It’s hard for the audience not to see that Elizabeth Chambers and the cast of Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise are filming two different shows.
While Elizabeth, 41, is predominantly focused on the opening of her BIRD Bakery company’s first location in Grand Cayman, the Freeform series also stars Selita Ebanks, Courtney McTaggart, Chelsea Flynn, Craig Jervis, Connor Bunney, Cass Lacelle, Julian Foster, Aaron Bernardo, Teri Bilewitch, Dillon Claassens, Victoria Coleman and Trevor Coleman.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, the full cast offered their perspective on the division between the cast — and how that affected filming.
“I feel like every episode brings its own little twist and turn. Some people might be cool in this episode [while on the] next episode, someone might hate each other. It’s a roller-coaster,” Aaron, 40, teased to Us. “And we go through it. It’s real life. So we might be cool today and something might happen tomorrow.”
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Aaron called the ups and downs between the cast not just “entertaining” but “organic” as well, adding, “This is us. So it’s real life problems [and] real island things.”
One divide on display in the first few episodes of the show is willingness to talk about Elizabeth’s ex-husband, Armie Hammer. While Elizabeth documented highlights in her career, the rest of the Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise cast was asked about the high-profile split. The drama got even messier when Armie’s first interview about the accusations of rape, mutilation and cannibalism broke as the cameras were rolling.
“We really didn’t know a lot going into it. And when the story broke, I wasn’t really sure what to think. [When] I don’t have all the facts, I try to stay away from commenting as much as possible in the beginning,” Trevor, 34, explained to Us about his and wife Victoria’s reactions. “But we’re on the show and it came up, so you kind of have to form an opinion.”
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Based on the trailer, the distance between the cast and Elizabeth remains the same throughout the season – something Cass, 32, and Craig, also 32, hinted at during her joint interview with Us.
“You will have to watch the show to see,” Craig said before joking, “It’s not a good start for sure. [Elizabeth] has a long way to go [with the cast]. Maybe [in] season 15.”
So far viewers have only seen Elizabeth share the screen with Cass and her friend Julian.
“There’s definitely a bit of pressure and it was kind of coming from a place of being very good friends with Elizabeth and getting really close to her and how that friendship evolves,” Julian told Us. “Then being really close to everybody else in the group, I kind of wanted to make sure that everybody was getting along and that proved fairly difficult, which you’ll see.”
Julian added: “It’s always hard when you’re trying to do something for somebody who doesn’t necessarily want that. So [that was] definitely a lesson.”
Selita, 41, meanwhile, was proud of her decision to remain “authentic” no matter what. “I did not care to incorporate myself into that messiness. I don’t have a personal relationship with Elizabeth to have a say or anything like that,” she noted about the drama addressed on screen. “And also, I just think that I have a million other things going on.”
As for Chelsea, she was one of the cast members who wasn’t thrilled that Elizabeth “didn’t show up” to group outings.
“This is a small place and people respect authenticity here. Respect is such a big thing on an island like this,” Chelsea told Us. “You’ve got to respect the people. You’ve got to respect the culture. You’ve got to respect the island.”
Elsewhere in the show, Courtney, 34, claimed Elizabeth accused her via a fake Instagram account of being one of Armie’s mistresses. Courtney denied the accusations on the show and in a clip from the trailer, Elizabeth said she wasn’t the person behind the fake accounts.
“We weren’t complaining [when Elizabeth didn’t film with us],” Courtney said to Us. “For me, the goal was to have that conversation. And I actually wanted to come at it from a very kind of understanding place.”
Courtney hinted that she wasn’t able to work out her differences with Elizabeth when they finally met face to face, adding, “There’s only so much you can do. If the person you’re trying to have that mature conversation with gives zero accountability then you kind of reach the end of hoping for anything.”
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Courtney isn’t the only person who chooses to address their issues on screen. Victoria, 30, opened up to Us about her upcoming conversation with Elizabeth, which didn’t appear very friendly.
“I heard things being said about me, which you’ll later find out. But I don’t appreciate people talking about me if they don’t even know me,” she hinted. “So it does get a little bit dramatic between Elizabeth and I as well as you’ve seen on the teaser. True colors do show, so you’ll see a lot more of that.”
Not every cast member, however, chose sides. Dillon, 45, and Teri said their approach was not forming an opinion based on other people’s experiences.
“You definitely sense in the show that there’s this division, especially in the group that is against Elizabeth in the show. But we’re pretty neutral in this at this point because we don’t know enough,” Dillon explained to Us. “We haven’t hung out enough. We don’t have any animosity or anything against Elizabeth. But in the scenes we filmed where she was in the room or came to certain functions, we definitely felt the tension in the air. No doubt about that.”
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Teri noted that the same rule applied once Armie was brought up, saying, “I think it’s a private matter and it really doesn’t involve us and it’s not really our business to comment on it. So we didn’t really want to be involved in that conversation too much. We didn’t really feel like commenting or inserting ourselves into that situation.”
Despite the noticeable onscreen rift, Elizabeth told Us that she learned a lot while filming Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise.
“I would say certainly this is not my reality. This show is not my reality that exists for me on my day-to-day basis. My day-to-day is flying in and out doing my other show with my kids. But it was fun,” she shared. “I think the lesson is, ‘Be true to yourself and don’t do anything or say anything that you will regret.’ Of course, that’s not necessarily what’s always shown on screen, but ultimately it’s just knowing yourself and having those boundaries and being authentic in the process.”
Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise airs on Freeform Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET and is available to stream on Hulu the next day.
