By Angelique Thomas
angelique@newsroom.byu.edu
MTV's 'The Real World' casting special, June 6 at 8 p.m., will reveal that one of its stars is a BYU student.
Julie Stoffer, 20, a junior from Delafield, Wis., spent her winter semester as one of the seven cast members for the new season.
'The Real World' is MTV's popular and long-running real-life drama. It documents the lives of college-age strangers sent to live together for a few months somewhere in the world. Every moment of their lives is videotaped and broadcast in episodes on the network music channel.
The taping lasted four months with six strangers sharing a home, the Belfort Mansion, in New Orleans.
Stoffer said that when MTV came to Provo fall semester she and her friend went to tryouts at the Wrapsody on a whim.
MTV called her back and she went through seven or eight rounds of interviews to make it to the semi-finals round in Los Angeles.
The interviews were all different; such as a video tape, a 40 page application, phone interviews and a series of recorded phone interviews with a camcorder recording herself then she would mail in the tapes.
'The interviews asked questions to get to know every angle and every facet that is Julie,' Stoffer said.
She said originally, she was not planning on doing the show because she lived at King Henry Apartments and King Henry filters out MTV.
'I was on the attitude that MTV is evil because it is all blocked off, but I learned better,' Stoffer said.
She said the trip to Los Angeles for the semi-final interview was an amazing trip.
'I thought if three days in LA can be this awesome, four months might be even better,' Stoffer said. 'After that I decided that I might as well do the show if I get accepted; and they picked me.'
The show itself does not have any directing or writing. The story of each cast member is told through the interactions with each other.
Stoffer said being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is part of her character on the show.
In the first episode which airs June 13, they have a shot of Stoffer going into an LDS church house, she said.
'I talk about Mormonism, and I have my apartment at King Henry on the first episode because it shows my TV screen not getting MTV.'
Stoffer said that all of her Real World roommates had to deal with some kind of stereotype and being a na?ve Mormon was hers.
She said the frustrating thing about being LDS was that it was compared to being sheltered.
She said 'MTV was not trying to portray LDS people as na?ve or sheltered, it is just that 'Julie the Mormon' came out as that when my roommates found out different things about me.'
'For example when my roommates found out that I didn't have MTV at my apartment, that was all it took for them to say this girl is so sheltered that she can't even get MTV at her complex,' Stoffer said.
She said her Real World roommates had a lot of preconceived notions about the LDS faith and she had to spend time dispelling a lot of myths about the LDS religion.
For the most part her Real World roommates respected her religion, she said.
She also said her roommate Jamie from Chicago lived five minutes from the temple but knew nothing about the LDS faith and had the hardest time with it.
'I didn't go to convert anyone to Mormonism. I went to hopefully open people's eyes,' Stoffer said.
She said her favorite thing was talking to her Real World roommates.
'We would get in heated arguments about stuff but we would talk it out. I would learn so much from them and they would learn so much from me,' Stoffer said.
She said the whole experience has strengthened her testimony to be more firm in the things that she believes.
It has helped her make a better distinction between Mormon culture and Mormon religion, she said.
'Overall I walked away from it very confident in what I believe and what I know to be true,' she said.
'I am thankful for the whole experience because I have been able to make awesome friendships with people that I never would have been friends with before,' Stoffer said.
Stoffer said her most memorable experience was a vacation to South Africa with the Real World cast.
'It was amazing because first I got out of Provo, then I get out of the country,' Stoffer said. 'I thought, 'Wow' there is a big world out here that I have never seen.'
She has not seen all the episodes yet but she said there would be things BYU students might be shocked by.
Drinking Mountain Dew or developing a relationship with one of her Real World roommates might make some BYU students think she is a bad representative for the LDS Church, Stoffer said.
She welcomes this because she hopes students will realize that there is nothing wrong with appreciating or loving someone who is of a different religion.
She said the worst thing about the experience happened before she even left to do 'The Real World.'
Stoffer said in the beginning, her parents were not very accepting of her being a part of 'The Real World.'
But after seeing the process, they are now super supportive, she said.
'The most adversity I faced was from people in Provo that were closed minded to the whole idea of MTV because for some reason in our culture MTV represents this big evil,' Stoffer said.
She thinks it is ridiculous the way people will develop a prejudice about things they know nothing about, she said.
'I live with a gay man and with some people with very different values and morals than I do, but who cares, I still love them,' Stoffer said. 'They have different lifestyles but it doesn't make them evil, they are people just like me.'
'I personally wouldn't do it as a Mormon but it is her life and she can make her own decisions,' said Cathy Exon, 21, a junior from San Diego, majoring in Public Relations. Exon was Stoffer's neighbor at King Henry apartments.
Stoffer said she does not see a problem with having the LDS religion portrayed in movies.
'I think that by protecting our religion from media we are only feeding into the cult-like stereotype,' Stoffer said.
Being open minded and informed protects from ignorance and stereotypes that come along with it, she said.
With her life constantly being caught on camera, many would wonder if she encountered problems or was bothered by the constant attention.
Stoffer said she forgot the cameras were there because she got wrapped up in the life she was living until she started getting free food at restaurants.
'I didn't get insecure when I woke up in the morning looking all nasty because I knew they were not going to use that useless footage,' Stoffer said.
Now she has pre-made 'scrap book' home videos all done.
'I look at them and think did I really look like that, and why didn't I brush my hair that day, but big deal it's a TV show,' Stoffer said.
Stoffer said she does not know why she was chosen, other than one time they told her she was a vocal person and wore her emotions on her sleeve.
To BYU students Stoffer said, 'open your minds, be accepting, stay strong to what you believe, and watch a little MTV.'
Stoffer said she will be launching a Web site, planetjulie.com, with information about herself and her experiences.
'I called it that because my roommates would sometimes tell me I was off in my own little world, in my own little planet.'
As for the future, Stoffer has a full plate to keep her busy.
She thinks she will do the Real World/Road Rage Challenge July through September so she will return to BYU on the Fall 2000, second block semester.
Carri Jenkins, assistant to the president, University Communications said that BYU students are asked to live the residential living standards if they are a continuing BYU student, regardless of whether a student is enrolled in classes or not.
'We do not have very much information, but if issues come up they will be reviewed,' Jenkins said.