Love Is Blind: UK’s Ryan Williams spills the tea: is the Netflix reality TV show genuine or scripted?
Love Is Blind participant Ryan Williams is currently in Edinburgh, although he frequently travels to Korea for shows. Yep, you read that right: Ryan is a performer. Although, he doesn’t particularly appreciate it when I refer to him as a DJ. Instead, he considers himself a cellist who combined 20 years of experience with DJing—the perfect combination. That’s actually what brought us into each other’s lives, as Ryan reached out to me after I made some interesting comments in an article comparing cellists to bassists and assessing the rumours about their *cough, cough* finger techniques. Luckily, Ryan was flattered and agreed to an interview about his time on season one of Love is Blind: UK.
Now, you may not immediately recognise him from this season, as he wasn’t featured in much of the footage. Despite the show only following six couples, there were actually 30 hopeful singles in the pods.
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I wanted to know more about the people who weren’t chosen for the final edit and whether or not there’s anything authentic about this reality TV show. Luckily enough, Ryan was more than happy to yap about it with me; he even let a few secrets slip that ultimately had to be redacted (very demure, very mindful of me).
How do you sign up for Love is Blind: UK?
Ryan had never watched Love Is Blind before, so he first heard about casting from a friend. He later watched an episode of the US version of the show, which happened to feature the iconic moment where participant Andrew Y. Liu used some fake teardrops during what should’ve been quite a sincere moment. Ryan joked that he was inspired to try that gimmick himself. Unfortunately, this didn’t end up making the cut.
If he wasn’t a fan of the show, why sign up for it? “It’s an interesting opportunity,” Ryan told SCREENSHOT. “You don’t expect to get chosen out of 12,000 people. I don’t think I took it that seriously, to be honest.”
Out of the thousands of applicants, Ryan was one of 15 men and 15 women to be chosen, although his application reached the Love Is Blind gods quite late. “Mine was either at the deadline or past it. They would audition people, for me, it was just a call. I think I met them for 15 minutes at a train station in Edinburgh to prove I’m not a catfish.”
Ryan is jokingly self-effacing and refuses to big himself up, playfully claiming: “Well, they told me they didn’t have anybody Scottish, number one.”
Interestingly, the men didn’t meet for the first time at the pods. Instead, they gathered at a bar before flying to a secret location… Despite how badly I want to tell you where they first met, I’m not keen on getting blacklisted by Netflix just yet.
What was Ryan’s time like on Love is Blind: UK?
Ryan didn’t end up on our screens simply because he didn’t come out of the pods engaged. He actually left the show early, about a week or two after it started. Time is a funny concept in the Love Is Blind universe, so he isn’t quite sure exactly how long he spent under that fluorescent lighting, sipping out of silver goblets—one of which he got to keep as a gift and proudly showed me.
When asked why his time ran short, Ryan replied: “The main reason I left was because there were two groups of men. One group that was really determined to go ahead with the show as much as possible [and] took it extremely seriously. I think for me, it wasn’t as important to go as far as I could. I was thinking ‘Right, am I enjoying this process? Do I think I’ll find someone I really, really gel with?’ For those [questions], I didn’t have a screaming yes.”
As someone who happily leaves a night out the minute I’m bored or hungry, I respect the dedication to staying true to oneself. I am curious though how Netflix felt about this, as we’ve all heard rumours of those concrete contracts and threats to sue. In case you’re not clued into the streaming platform’s legal drama, I am referring to the allegations of poor treatment, excessive filming hours, and inadequate food and refreshments offered to contestants in the past.
As it turns out, Netflix let Ryan leave with grace. “I think American Netflix’s Love Is Blind got so much flack. Our British one was overly nice. They said: ‘Yes, yes, do you need a mental health break?’ We were treated like royalty. They had wellness officers checking in on us all the time. I haven’t been that pampered my entire life; my Korean mother would be raging.”
What was dating like on Love is Blind: UK?
Because I couldn’t stifle my curiosity about the infamous behind-the-scenes disasters of Netflix productions, I asked Ryan more about how the day-to-day production process went. He explained that male participants initially had an hour-long date with each female contestant, so that’s 15 hours in total. That gives a very different impression than the ten seconds we see in the first episode, that’s for sure.
I also enquired if it was easy to fill that time (as someone who prepares conversation topics for every group hang, sorry not sorry), and Ryan countered: “There are so many awkward moments. There are 15 [dates], and you can’t even see their faces. I totally ran out of things to say.” Ryan even got told off for saying the same thing each time, which is likely the editing team’s worst nightmare.
Ryan spills the tea on Freddie and Sam, two of the show’s stand-out contestants
Ryan didn’t spend much time with the female contestants, but he got to know the guys quite a bit. He’s still in touch with Joanes and Freddie, the latter of which made me perk up immediately. I asked him if Freddie is as nice as he’s been portrayed, as the 32-year-old funeral director won the hearts of many—myself included.
“Right, so I will tell you this: Freddie looks like he belongs on Love Island. He’s so handsome that you want to punch him in the face. That guy has got a heart of gold. I think I’ve got a fairly good bullshit barometer. Freddie is a really sound guy. I don’t know why he doesn’t seem more confident. If I were as handsome as him, I’d be so damn full of myself. I’m maybe a tenth of his attractiveness but probably about 1.5 in Big D*ck Energy.”
As for another talked-about contestant, I asked what he thought of the negative public opinion of 31-year-old product design manager Sam, who had described himself on the show as “Peter Pan.”
Many felt Sam wasn’t there to find love, a sentiment echoed by contestant Benaiah. I asked Ryan if he agreed. “I think it’s just a mix of both,” he says, “What’s wrong with just wanting to be on the TV show for fame? I think it’s quite a sensible approach to go.”
“Sam has taken a gambit, and I hope he gets what he wants for it because he’s played a really dangerous gambit jeopardising his reputation… I hope the juice was worth the squeeze for him,” Ryan continued.
Is Love is Blind scripted?
Since we’re on the subject, I seized the opportunity I’ve been looking for: “Do you think the show is legitimate and authentic, or are most people there just to get on TV?”
Ryan takes a moment to ponder this question, and I initially worry that he’ll shy away from it or follow a script prepared by Netflix, celebrating “the experiment.” But to my delight, he answers honestly, “Yeah, I think there’s only one real answer to this. Number one: none of us expect to get on the show. Right, you’re betting your entire love life on being chosen out of 12,000 people to go on a dating show, which is an experiment. To never see a person and then propose to them and that’s the way you want to fall in love. That’s how you’re going to find the love of your life. If you’re betting on that, then you’re a little bit crazy. The most important thing is we’re all on there for an opportunity, and if we do meet somebody that we fall in love with and Netflix is paying for absolutely everything that’s a great deal. As with all things in life, it is a lot of everything.”
Still, he denies the popular belief that Netflix is misediting matters. “Netflix wants to have an interesting show. We’re not idiots, we know that the priority is the show. How [else] are you going to fund such a massive project?”
What’s next for Ryan Williams?
Ryan is open to future dating show opportunities despite not finding what he was looking for on Love is Blind: UK. He’d even consider returning for another season and being “the diversity card for everything.” But if he were going to wade back into reality TV, he’d rather it was for a new season of Squid Game: The Challenge.
Until then, the Scot will be focused on his music career and composing new tracks. You can find more of him on Instagram, @thescottishkorean, so meet him in his DMs, wink, wink. He’s been receiving many keen messages from female fans already, and he takes the time to reply to each of them. Naturally, I’ve been promised a drink and an entire tour of Edinburgh if I ever happen to be around.
