Accidental Love? - Perri Kiely

A change

The last few days have been weird. For nearly a whole year I played Elle so not performing and not going to the theatre has been different. I still get up for my runs because I have to keep something the same. However, today I am not because it is Saturday and I am going to the ITV studio for my interview. I'm scared but so so excited!

I get up and get dressed into something casual but still fashionable. I put on a little bit of make-up, have some breakfast and make my way to the studio.

I walk into the studio, sign in at the front desk and they take me into a meeting room with the producers of the show.

"Hello Emily," a person walks up to me shaking my hand, "I'm Richard Cowels, this is Chris and this is Becca," he says introducing me to them. I say hello to all of them. 

"We are so terribly sorry that this is at such short notice so it is going to be slightly rushed as we need to get everything done today!" Becca continues, "Let's get the boring stuff over with and then go onto the fun things" 

I nod my head in agreement. We sit a talk for about 2 hours about the safety terms and come to an agreement of how much I will get paid at the end of all of this. I've always wanted to go on this show so I would go on it for free but I still need the money as I don't know how long I would be without a job. That means I had to push for the highest number I could get. They also kindly added on a bonus as it took them a long time to find someone who would sign up so late. I ended up with a £150,000, which I know is more than most people. 

Once that meeting finished, we went to another room to film the interview for the reveal of the cast. A person came in to touch up my makeup a bit and then another person came in and introduced themselves.

"Hi, I'm Frankie. I'm going to be shooting your reveal interview. I will ask questions but my voice won't be heard in the clip so your going to have to include the question into your answer. The camera is going to be constantly rolling and we'll just pick out the things we want to use," she says in a joyful tone, smiling at me.

I nod to show I understand what she's saying.

"So let's get started," she says, "Firstly just introduce yourself. Say your name, what you do and just anything important basically." She then turns on the camera and starts recording.

"Hi, I'm Emily Green. I'm an actress at the West-End or you may know me from going on Britain's Got Talent a few years ago," I state looking into the camera.

"Good, what food will you miss the most?" she asks.

"The food I am going to miss the most is spaghetti bolognese. It's been my favourite meal for as long as I can remember," I reply.

"What are your fears?" she asks.

"I don't really know what I am scared of so hopefully from this experience I would know," I smile into the camera. I didn't want to give away my fears because I know the public would vote for me to do the trails I would hate. 

"Have you ever watched the show and what are you most excited for?" she asks.

"This show is honestly my most favourite thing in the world! I have dreamed about going on it. I think I am most excited about meeting my other camp mates and creating memories I'd keep forever," I reply.

"What do you think you'll bring to the jungle?" she asks.

"I think I am going to bring fun to the jungle and maybe unintentionally annoy people because I sing too much," I laugh.

She kept asking loads of questions so they had loads of footage to use. I then was taken to another room for clothes fittings and a photo shoot. I had to stand in front of a green screen and do different poses. Frankie joked around saying I should be a model, which made me laugh and smile causing the photos to look good. I quite like photography. I done it as a subject at school. It was going to be my fall back if I didn't make it as an actress. 

Frankie looked over at the producers and they nodded their heads. "I think this is all that we need now. I'm surprised we got this all done today. It usually takes months," she says laughing. Then I realise the time. Its 18:00. I've been here for 7 hours! 

"I'm used to doing this much. Theatre is a very busy world too," I reply. She starts packing away her equipment into different bags. 

"Like Frankie said, this is a process that normally takes months to do and we've done it in a day so thank you so much for accepting this. Your flight out would be the latest one we could book so you will have as much time as you can get packing things, making arrangements and telling family about what is going on," Richard says.

I nodded said thanks you and goodbyes to the team and headed home. It's so surreal that all of this is happening. It's like a dream. 

I called my mum and told her all about the meeting at ITV and said I gave them her E-Mail so they can contact her about being on the show to support me. We spoke for hours because we don't talk that often. I haven't properly seen her or my family for almost a year due to being busy with my show. I wish I could see her before the flight to Australia but shes too busy to meet up. By the time we finished speaking to was time to go to sleep. 

The next week went very fast and before I knew it. It was the day I'm going to the other side of the world. I looked at the time, 6:00. I had 6 hours until my flight. I had packed a few days ago and made sure I definitely have everything, even though most of the time I would be in the jungle. I grab something to eat and then got on the train, making my way to the airport.

Once I got there, I started to get a little panicky as it was my first time on a plane in about 10 years and I had never gone alone either. I have bad experiences with planes and flying because my ears are very sensitive so when we come into landing they hurt, a lot. 

The whole journey was fine, until the landing. I had everything with me that was suppose to help but it didn't. All I done was try not to make it too suspicious that I was in pain so just lay my head on the table and close my eyes, trying to ignore the pain.

After what felt like years but was actually like 10 minutes, we finally landed. I stepped out of the plane and it was so hot. I took off my hoodie immediately. I go through security, grab my bag and walk out of the airport and saw Frankie waiting for me near a taxi.

"Hi!" I smile, walking up to her and giving her a hug.

"Hey Em! I was asked to collect you and take you to the hotel. It's to make sure you don't bump into any other celebs," she explains. 

I nod my head and get into the taxi. We talk about whats happening tomorrow as that is the start of this crazy journey. She also says how I'm the last to arrive. She leads me to my room and points out where her room in just in case I need anything. 

I walk into my room and it is massive. I don't really take it all in as I am so tired from flying. I decide to have a shower for tomorrow and then go straight to bed.

I lay on the huge bed and wonder who I might meet. Then I start to think of Perri again... I regret not talking to him.