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\n \u201cI was having an absolute hair nightmare, so when I watch it, all I can see is my hair.\u201d
\n Photo: Fred Jagueneau\/Bravo\n <\/p>\n
So many women who have gotten famous on Bravo did so by being mean, delusional, or mean and delusional, give or take a drinking problem. None of those things applies to Aesha Scott, the Below Deck franchise fixture who became a fan favorite for being relentlessly positive, overwhelmingly nice, and delightfully weird. On a video call from Paris, which she\u2019s visiting for the first time, she says, \u201cI love history, so I want to go see where Marie Antoinette got beheaded.\u201d That\u2019s our Aesha, always a little gross and always a little off-kilter.<\/p>\n
This wild Kiwi got her start as a regular old stew on seasons four and five of Below Deck Mediterranean<\/a> before being promoted to chief stew for the first two seasons of Below Deck Down Under<\/a> and was then recruited back to Below Deck Med starting with last year\u2019s ninth season. She\u2019s holding down the same berth for the show\u2019s tenth, which premieres tonight on Bravo and the next day on Peacock, and interrupted her vacation to talk about the cast members she just couldn\u2019t get along with, whether she would entrust her own imaginary yacht to Captain Jason or Captain Sandy, and the hair disaster she wants to publicly apologize for.<\/p>\n I <\/strong>ranked everybody who has ever been on Below Deck,<\/strong><\/a> and you landed at No. 2. What did you do to deserve such an honor?<\/strong> Are you trying to get to No. 1? Are you coming for Kate Chastain?<\/strong> It takes a lot to get asked back on Below Deck. What\u2019s the secret to becoming a recurring character?<\/strong> That\u2019s the thing about Below Deck. I always say it\u2019s really two jobs: your boat job and your reality-TV job. How do you balance those?<\/strong> You get essentially new stews every season. What advice do you give them about being a good one?<\/strong> And what advice do you give them about being a practitioner of the reality-television arts and sciences?<\/strong> I saw you are <\/strong>currently on The Amazing Race Australia<\/strong><\/a>. How was that? And how did you convince your fianc\u00e9, Scott Dobson, to be on it with you?<\/strong> And they\u2019re like, \u201cShut up. Let Scott say something.\u201d<\/strong> Unlike a lot of stews, we\u2019ve seen you work with both Captain Jason and Captain Sandy. How do your relationships with each of them differ?<\/strong> If you became a billionaire and owned a yacht, which one would you hire to captain it?<\/strong> Yeah. Why couldn\u2019t you just teach Jason to put his own contacts into his eyes?<\/strong> Speaking of people who couldn\u2019t master a job, why couldn\u2019t Bri Muller learn how to do the fucking laundry last season?<\/strong> I watched the first episode of the new season \u2014\u00a0<\/strong> I did notice when they showed some flashbacks, Her hair has changed. What\u2019s going on?<\/strong> Did production say anything when you showed up?<\/strong> What I was going to say about the first episode is that the deck crew is a mess. How does that affect your job?<\/strong> Do you think you would still be working on yachts if it weren\u2019t for the show?<\/strong> What\u2019s Aesha\u2019s offseason look like?<\/strong> You\u2019re always so nice and agreeable. Was there ever a co-worker you just could not get along with?<\/strong> He was a dick.<\/strong> If you ever retire from yachting, what will you miss the most?<\/strong> Related<\/p>\n
You tell me! That was honestly the nicest thing ever, so thank you. Well, you can correct me if I\u2019m wrong, but I feel like throughout this whole experience, I\u2019m one of those cast members who have just stayed authentic and genuine to who I am. I feel like I\u2019ve got this positive energy I bring around with me that spreads to other people. So it\u2019s done me well.<\/p>\n
I would love to be No. 1, but let\u2019s be real, no one\u2019s better than Kate, honestly. I remember I did an aftershow with her a couple of years ago and I finished and called one of the producers and was like, \u201cThat\u2019s the first time in my life I have felt so dull and not funny in the slightest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, your guess is as good as mine, especially because I\u2019ve got a partner and often it\u2019s preferred that there isn\u2019t one. I\u2019ve always just stayed true to who I am, and I think that\u2019s the golden recipe for reality TV. And I think I\u2019m really good at my job.<\/p>\n
I feel very fortunate because, especially now that the show has gotten so big, I can see people coming on and freaking out and they\u2019re really self-producing themselves. Ellie Dubaich, a stew from last season<\/a>, was someone like that. Every time she had to answer a question, you could see her being like, What do the people want to hear? What\u2019s going to make me look really good? Whereas for me, ever since I\u2019ve come on, I\u2019ve found it so easy to just completely forget the world\u2019s even there, and I just still run around as though no one\u2019s watching me.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t be lazy and don\u2019t complain, especially in the Med because, for whatever reason, there always seems to be only three of us. That is so intense, running the boats that we do with only three people. And we\u2019re all in these trenches together, so I just don\u2019t want to hear any complaints. Negative energy spreads so quickly, so as soon as one person starts complaining, before you know it, the whole boat\u2019s miserable.<\/p>\n
