Ebie Wright Says Cast Didn’t Know About Extreme Conditions on ‘Relatively Famous: Ranch Rules’ Ahead of Time (Exclusive)
Ebie Wright from the reality TV show, Relatively Famous: Ranch Rules is no stranger to getting her hands dirty or diving into an immersive adventure. She told Showbiz Cheat Sheet she lived with a family of nomads in Mongolia and hoped the experience on the ranch would be similar.
But she and the rest of the cast were a little surprised when they were tasked with chores like sheep shearing, horseshoeing – and artificially inseminating cattle. For Wright, she especially didn’t anticipate that the high altitude would impact her as severely as it did, which is something that may not have been as clear on the show.
“I don’t think that I had any idea of what ranchers do honestly,” she said. “I figured we’d be around animals, of course. But I didn’t know what the exact jobs were and what it all entailed. And then, we were supposed to be helping them get back on their feet and get ready for a grand reopening after Covid. I was thinking I might go there and work on their social media [laughs]. Invite some other celebrities. I think that would have been more effective. I didn’t know we were going to be getting down and dirty and you’re going to do exactly what we do on our schedule. It was insane.”
Ebie was sick for most of filming
Wright experienced significant anxiety on the show. At one point she had a panic attack, which she recalled was scary. But she was also dealing with tremendous altitude sickness, which plagued her the entire time. “So with altitude sickness, you get kind of dizzy,” she recalled. “You can’t really breathe. And then that scares you. So that triggers the anxiety.”
“And that’s kind of like the panic attack that I was having. I think it was coming from that,” she said. “And I was like that the entire time there. So it’s funny when I see the comments out there and they are like, ‘Ebie’s not doing the jobs.’ I’m like, you guys have no idea what I had to push through.”
The series was filmed in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, which is 6,900 feet above sea level. Altitude sickness is common for visitors. Wright thinks her anxiety stemmed more from not knowing how to manage the altitude sickness over what she was tasked with on the ranch.
“I think I was just scared because I had never been in Colorado and that type of climate,” she explained. “So I never experienced the altitude, being up that high. I think it was just more so that it was just like the nervous thing of like, ‘OK, what will happen?’ Because I’ve never been in this environment before.”
‘Ranch Rules’ drama came mostly from the men on the show
Because she was sick for most of the filming, she didn’t really party as hard as the rest of the cast. “And then it’s so crazy because when we do a good job, we get a day where we can go out and have fun,” she said. “The owners allow us to go out to a restaurant or whatnot. And everybody got to drink and kind of let loose because we’re not working or whatnot. I couldn’t drink either, I couldn’t do anything [laughs]!”
She also laughed about how the majority of the drama on the show comes mainly from the men. Austin Gunn and Harry James Thornton have a major clash during the latest episode and Wright said she was surprised it was the men who were stirring the pot this season. “Isn’t that crazy?” she said.
“I’m sure everyone has seen the one scene with Hana [Giraldo] and Harry,” she recalled when Giraldo and Thronton got into an argument. “And there there’s some more drama coming. It’s not over yet [laughs]! We’re only halfway through the season, and more is coming. But yeah, I was shocked. I would have thought girls would have been a little cattier than the guys. [So] it is interesting because it’s something different.”
Why did Myles O’Neal leave ‘Relatively Famous: Ranch Rules’?
And while she said most of the cast didn’t anticipate the extreme ranch conditions, just about everyone leaned into what they had to do on the show. But after a few days, Myles O’Neal decided to leave. He was seen becoming angry at producers and said he didn’t like how the show was being produced.
Wright, who said she is close to O’Neal, said he had a lot going on. “I think honestly, it’s really tough being there period. For anybody,” she remarked. “And under the circumstances. It’s the environment, the hard work, then we are doing a show here. So 24/7, it does become stressful.”
“And I think really, that’s just kind of all it was,” she added. “And we were totally sad when he left. It did change the energy a little bit. But once he left, like the next day, we had jobs to do and we just really needed to focus on finishing everything and getting ready for the grand reopening. And so we just adjusted very quickly and there’s still so much more to come and it’s still funny and it’s crazy.”
Relatively Famous: Ranch Rules is on every Wednesday at 9/8c on E!
