Adam Olszewski/BravoSomeone give this woman a hug, stat!
Kim Richards isn't your typical Real Housewife. She's virtually homeless, seriously single and shy, so why did she sign on to such a social, fishbowl show? We just caught up with her—she's finally settled down, but far from the 90210 ZIP code—to find out...
"I just thought it'd be fun to do this with my sister [Kyle Richards]," Kim explained. "Plus, my kids were getting older so it felt like the perfect time to kind of get back into working a little bit. I've done a couple films in the past years and I thought, let's try reality TV!"
Apparently Kim hasn't seen much reality TV, however, because she told us, "I thought it was going to be a bunch of girls going out and having fun. I wasn't prepared for the drama and conflict"—or, apparently, crazy Camille. "I like calm...I don't like yelling," added the poor thing, who got a stereo dose of it last night sitting between her sister and Kelsey Grammer's soon-to-be ex. (If Bravo cares at all about this woman's sanity, they will keep her far away from screeching table-flipper Teresa Giudice.)
Even socializing with the Beverly Hills Housewives when they were calm was "very difficult" for Kim at first. "I really have been a stay-at-home mom for a long time. It was a bit overwhelming...adjusting to traveling and going out more and opening up my world."
She grew up around cameras, but Kim said bringing them into her home was a different story. "I'm used to getting a script and someone laying my clothes in the trailer and getting hair and makeup and then we go. And now people are following me doing that in my own life. It's stressful. Opening up your world to cameras is a big thing and being mic-ed all the time—that's a lot to get used to!"
The seasoned actress also wasn't prepared for single takes. "We thought there's be certain days and certain things we could modify, but you cant take things back. You get comfortable around the crew and you forget the cameras are there and you sometimes wanna take things back that you said. But you can't take it back and change it—it's reality!"
Believe it or not, Kim appreciates the fact that RHOBH gave her the chance to "get back out there a bit and be Kim again—independent, without kids all the time."
That's something Kyle, her more outgoing (not to mention confrontational) sister, seems to support. When asked about the sisters' night-and-day personalities, Kim explains that growing up, "Kyle went to school and had tons of friends. I worked almost every day. We're just two entirely different people."
Kim argues with her sister, but she clashes most on the show with Taylor (aka the Mad Hatter). "But even though Taylor and I have arguments on the show," she adds, "we can joke and have fun too. While it was difficult to walk into it at first, by end of the season, I knew everyone [and had] fun with the girls."
Aw. Who said reality shows can't have happy endings?