Aubrey O’Day’s been blazing your TIVO through four seasons of Making the Band. Never one to fear overexposure, the Danity Kane frontwoman decided to show us what truly makes a Bad Girl tick. A word of advice: get your ice bath ready.
This feature originally appeared in Complex's October 2008 issue.
With all due respect to the other girls in Danity Kane, it’s easy to see why Diddy built his group around Aubrey O’Day. Simply put, Aubrey is that chick: the stunner who attracts paparazzi and Broadway1 producers alike, and the talent least likely to fall into the post-reality-show abyss2. But with great attention comes great hate. Aubrey’s also the only Kane girl to be dubbed a “slore,” to have her every outfit ridiculed, and to be romantically linked with Diddy (all on the always-accurate and ever- compassionate intarwebs).
So, to put it in Complex terms: Is Aubrey O’Day a wifey or a trifey? Predictably, the answer is, well, complex. The 24-year-old is well-traveled and smart enough to have pursued law school3, but silly enough to use a portrait of herself as her phone’s screensaver. She talks a great game about having sex, but you can tell she’s more into making love4. And she’s passionate about both her AIDS charity and porn. It’s a blurry line between her envelope-pushing “character,” and the real O’Day. In short, she’s a lady that you’ll probably want to get to know better.
When people see you in the tabloids and blogs, they tend to think ....
That I’m a ho, a dumb blonde girl.
I wouldn’t necessarily say that.
No, let’s address it, because that’s what everybody says.
Well, when you’re out at clubs, you must get approached in an aggressive way.
I think urban guys look at me and are like, “Here’s the white girl I’m gonna fuck.” Like, I met a famous basketball player the other night.
Who? What team?
I can’t, he’s too big. And, like, married.
LeBron! Carmelo! Yao Ming?!?!
[Silence.]
Okay, I’ll stop.
So this nasty guy came up to me and says, “Come here. I’m the man, haven’t you heard?” And I said, “Well, I’m the woman, haven’t you heard?” And he was like—this is the third thing out of his mouth—“Well, I have a hotel here, so when are you going to come by to my room?”
Smooth.
It was so embarrassing and corny. I was disgusted. It’s funny that they think they can talk to me like that, like it’s so easy. “There’s that ho from Danity Kane, let me get her off tonight.”
If I have to be ridiculed and called a whore and the party animal and the dumb girl for the rest of my career, I’m OK with that. Because I love who I am.
Do you feel at all responsible for building that sort of persona on Making the Band?
You don’t build your persona on reality TV. They build your persona on reality TV. I just learned to stop wanting to control it. Hey, they need the bad girl of the group, and no one else is going to take that role.
So you stepped in.
Out of this group of women, I am definitely the most daring. I would be the natural pick for the badass. This is the truth about me—I’m just really real. I have friends that are drag queens in sex shows, and I have friends that are very religious and conservative. I don’t judge people. The one thing that you could do to upset me is to be judgmental or make close-minded comments.
You mean, like all tabloids and blogs?
If I have to be ridiculed and called a whore and the party animal and the dumb girl for the rest of my career, I’m OK with that. Because I love who I am. You’re going to have to interpret me however you’re going to interpret me.
Do you think people interpret you as a player?
Totally, and somebody that has sex a lot, too. Honey, I’d be in a much better mood right now. [Laughs.] Definitely misconceptions. I’ve only been with, um…my boyfriends.
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