By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com
* Ellie’s Facebook page
* MTV’s “Are You The One?”
If you missed last week’s season two premiere of MTV’s “Are You The One?” don’t worry — Ellie Nicole Puckett is just getting started.
The 23-year-old Hamlet native said she was “laid back” on the music station’s newest reality show but that she won’t stay that way for long. The second of 10 episodes is set to air at 10 p.m. Monday. This season, the show features 10 men and 11 women living in a single house in Puerto Rico. If 10 couples are matched by season’s end, they will split a $1 million cash prize — the largest in MTV history.
Image courtesy MTV Productions
Puckett didn’t play a lead role last week in the season opener, but she said that’s about to change.
“As the show goes on, I’ll be a lot more interactive,” Puckett said. “In the beginning, I’m more laid back. I’m scoping the scene. I observe everything. In the next couple weeks, I’m gonna start coming out of my shell. The Rockingham’s probably gonna come out in me.”
It’s difficult if the show can actually match 10 couples, but the sexually suggestive program enters prime time with a no-holds-barred approach — to everything from sex the first night in the house to melting ice blocks with private parts. Last week, the first challenge was for the 10 self-paired couples to obtain a key and open a locked box. The first two couples who did so would win a free luxury date. The catch? The keys were stored within blocks of ice.
Puckett, raised in a Baptist family, had no hesitation about how she planned to get to the key. She used her “vagina heat,” rubbing the ice block between her legs in an attempt to get to the key. Puckett’s team wasn’t one of the first two couples to unlock their boxes, but she had no apologies for the effort.
“You can’t change who I am,” said the 2009 Richmond Senior High School graduate. “I should probably apologize to my grandma and people in Rockingham, in advance … I’m so sorry, mom and grandparents, but this is me when I’m around my age group.”
Puckett was raised by her grandmother, Hamlet resident Janie Puckett. Janie Puckett said her granddaughter need make no apology.
“She was a cheerleader at Richmond Senior High and Hamlet junior,” Puckett said, “and she was in gymnastics, and now she’s a TV star on a reality game show. It’s awesome, ’cause Ellie has always had a positive attitude. She’s always had a mouth on her and a Hollywood attitude.”
Puckett said Ellie has also been an “attention-getter” and on a show like this, that won’t hurt her chances of winning.
“Ellie has no fear,” Puckett said.
Puckett was excited that her granddaughter wears a Richmond Raiders hoodie in one of the episodes. While the show might not be appropriate for all ages, “I’m 62, but I’m gonna watch it.”
Ellie Puckett said she applied via email to the show and was interviewed via Skype, an Internet-based video conferencing service. Producers flew her to Los Angeles for another round of interviews. Within a week, she was told she made the show.
“I wasn’t gonna go at first,” Puckett said. “I was so scared. I love being in Rockingham. I don’t like to leave.”
But leave she did, and the trip was a life-changing experience.
“It was the best time of my life,” she said.
Puckett admitted the cameras “do take some gettin’ used to, at first,” and the transition to such a public atmosphere “kind of held me back a little bit,” but she said she eased into the role just fine.
The aspiring makeup artist said she hopes to one day have her own line of cosmetics.
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