The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - As Real as it Gets with Jenn Tran

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

We’re getting to know our new Bachelorette, Jenn Tran!  She shares everything about what kind of guy she’s into and Ashley might use those clues to predict who gets Jenn’s final rose.  We find out that Ashley and Jared played a MAJOR role in Jenn’s introduction to Bachelor Nation, and Jenn shares a shocking secret about her hair!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone.

Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast and the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh, my God, perfect.

And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. Everyone thinks they'd never join a cult. But it happens all the time to people just like you. And people just like us.

I'm Lola Blanc and I'm Megan Elizabeth. We're the hosts of Trust Me, a podcast about cults, manipulation, and the psychology of belief. Each week we talk to fellow survivors, former believers, and experts to understand why people get pulled in and how they get out. Trust me. new episodes every Wednesday on exactly right. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Jennifer Lopez, and in the new season of the Overcomfort Podcast, I'm even more honest, more vulnerable, and more real than ever. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? Like, am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time? Join me for conversations about healing and growth, all from one of my favorite spaces, the kitchen. Listen to the new season of the Overcombered podcast on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York state number, and we own you. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Ben and Ashley I, Almost Famous Podcasts with IHartRadio. Hey guys, welcome to the almost famous podcast. Today's the day. We have Jen Tran on. Hello, Jen. The Bachelorette. Thanks for having me. I'm very excited. Oh, you must be doing so many of these interviews. I'm going to try to make it as fun as we can.

So off the top, you just got lip filler for the first time. And you said it's the first thing that you've ever gotten done. You've never, you haven't had Botox yet? Never, never had Botox yet. I never had any other fillers or anything. My boobs are real. So, yeah, my hair is real. Is your hair real the whole time on the show?

It is. It is real, there's just maybe like a lot of hair spray in it, but it is very much my own. Oh my gosh. Your hair is amazing. I thought that it was definitely, there was definitely extensions in there. I know. I think I saw so many comments. I was like, no, it's mine.

I grew. I need credit for it. Oh, we have to give you credit here. I'm glad that I'm bringing this up because it deserves all the credit in the world. No, I mean, I've just never gotten any work done, but I've always wanted to just like, just like little tweaks. Like, I feel like people are so against it sometimes, and I'm like, well, if it's out there and I can, like, tweak something that I'm looking at in the mirror every day that I really don't like, then I might as well give myself a little boost of confidence. Well, you look amazing and you look great in all the promos. Are you going with your PA school?

I know that this is like probably, like, the boring stuff to talk about a career, but with PA school, what do you want to do with it? Yeah, so I... Is it aesthetics? No. Well, I don't know yet. I'm not totally sure yet. I really, really like working in the emergency room, so I had a rotation in that before I left. Well, it's all important. You know, you're helping somebody feel better in some kind of way, you know, whether that's emotional or physical. But I really want to work in the ER because I just, I'm the kind of person that gets bored really easily. So I like having, like, different cases all the time. So I want to start

in that. I mean, I do maybe want to like work part-time in aesthetics. at some point. I think it's fun. Oh, oh, it's so fun. I was going to say, if you're going to aesthetics, I've always been like, the career that I could have taken, had I not gone in this pop-cultory route, would have been, like, kind of opening my own, being a PA and opening a med spa.

So, hey, we'll see. Maybe the roads will lead us there, and we can work on that together. No, it's fine. I kind of want to, like, retire and open up a medical spa. like that's definitely like in the works for later later on i guess retire and opening up a business don't make sense but like retire from like the er and then open up a medical spot i like your all your goals all your goals are great we see that there's a couple doctors nurses pas in your cast list yes was that something that got guys possibly like further because you had that in common oh it definitely made me it definitely made them hotter to me because i think it's

Really, like when you are able to, when somebody's in the medical field and can understand the things that you're talking about and can understand what your day-to-day life is, it just kind of makes things easier and you don't have to explain so much. And also, I think people in medicine themselves are really, really compassionate people. So to just kind of have that box already ticked off was really cool. What's your normal physical type? Normal physical type. I usually go for like tall, dark, in hand. So I'm like very basic. I feel like I've always dated brunettes mostly.

Love some facial hair. And yeah, that's been pretty much like my physical type. When you saw the guys come out of the limo, were you like, okay, great, good batch is going to be harder to decide? Or were you thinking it's going to be hard for me to be open to everyone because there's a couple that stand out so much? So the thing is, I think that with, like, there's obviously, like, physical attraction and then emotional attraction. I think the thing that wins me over most of the time is more emotional attraction.

