should one of their famous husbands have some availability during future seasons, it might be a different story.
"Better Harry [Hamlin] to be on the show because I don't want a Housewives distraction," Richards said. "It actually came up about me doing a cameo, like, walking in the background. I said, 'No, I don't want to do that.' I don't want to take out of the moment and distract people. But Harry would be a good one to be on American Woman."
Until then, we'll have to make do with the show's impressive roster of stars, including Alicia Silverstone, Mena Suvari, and Jennifer Bartels. Silverstone stars as Bonnie, an unconventional mother struggling to raise her two daughters after leaving her husband during the rise of second-wave feminism in 1970s Los Angeles. (Suvari and Bartels star as her pals Kathleen and Diana, respectively.) And while Bonnie is only "inspired" by Richards' late mother Kathleen, she admitted that plenty of moments from her childhood are recreated in the series.
"There's going to be a lot of stories—you'll see my life growing up with my mom. The first episode, the pilot, there's a scene where Alicia gets out of the car—Bonnie, her character—and she confronts these men who were following them home. That was something that actually really happened with my mom. It was actually over this ring," Richards shared, raising her hand to show off the jewelry she was sporting. "And she got out of the car and said to my sister Kim and me, 'Wait here, I'll be right back.' And she went and banged on the window and she said, 'See something you like?' And I remember as a kid I was so scared that she was so brave and it made me so nervous and I dove to the floor. And then she got in the car and she said, 'Let that be a lesson, girls. Don't ever let yourself be intimidated by a man ever. You always have to defend yourself.' And that's in the pilot."
As Richards explained, she's hoping that by recreating the moments in her childhood that had a profound effect on her, she might do the same for others. "It meant a lot to me to have moments like that that impacted me and inspired me. And I hope it inspires other young girls or women to just be strong and look after themselves and go after what they want out of life," she said.
As Silverstone noted, don't let the period setting fool you into thinking the series doesn't have anything to say about what it means to be a woman in 2018. "I think they're going to have a really great time and be wrapped up in this incredible world," she responded when asked what she hoped viewers get out of the series. "You just are immediately transported to this time, but at the same time, it's so contemporary. All of the characters and all the things that they're going through are so contemporary, so it's a really neat thing to have that happen at the same time. And I think that they're going to laugh a lot and be moved and hopefully enjoy the juiciness of it all because it's really wild."
For more from Richards, Silverstone and Suvari, be sure to check out the videos above!
American Woman debuts Thursday, June 7 at 10 p.m. on Paramount Network.