I really, really encourage them to just be as authentic as possible because the viewers aren\u2019t stupid. Viewers can sense the energy through the TV screen, and they\u2019ll be able to tell if you are being your real self or not. And if you\u2019re not, they\u2019re not going to like you because they\u2019ll be like, But who is this person?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve watched that show since I was 13, so I\u2019ve wanted to be on it for so, so long. But Scott didn\u2019t take much convincing because he\u2019s an adventure man himself. He loves traveling in new places, so he was the perfect person to do it with. The only thing he found hard was, similar to Below Deck, between each leg of the race, we\u2019ve got to sit down and do those confessionals; he found those so awkward. I also found it hard because I\u2019m used to sitting in the chair by myself. I just took every question they asked.<\/p>\n
Exactly. I would say, every third question, I\u2019d be like, sitting there busting to answer but just sitting and staring at him. Then he said, \u201cWhen you sit there and stare at me, it makes my mind go blank and I can\u2019t say anything.\u201d So I\u2019m like, \u201cWell, what do you want me to do?\u201d<\/p>\n
Oooh, good question. I feel like when I worked with Jason, it was very much a brother-sister kind of relationship. We would just give each other shit all the time, make fun of each other. Whereas with Sandy, it\u2019s like we\u2019ve just been besties forever. I\u2019ve got a very big inner child, and people don\u2019t realize with Sandy that she also does. If I\u2019ve got five minutes to spare, I always go to the bridge and sit with Sandy and we\u2019ll just look at memes or show each other stupid shit and sit there crying laughing.<\/p>\n
Oh, Sandy. Watching the way she backs a boat into any slip, she honestly is the most badass captain I\u2019ve ever, ever worked with.<\/p>\n
I tried so many times, and that man \u2014 I don\u2019t know where the connection gets lost between his brain and his fingers and his eyes. I sat for so long trying to teach him to put in his contacts, and he\u2019s just incapable. It\u2019s like that\u2019s his Achilles\u2019 heel.<\/p>\n
Oh my God, you tell me. We realized at the end she\u2019d asked for colors instead of initials because everyone\u2019s brain works differently \u2026 but I don\u2019t understand how on the side of the shirt there\u2019s a tag, and the tag says A.S., and the only person on this whole goddamned boat with the initials A.S. is Aesha Scott. Whose else could it be? That\u2019s part of learning to become a nice teacher, I guess.<\/p>\n
Can I just say, by the way, I\u2019ve also just watched the first episode, and I really have to stress: This is literally the ugliest season I have ever done because I was having an absolute hair nightmare, so when I watch it, all I can see is my hair. It looks so bad, so I want to apologize for that.<\/p>\n
I had this crisis about a month before I came. I was like, Oh my God, you basic bitch, you\u2019ve been on TV for this many years and you\u2019ve just always had long brown hair. How boring. And I was like, I\u2019m going to cut it and go blonde. So before I came, I had fully bleached it and cut it off and then two days before we started filming, I freaked out and I was like, I look like I\u2019ve got kidney problems. So sick. It just wasn\u2019t sitting well. So then I went to dye it, but because I\u2019d bleached it, the dye just fell out of my hair. So that\u2019s why you see the browns, the reds, a bunch of blonde coming through.<\/p>\n
Well, you could tell they didn\u2019t think it was my best look.<\/p>\n
Well, them being a mess affects my job because it\u2019s so intense and there\u2019s so much to do, and the only way you can really get through sometimes is by being a family. And because the deck crew has four and I\u2019ve got three, they usually have less to do, so we really rely on them helping in their spare time and changing our bins and helping us run plates. And if they\u2019re an absolute mess out there taking three hours to do a half-hour job, that means any support I would get is taken away. But I must say, there is this selfish little part of me that\u2019s so happy it\u2019s finally not my department that\u2019s gone to shit.<\/p>\n
No, I don\u2019t think so. Yachting is the best thing that\u2019s ever happened to me in my life, but it\u2019s so all-encompassing. When you\u2019re there, you have to be fully in it, and you miss all the birthdays and the weddings and this and that. But that\u2019s why I\u2019m so grateful to the show because I get my hit of yachting without having to be in it the whole year.<\/p>\n
I tend to be in a new place every two weeks because obviously the show is so big and things are blowing up so much that, like, I\u2019ll go here for a week for some event, and then here for a week to do some press, and then I\u2019m doing a brand deal over here. I\u2019m just traveling all the time, which I\u2019m very grateful for because I love change. As soon as I\u2019m somewhere for a month, I\u2019m like, Oh, get me out of here. The settled life is not for me.<\/p>\n
Yeah, Ryan McKeown<\/a>, the chef from Below Deck Down Under season one. I tried to be nice, but I just really, really struggled with Ryan.<\/p>\n
He was. He was so mean to me, and I feel like I never did anything to him. Tom Checketts<\/a>, the chef from Below Deck Mediterranean, he was also so mean to me. And then remember Jamie Sayed<\/a>, the bosun from season one of Down Under? Struggled to get along with him. Jo\u00e3o Franco<\/a>, the bosun on Below Deck Mediterranean? Always struggled to get along with him. He\u2019s great at work; it\u2019s just outside of work. That\u2019s the adult professional life, isn\u2019t it? We\u2019ve all got to work with people we don\u2019t get along with very well.<\/p>\n
The camaraderie. You end up just being such your authentic, silly, weird self with these people, and you grow such bonds because it\u2019s like trauma bonding. No one outside of yachting can understand what it\u2019s like.<\/p>\n