So, yes, there were a lot that were physically attractive, but I was also, like, trying to emotionally connect with them, too. And so once I really got to kind of, like, get to know a lot of them, that's where I was like, oh, okay, like, I'm in trouble, you know. Okay. Okay. So was there anybody that you, after going through the whole season, have been like, oh, I'd love that. I let that one go too early? God, no. I don't have regrets about anything. I'm just like, not that kind of person. I think everything happens for a reason. And I was really confident in a lot of my decisions while I was in the process. So, yeah. Amazing. Well, you are the first Asian American bachelorette. Congratulations. And thank you. Thank you for bringing the diversity to the show. Thank you.

What does that mean to you? Yeah, it's just been really surreal. I feel so honored and so grateful to be in this role. And it's like, it's kind of funny because growing up, I never really had a role model of an Asian-American in the media. There weren't a lot. And so to now kind of become that role model in the media now and to lead my own love story and be a main character is huge. It's kind of full circle and it's really healing to me. And I know that it's going to inspire so many other Asian Americans as well in terms of like being able to see themselves on screen and being able to see their stories in whatever way that they can relate to on screen.

It's so important to be exposed to things that are different than yourself, well, also alike to yourself so that you can see the potential that you could have, you know, and to know that you're not, you're not alone and you're not different. I remember you telling Joey that you were almost concerned about hometowns because you didn't think that your parents were going to be super receptive to this whole process of finding love in this obscure type of way. Yeah. Yeah, totally. And how did they play a role in this season? And how did they react when it was like, not only am I going to go on the show, I'm actually going to be the lead now? They reacted the exact way that I thought that they react. They were like, my mom was like, are you sure you want to do that?

She was like, listen, I'm not going to be on TV, so you're going to have to hire a fake mom. She was like, so she was so like, I'm not doing it. So it's crazy. But now she's obviously been so, so supportive. And like since I've taken the role and kind of explained to her, like, I like my thought process on everything and like just gave her a window into like how I was feeling about it. She kind of understood me a bit more, and it was easier for her to come to terms of the fact that I was going to do this. And she's been so supportive. Okay, that's good.

So does she end up making her TV debut? Oh, yeah. Oh, she does. Yeah, she definitely makes her TV debut, and she does not hold back. Well, I'm excited to see the hometowns then. Is that when we're going to meet her? During meet the family, yeah. Okay.

Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's further along. Okay, so Ben and I play this game where we go through the cast and we see, like, we like kind of like do snap judgments on them. And some of them, there was this one like a monumental moment for me because everybody always makes fun of the cast photos, right? And how like they never are as good as what they look like in real life. Right. All the time. It's so crazy.

So I said there was this guy at the end of the cast list, Tomas. And I was like, this guy looks like a nerd bomber. and then I looked at his Instagram and I was like absolutely not this guy's super hot oh my gosh yeah totally it's funny how these photos like I swear they get the worst angles

because I didn't even like my photo and I was like I feel like I looked completely different it's crazy I know so I was gonna say did you when you saw the cast list when they came out were you like this is representative of my guys or not

oh like when the photos came out just a few weeks ago go. Yeah. I don't know. I think I thought so. For me, I, you know what? You're always your you're already, yeah. Arches critic. So for me, I was like, yeah, this looks exactly like all of them. All right. Well, I'm excited to like kind of meet them. Let's go through a few right now. Aaron is already getting a lot of buzz. They have like a commercial with him in it because he's, well, it helps that he's Noah's brother. what can we can you tease anything about your relationship with him um yeah i mean he was always very intentional since the beginning you know he came in on a motorcycle um so yeah it was definitely

a really good connection okay um sam n reminds us of like a well some sort of like country bad boy is that what he's like i would say you're pretty accurate in that yeah i think so okay um can you give us a and then matt we were like matt has such an interesting look how does how does he play in the house um i feel like he really gave off so much like sweet boy energy you know um so i think it's going to be a lot of like you're just going to be really surprised by his personality for sure okay grant grant looks like he might be too good to be true um i don't know if i would say that i think grant um yeah i mean he's very good looking he played basketball i'm a sucker for athletes so all right can you give us like five guys that we should be on the lookout for

are you allowed to am I allowed to I don't think so sadly unfortunately I think that that would be giving away way too much come on okay fine then

my boyfriend's professor is way too friendly and now I'm seriously suspicious oh wait a minute Sam maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit well Dakota it's back to school week on the okay story time podcast So, we'll find out soon.

This person writes, My boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up.

Isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor and they're the same age. And it's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him?

Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find? Find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not. To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom.

If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now.

Hola, it's HoneyGerman. And my podcast, Grasias Come Again, is back. This season, we're going even deeper into the world of music and entertainment with raw and honest conversations with some of your favorite Latin artists and celebrities. You didn't have to audition? No, I didn't audition. I haven't auditioned in like over 25 years. Oh, wow.

That's a real G-talk right there. Oh, yeah. We've got some of the biggest actors, musicians, content creators, and culture shifters sharing their real stories of failure and success. You were destined to be a start. We talk all about what's viral and trending with a little bit of chisement, a lot of laughs,

and those amazing vibras you've come to expect. And of course, we'll explore deeper topics dealing with identity, struggles, and all the issues affecting our Latin community. You feel like you get a little whitewash because you have to do the code switching? I won't say whitewash because at the end of the day, you know, I'm me. But the whole pretending and code, you know, it takes a toll on you. Listen to the new season of Grasas Has Come Again as part of my Cultura podcast network

on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Janica Lopez, and in the new season of the Overcover podcast, I'm taking you on an exciting journey of self-reflection. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time? I wanted to be successful on my own, not just because of who my mom is.

Like, I felt like I needed to be better or work twice as hard as she did. Join me for conversations about healing and growth. Life is freaking hard. And growth doesn't happen in comfort. It happens in motion, even when you're hurting. All from one of my favorite spaces, the kitchen. Honestly, these are going to come out so freaking.

amazing. Be a part of my new chapter and listen to the new season of the Overcumper podcast as part of the MyCultura podcast network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Your entire identity has been fabricated. Your beloved brother goes missing without a trace. You discover the depths of your mother's illness, the way it has echoed and reverberated throughout your life, impacting your very legacy. Hi, I'm Danny Shapiro, and these are just a few of the profound and powerful stories I'll be mining on our 12th season of Family Secrets. With over 37 million downloads, we continue to be moved and inspired by our guests and their courageously told stories. I can't wait to share 10 powerful new episodes with you, stories of tangled up identities, concealed truths, and the way in which family secrets almost.

always need to be told. I hope you'll join me and my extraordinary guests for this new season of Family Secrets. Listen to Family Secrets Season 12 on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I would love to, like, later in the season,

we do this thing where we ask, we like narrow down to the names, and then we say, which guy basically can't you keep a straight face with when you're when you're saying his name because that's telling but I can't go through 30 names with you right now way too many thank God I'm going to practice my poker face until that well okay wait let's let's practice your poker face right now real quick do you have a happy ending I'm very happy with the way things panned out and I'm very happy with yeah I'm very happy with

ending. Are you engaged? Ashley, you know, I can't tell you that. Okay, but are you smiling? I need to get your reaction, your body language, all that. Yeah, I mean, I'm happy with the way things ended, for sure. Hmm. Interesting. So they're not letting you say you're engaged or that you're with somebody, because sometimes they let you say that. I didn't know that. Oh, okay. Hmm. All right, all right. Um, well, easy question for you. You love to foster your cats. So what happens if the guy that you pick doesn't like cats or he's allergic to cats?

He's going to just have to take a Benadryl every day that we're together. Every day. He's going to go have to get the weekly shot. He's going to have to have like an IV of bedadryl at that point. That's how important cats are to you. I love that. I love cats. They give me a boost of serotonin like nobody else can do. That is so cute. My son is obsessed with cats. I am like maybe very mildly allergic, but my sister and my mom are definitely allergic, and I can't get one. I would totally get one, but, I mean, then they can never come and visit and help, so. Honestly, I'm mildly allergic, too, and it is, it's so painful, because every time I touch my eyes right after, I'm like, I'm like, you know you shouldn't be doing that. And then I'm like, I shouldn't be having a cat

in the first place, but it's fine. It's all worth it. What did you do that was different from Joey? Like, did you go into your season being like, love Joey, he was a great bachelor, but I'm going to do, I'm going to edit this part? I don't think so. Like, I mean, I don't really know his mentality going into it or like how he made his decisions. But for me, I really tried to do it in my own way and be as authentic to myself, like, as possible. And like, as you saw on night one, like, I take kissing somebody in that level of affection very seriously. So for me, I was like, I'm not going to. to kiss everybody on nightline because I know myself and I know I'm not going to have a

connection with everybody. But I also wasn't going to restrict myself. I wasn't going into it being like I'm not going to kiss anybody, but I left it up to me and how I felt with each individual relationship. Okay. I was going to say, have you, were you a bachelor fan for a long time? Okay, so funny enough, no. I, my friends and stuff would watch it in college and I would be like, I'm not into reality TV. Like, I don't do that. And then after college, I got into Matt James' season, which is the first season I watched, and then I watched a couple of seasons after that. But my first real exposure to Bachelor Nation was actually you and Jared. What?

