Gabby Prescod opens up to ET about joining Bravo's 'Summer House' and navigating the dynamics of this often at-odds cast.
Gabby Prescod is learning a lot about herself by watching herself on TV.
"Several things," the Summer House newcomer makes clear, speaking with ET over video chat. "One, I absolutely hate the sound of my own voice. I cannot and, like, it just gets worse and higher when I'm trying to get louder, or when I'm drinking. So, I'm so sorry to everybody."
She's also learning things about her co-stars she didn't know; or rather, learning things her co-stars said that she didn't know about. For instance, on last week's episode, Ciara Miller and Mya Allen stepped away from the group to discuss their feelings about Gabby.
"I just feel like overall, I haven't cracked the Gabby code yet," Mya lamented, questioning why, as Black women, the three of them were not connecting.
"I mean, I just think a lot of things with her are surface level," Ciara offered. "She just seems very privileged, which is totally fine, but it's like, you're missing out on the authenticity of it."
"I didn't know that that was a conversation that had taken place," Gabby admits. "I watched that play out with everybody else, and I mean, no one likes to hear that they're being talked about, but then also seeing it happen in real-time with everybody else, is also just like not a great feeling. I will say that it made me like a little bit disappointed, just because I do feel like at that point in the summer, I had started building actual friendships with people."
Gabby points to the bonds she felt with Danielle Olivera and Sam Feher, who she says put in real effort to get to know her.
"I feel like if the effort was made, maybe that opinion would not have been shared," she says, "but they are 100 percent entitled to their opinions, you know? Like, first impressions are valid for people, so that's their impression that they got from me? Sure. It's wrong, but sure."
Gabby calls the use of the term "privileged" toward her "bizarre," especially as she expected to find an instant friend in Ciara. The nurse/model is besties with Paige DeSorbo, the person who brought Gabby into the fold.
"I don't think Ciara and I have the best relationship," she shares. "That was just surprising, because I've known Paige for a year, and when we were driving out [to the Hamptons], we were talking about dynamics and the cast, and she's like, 'Oh, you guys are gonna get along great....' And I was like, OK, cool. Like, I don't even have to like worry about putting in that much effort, because it was already kind of, like, a validated thing by somebody else. So, it was like surprising to me that we didn't find that immediate connection... or any connection. Ever."
Gabby came into the house with few preconceived notions about her new cast-mates, having only watched select episodes of the show previously, episodes from season 2, in which her then-boyfriend filmed dates with Danielle. The overlap in their respective relationships was a hot topic during Danielle and Gabby's first weekend in the house together.
"I had not watched Summer House prior to that, but a lot of my friends did, and they they knew him, obviously, so they were texting me, being like, 'Hey... by the way, did you know that, like, your ex is on the show?'" she recalls. "By that time, in January, we had broken up. We were, like, four months broken up, and I was like, what are you talking about? So then, I went back and then I got crazy with it -- because I love justice -- so I would, like, line up the weekends that he was on the show and I was like, OK, so the weekend that I was away with my family on vacation is the weekend that you are like here on a date with Danielle? But like, I am on vacation, so I am not available. It just-- it was so bizarre."
"I 100 percent went back and lined them up," she reiterates. "It was a fact-finding mission."
The mutual ex drama didn't stop Gabby and Danielle from forming a friendship, one Gabby's had to learn how to navigate alongside her friendship with Lindsay Hubbard. Danielle and Lindsay were BFFs up until season 7; they fell out to a place of no-communication while filming the still-airing season, seemingly over growing pains in their friendship.
"Both my relationship with Lindsay and both my relationship with Danielle are very separate, and I think that they are both very respectful of the fact that I maintain relationships with both the other person," she says. "I've never felt pressured from either of them to choose a side -- not to say that that won't happen in the future -- but, like, I do think that they respect the fact that I am not going to agree fully, 100 percent with anyone."
"Also, because there's like no real betrayal there, right? It's not like a you slept with my-- it's not a Tom or Ariana situation, right?" she continues, referencing the cheating "Scandoval" rocking network sibling Vanderpump Rules, involving now-former couple Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix, and co-star Raquel Leviss.
"It's not that deep," she says. "It's just a really unfortunate dissolution of a friendship, and a friendship that I am now just coming into, and I have no idea what the history is. So, when I think that Danielle is wrong, I tell her. When I think Lindsay is wrong, I tell her, and I think that they both, as of right now, appreciate that. So, we will keep it that way."
Danielle and Lindsay's future as friends largely hinges on the yet-to-tape reunion, which Gabby is already "having nightmares about." It's not just that duo that's divided; there's also a split amongst the legacy cast, with Lindsay and her fiancé, Carl Radke, one one side and everyone else on the other.
"I mean, I think that if Danielle and Lindsay can repair their friendship, then everything else can kind of fall into place," Gabby surmises. "I think the [Kyle Cooke vs. Lindsay] thing wasn't as deep as it was happening over the summer. I feel like they kind of resolved the issue or at least their partners have resolved the issues."
"Then, in terms of everyone else in the house, I thought that everyone is able to co-exist at least quite well," she adds. "No one has to be best friends, but if we can live in a house and not tear each other apart as a baseline, I think that that's fine."
Before that's all unpacked at reunion, though, there is a lot of season still to watch. Monday's episode features the first big bash of the summer, a Studio 54-themed party hosted by Gabby... though none of her housemates gave her a heads-up as to what a Summer House soirée entails. She failed to stock the bar with alcohol, or think about food for guests.
"I was not told anything," she confesses. "But I also think that they may be hosting 101, and I just, I've never hosted. I don't like hosting, so I drop the ball there."
"At the end of the day, I will say that it wasn't a disastrous party," she clarifies, though. It remains to be seen if any love matches are made in the backyard that day. Much has been made of Gabby's rules for dating this season, as she prioritizes star-sign compatibility over pretty much anything else in a partner.
"Something that I maybe didn't communicate as well this summer is that I’m not looking for someone to be in a relationship with," she clarifies. "Seriously, like, I'm not looking for a boyfriend, and I’m not looking for a husband at all. So, if I were to be actively looking for that, yeah, I think that my standards would obviously be different. But since I'm not, and just like looking to have a good time, just looking for someone that's baseline compatible with me and ... I'm going to stick to my guns on that."
To those curious about Gabby's signs to look out for, she warns women against straight men who are Cancers (that's her No. 1 no-no), Geminis and Scorpios.
"And listen, my dad is a Scorpio, and my mom and him have been happily married for over 40 years, but I don't know if I would probably be in a relationship with something like that," she says, before realizing, "it might be my own daddy issue things happening..."
Gabby's mom and dad, Bruce and Yvonne, made a cameo appearance on an early episode this season. It's the scene Gabby says she's heard the most about since it aired.
"People respond to my parents more than they respond to me!" she cracks. "I can't tell you how many people ... like, my actual friends texted me and were like, 'I love your parents on Summer House!' And I'm like... OK, cool. That was, like, 50 seconds... you have any comments on me? Or anything like that? Nothing."
There are most guest spots to come this season beyond the Prescods. Paige's boyfriend, Southern Charm star Craig Conover, and his college buddy/Winter House castmate, Kory Keefer, will pop up soon enough.
"People described Kory to me as dangerous and destructive," Gabby notes, "and I was just like, why do we want this person in our home? Like, literally, why? And then he obviously broke a bed so..."
Summer House airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo.
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