‘Fixer Upper’: Why Chip Gaines Said His First Time on Camera Was ‘Awful’ and ‘Terrible’
Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines starred on Fixer Upper for years and built an empire from the HGTV show. But there were times when Chip wasn’t so comfortable on camera. Here’s what the real estate mogul said about his experience at the beginning and end of filming Fixer Upper.
Chip Gaines said he felt ‘caged’ and trapped’ while filming ‘Fixer Upper’
Fixer Upper star Chip Gaines has always expressed gratitude for the HGTV show he co-starred on with his wife, Joanna. But in the final seasons of the home renovation show, Chip revealed that he started to feel uncomfortable.
“TV was a funny thing for me. I’m an authentic, sincere person. So, as long as things are natural and organic, I’m in my element,” he told Cowboys & Indians in December 2018. “But the more staged something becomes, or the more required something becomes, it boxes me up, and I felt like toward the end of the Fixer Upper journey, I felt caged, trapped.”
Chip said that at first, he and his wife couldn’t understand why filming became so tough for him after they had already been doing the show for years. “Jo and I couldn’t figure it out. I mean, why? You’re getting to have all this fun, right?” he said. “But it’s like if I put a camera in your face and said, ‘Hey, say something funny.’ Or if I put a camera in your face and said, ‘Hey, be smart.’ I just struggled with that environment. Especially at the end of it.”
Chip Gaines said his first time on camera was ‘awful’ and ‘terrible’
Chip Gaines said that filming Fixer Upper was difficult toward the end of the show, and he also admitted to struggling in the early days of filming. He and Joanna Gaines told Today about their first week of filming, when they weren’t even sure they had a TV deal yet.
“I was awful … terrible,” said Chip (per The List).
Joanna added that her husband wasn’t speaking, and he kept going behind the camera rather than in front of it. Chip explained, “I got all jazzed about the equipment itself. You know, I was behind the camera with the camera operator, being like, ‘What does that button do?’”
The ‘Fixer Upper’ star found a way to make himself more comfortable on camera
After his initial discomfort with filming, Chip Gaines stumbled upon a way to make himself more comfortable in front of the camera.
He bought a houseboat where he thought his family could live for six months while their home was being renovated. Joanna was not pleased with the solution.
But they worked together to figure out what to do with the houseboat and where they would live. “We can be as mad as we want at each other or we can figure out the problem,” Chip said.
And working through that issue made them forget the cameras were even there. Chip found that once he had a problem to focus on, the camera people melted away. Solving the boat dilemma on film ultimately helped the couple land their HGTV show.
“As we’re walking off towards, basically, defeat and misery, the camera guy put his camera down, and he was like, ‘If I do my job, you’ve just got yourself a reality television show.’ So it was a special moment.”
