Dorothy Wang has entered the chat. As the new face of Bling Empire’s sizzling second season, the LA native is back on camera.
The living personification of Bling Empire before it was created, Wang is an OG in the game whose posts of a #fabuluxe life on Instagram got her noticed to join Rich Kids of Beverly Hills. Serving main character energy for four seasons between 2014 to 2016, Wang’s candour and unfiltered personality on Rich Kids won our hearts. A wanderlust at heart, Wang currently writes her self-titled travel website.
As the breakout star of season two, Wang spills the tea on her return to reality TV, her dynamic with Kane, the deleted scenes you never got to see in the final cut, why she’s not afraid to be herself and if there will be a Bling Empire spinoff in NYC.
You’re a seasoned reality TV vet. What made you join Bling Empire?
Dorothy Wang: This might sound crazy, but what really convinced me to join Bling Empire was that I just kept getting comments and hearing from people asking me why I wasn’t on it. Ever since the show came out, I just kept hearing it over and over again. So, when I was approached for the show, even though I had my reservations about joining the show and joining this cast, it just seemed like something that everyone really wanted me to do and I just thought “why not?”
On the show, there was some drama between you and Kane. Did the beef happen in real life before Bling Empire or was it directed for the show?
I wouldn’t say there’s necessarily beef with me and Kane. It’s more a situation where there are people that maybe you’ve had interactions with that haven’t been so pleasurable, or people that have wanted to become closer with you, that you didn’t feel comfortable getting closer to that you kind of avoid or keep a distance from. That is more my situation with Kane. As we were filming more and more, he kept trying to pursue a friendship or a relationship with me and requested to film with me and said that we were friends and that we had a lot of mutual friends and certain things that were not really true. It was not directed for the show, but obviously since we were both on the show together, it forced us into a room together where certain dynamics were made more obvious.
Kane has been trying to posit you as the villain, but we’ve seen how you’ve been a good friend to Jaime and Christine. How do you feel about your portrayal on Bling Empire?
Oh, has he? I really was not aware of that, but I don’t really understand what exactly makes me “a villain”. Does having boundaries and choosing who you want to spend your time with make someone a villain? I’m a very honest person, and maybe that’s a hard pill to swallow for some people but I would rather be honest than fake. I know he says that “all I do is gossip and meddle and start drama” but I honestly tried really hard to stay away from him and stay out of even associating with him, but he kept coming up and inserting himself. When you film a show like this, obviously they pick and choose what they feature, and they can’t showcase your whole being. There are so many cast members and there’s only so much time and they’re mostly showing the most “heated moments.” I do feel that there are a lot of more subdued moments that didn’t make it to the show. What you see is probably the sassiest, most heightened version of myself.
Did the confrontation with Kane affect your friendship with Jaime?
The confrontation with Kane did not affect my friendship with Jaime at all. Jaime shares a lot of the same views and reservations about Kane that I do. The only reason Jaime wanted to get us in the same room together was because Kane just kept pestering her to re-introduce us.
At the Chinese medicine shop, we saw that the scene was edited to make it look like you were shading Anna but, you were going there to shop for your meds related to a health issue. If you feel comfortable to share, did you disclose about your health issue while cameras were rolling? And since it got edited out, did they edit the story out themselves or did you ask production not to air it?
So, one of my reservations about joining the show is that during that time, and still currently, I was going through some mysterious health issues that a lot of my Western doctors could not figure out. So, I turned to Eastern medicine. I was getting a lot of allergic reactions and I was just not feeling like my best self.
One of my big hesitations in joining a show is that it takes a toll on your body. I was going to a lot of doctor’s appointments, I had a lot of treatments and a lot of therapies and different things that I had to do just to feel better and with a filming schedule, it can often impede that. But I was told that the show would follow my journey, so, I thought about it, and decided this would be a great opportunity for me to help other people if they were struggling with the same questions and problems.
I also saw this as a way of highlighting Eastern medicine as well, which I believe is extremely important. Unfortunately, none of that journey made it onto the show as I’m watching back now. That being said, when we were going to the Chinese medicine shop to look for herbal detoxes to help get rid of whatever was causing a lot of inflammation and a lot of stress in my body, I did start to love those pills that Andy, the shop owner, recommended. I still take them to this day.
You said that the cast of Bling Empire is so different from Rich Kids of Beverly Hills in terms of personality and age differences. Between the shows, is there some pressure for you to hide parts of your personality to fit into the Bling Empire cast?
I never feel pressure to hide any part of me. I don’t know if viewers have noticed that, but I don’t really care what environment I’m in or who’s around me. I just come in how I am, say how I feel, do what I do, and maybe sometimes leave in a whirlwind. So maybe it’d be more comfortable for some people if I did hide parts of my personality or adjusted to who’s around me, but I’m always just kind of authentically and genuinely myself and I’m not really affected by the people around me. Yes, of course I will adjust and try to be like, polite, if I’m talking to Anna or someone who’s maybe a little bit older, or if we’re at a fancy dinner, obviously I behave differently than if I’m like at a club with my younger friends, but in general I don’t think I hide who I am or my personality.
Are there any scenes that didn’t make it in the final cut of Bling Empire?
With any show, you film a lot more than you need to just to have enough coverage. So, there are definitely things that didn’t make it to the final version of the show. It’s also their job to figure out what they consider to be the most interesting storylines and that’s what you end up seeing on the screen.
Word on the street is that you’re going to NYC. Will there be an NYC version of Bling Empire?
Well, I have already moved to New York. I have been in New York since mid-January and I have been loving it here. The beginning was really rough. It was kind of a challenge for me to transition from LA and to strike out here on my own. But I have a fabulous group of friends here and I love my life here and I would love for there to be a New York version of Bling Empire so that everyone could share this experience with me.
What made you move to NYC?
I grew up in LA. I lived there my whole life. I just felt like I was ready for a change. I love my life in LA, but I was just ready to shake things up and meet new people. I wanted to go on different adventures and to challenge myself.
What differences did you discover in terms of the friends you made in NY vs. the Bling Empire group in LA? Will any of your friends in NYC be featured in Bling Empire?
My friends here are just as fabulous as my friends in LA, but I think that they are a bit younger than the Bling Empire LA crew. They’re hipper, they’re a little bit more in your face. It’s just more New York. I definitely have a fabulous group of Asians that I am friends with, and everyone is more raw and more gritty. New York life is just different. Everyone just goes out more, everything is less nice, less luxurious in general, but the vibe is just so much more fun than LA. More fun and more exciting.
