"The Real World's" Elka, Las Vegas Sun, June 25, 2001

They’re For Real:Las Vegans featured on MTV’s reality series Lisa Ferguson Monday, June 25, 2001 | 8:38 a.m. There's a lot to be said for living in the real word and on "The Real World." But until recently 23-year-old Elka Walker hasn't spoken much about the latter. The Brownsville, Texas,-native-turned-Las Vegas resident was one of seven cast members featured on the hip MTV series when it set up shop in Boston in 1997. Walker spent five months rooming with six other twentysomethings in a renovated firehouse in Beantown's Beacon Hill area. During that time most aspects of their real lives were captured on tape and later aired on the cable-network show. It's a scenario that's been played out on the series in other cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Miami, Seattle, Honolulu and, most recently, New Orleans. The purpose, as the show's weekly introduction explains, is to follow the "true story of seven strangers picked to live in a house and have their lives taped to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real." "The Real World" is largely credited with having birthed the current white-hot genre of "reality television." For its 10th season, premiering at 10 p.m. July 3 (Cox cable channel 30), "The Real World" heads back to where it began in 1992 -- New York City. As in past seasons the show will follow another group of roommates living in a fancy pad who, this time around, will also collectively work as a marketing team for a major record label. The season previews at 10 p.m. Tuesday with a casting special that combines "The Real World" with MTV's other reality show, "Road Rules," which premieres its season on July 9. The special will introduce the 23 finalists for both shows and demonstrate the selection process. At the end of the special, 13 finalists will be named for "Road Rules" and seven will be tapped for "The Real World" (both shows were taped earlier this year). Walker, a recent UNLV graduate who majored in communications, will be watching. So will Walter O'Douling, her Irish-rocker fiancee who also appeared on a couple episodes of "The Real World" when he visited Walker while she lived at the Boston house. O'Douling, who lives with Walker, leads the Wild Celts, the house band at Regent Las Vegas' J.C. Wooloughan Irish Pub. "It's really an intrusive but brilliant look into your own life. It really is very scrutinizing. It's really a mirror," Walker says of her experience on "The Real World," from mid-January through June of 1997. Reality sets in Walker was 18 when the show was taped -- the youngest member of the household. Her roommates included 25-year-old ladies man Syrus; Wisconsin lumberjack Sean (25); Genesis, 20-year-old lesbian from Mississippi; poet/spoken word artist Jason (24); 19-year-old Stanford University student Kameelah; and 21-year-old aspiring paleontologist Montana. (The last names of "The Real World" roommates are not revealed on the show.) Besides living in the firehouse, the Boston roommates were also assigned to assist children at a community center and took a group vacation to Puerto Rico. Back in 1996 Walker, who was attending college in Texas, saw an ad on MTV looking for potential "Real World" participants and submitted an audition tape. It was the beginning of an application process that lasted four months before she learned she'd made the cut for the Boston cast. She'd been a "big fan" of previous "Real World" seasons. But she didn't mention that to the show's producers, Bunim-Murray Productions. "I had a feeling that might effect whether they would choose me -- maybe I was too savvy. But nothing can prepare you for" being on the show, she says, "even if you kept up with every single season. It's something that's very unique and remarkable." Still mourning her mother's death from cancer months earlier, Walker made the painful decision to join the show and leave her widowed father and younger brother behind in Texas. She says she thinks that inner turmoil played a role in her landing on the show, as it became a focal point of her story, along with her religious upbringing, moral fortitude (she gained notoriety for being the house's virgin) and her ongoing long-distance relationship with O'Douling, who was living in London. "I really think that's why they ended up choosing me, and that's OK, I understand," Walker says. "If I was a producer I would probably say, 'Hey, let's get her because she's probably totally (emotionally) shattered and it will be so interesting to see how she evolves.' "I don't think I gave them necessarily what they were looking for because I kind of kept to myself most of the time." Indeed. Walker says her friends in Brownsville were surprised how low-key their outgoing buddy appeared on the show. "It's so funny because all of my friends were like, 'What happened to you? You were so quiet,' " she recalls. "It's intimidating. I had never moved away from home ... I didn't know anything about (Boston). I didn't even know to ride a subway." And cameras were there to capture her naivete on tape. Candid cameras Being followed by a camera crew is "kind of weird," Walker says. They taped her and the other roommates for about 10 hours each day. Meanwhile only about 11 hours of footage is shown during the show's entire season. "You never really forget they're there," she says of the cameras. "You're always aware of it ... but you get used to it. That's the best way to describe it." The filming did not, however, take place around the clock. "If you go down the street to buy a CD, they're not gonna follow you to do that ... But if you're having a conversation with somebody that pertains to some storyline, or there's some drama that could prevail, well of course they do." Also caught on film: Walker's then-blossoming romance with O'Douling, whom she had met the previous summer. Their phone conversations were aired, as well as footage of the two stealing PG-13-rated intimate moments at the house. One of Walker's most embarrassing moments on the show, she says, was when she and O'Douling were caught by the cameras (and the other roommates) making out on the house's pool table. "The only thing that I regret," the 27-year-old O'Douling says, "is that our children and grandchildren (can say), 'Hey, you guys were doing what we're trying to do. Now leave us alone.' And they can play back the tape and see the two of us trying to have a personal moment. They have evidence." Walker says she'll tell their offspring, "Well,we didn't do what you thought we did." Nevertheless, Walker's virtues made her a favorite on the show. She received fan mail from young girls who would "usually bring up the religion (issue) and the virginity and they say, 'After I saw you, that makes me want to wait (to have sex).' And, of course, my mom's death -- a lot of people will share their stories with me about that ... That makes it worthwhile to me just to hear that I've touched someone's life." She knows she served as a role model for some viewers, "just because I'm so normal. People that watch that show know that we're not larger-than-life movie stars and celebrities. We are average people that were plucked out of their environments to be in this wonderful house and be on the show." In the now It's been more than four years since Walker left the firehouse. She and O'Douling have been living in their own real world ever since. The couple moved to Las Vegas about four years ago, and O'Douling's band landed its gig at the Regent Las Vegas more than a year ago. The group is preparing to release "Ten Tall Tales from the Island,"a compilation of original and Irish tunes, in late July. Walker, who is looking for work in the public relations field, is also pondering another on-camera stint for MTV, as a participant in an upcoming installment of "The Real World/Road Rules Extreme Challenge." The series pits former "Real World" roommates against former cast members from "Road Rules" in largely physical challenges for prizes. Meanwhile the couple continue to be recognized by viewers of "The Real World" and the two cast-reunion shows in which Walker has participated. "They really recognize Elka wherever she goes," O'Douling says. "But when it's the two of us together, it's even worse ... because they place the two of us together." "Most people are really happy for us that we're still together (as a couple)," Walker says. "If I'm not with him and somebody recognizes me, they'll always ask, 'Are you still with that rock star from England?' They always mix it up. I say, 'He's not from England, he's Irish, and yes, we're still together.' "They get so excited because they just feel like they know us, and that's fine. I feel like I know (cast members) from ... all the other seasons I watched before mine, so that's fair to say." But who fans really know, Walker insists, is the shy small-town teen who was overwhelmed by life in the big city, and not the woman she is today. "It's been four years. I've changed so much since then. So much has gone on between (she and O'Douling) ... that they don't really know us anymore. "Even if they know me for that span of five months (that she was on the show), I say, 'Sure, you know me. You know what I was up to for those five months, but you don't know me as a person.' " archive