Which is hilarious because this just came to my memory right now. As I look like a crazy person right now, she tells me that I played a role? A huge role, actually, because it's funny. I'm such a hopeless romantic. I've been through so many toxic relationships, and I think I was just like in the deep, like, rabbit hole on YouTube of like looking up like love stories or something and yours and jared's came up like your interview talking about like your time on the show and and how you were chasing him and he didn't like you at first all too much whatever and i was like that's my that's the story of my life

this is going to be me like i'm going to turn the bad boy into loving me what that is so crazy you watched it without having watched us on paradise yeah so then after i watched your interview yeah well it was like It was a really beautiful interview, and I think that was around the time of your wedding, or maybe I saw it and then saw your wedding. But either way, it was really, really beautiful. Oh, thank you. That's so, so kind. All right.

So I was going to ask you if you had a role model going into it, like, what kind of, like, Bachelorette you wanted to be. Was, like, they're a favorite? Or did you pick and choose? Not really, because I hadn't really seen a lot of the seasons of the Bachelorette yet, But, like, after watching Matt James' season, I did watch Michelle Young's season. So I definitely saw how she moved about her season, and she was so poison and so confident. She was an amazing bachelorette.

Yeah, and I was like, I'm a chaotic mess. Like, I don't know how I even got into this. So it was hard. I was like, I don't know if I fit this role. But I did have a phone call with her, like, before I even accepted the role of the Bachelorette because I really wanted to know, especially from a person of color standpoint, like, how she felt about everything. Mm-hmm. How did you feel about everybody being like, oh, but we wanted it to be Maria or Daisy? Yeah, I mean, it's tough because I got, so when I was announced, I didn't have my phone, and then we went right into filming.

So I went on this, like, incredible journey for myself and, like, just, like, learned so much about myself and was so happy about it. And then I came back and I saw all of these comments. And, like, it was a mix of, like, racist comments. It was a mix of just, like, I wanted this person. this person, she sucks, she's boring. It's like all this hate was just like building up one on top of another. And it was really disappointing to see and it was hard to see for sure. But, you know, at the end of the day, it's old news. And for me, I'm just excited for everyone to see my journey and to be able to really embrace all of it. Well, I'm sorry that you had to see it ever. But at least

you did see it at the, you know, at the end of filming and you were able to just kind of like get whisked away. And now nobody, everybody is like, all right, we are happy and excited for this because, you know, that's just people, their attention span is like two seconds in this franchise. So everybody's going to be stoked to watch your first episode in the whole season. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, what really hurt for me was like, I don't like, people can just be so critical. And for me, I was like, what do you mean? Like, do I not deserve to find love? Like, that's crazy. Does I say that something? somebody doesn't deserve to go on a journey to find love. So I really just hope, like, people continue to, like, be open-minded and open their hearts. I'm sure they will.

Yeah. What are your other, what was your, who's, like, your best friend from the show? Star Schuyler. So she lives in Florida, and we, like, see each other all the time. We have sleepover. So it's really nice to have someone be able to kind of understand, like, that part of the show and that part of my life. because nobody else really understands it as much as her. And she's like just such a well-rounded, like, genuinely good person, too.

I saw a TikTok that you were able to tell the ending to one friend of yours. Was Sky one of those friends as well? Yes, I definitely did. Well, that star was the one in that TikTok. Oh, star is the one of the TikTok. Yes, yes. Okay, so you had to tell your one bachelor friend who knows how it all goes. Yeah, so go knocking on her door if you want to find out.

That's awesome. I got one more question for you. What is, how do you deal with the stage fright that you have when you're the Bachelorette? Because now you are on such a public stage in basically every single way. You did a TikTok about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I remember. It's honestly, I still get nervous all the time, like doing interviews and making speeches or just like being on a camera in general is like obviously.

very, it's not a normal thing for me. It's not something I'm used to. And I'm definitely getting more used to it as time goes on because I just have been exposed to it so much. But I really just try to be myself as much as I can. And, you know, sometimes I'm like, oh, I'm having an off day. I'm not as funny as I can be. Or sometimes I'm having a really good day. And I'm like, oh, like, I really was like, I shined and I was like 100% myself. But I think I just need to remember that I'm human and I can't be like 100% all the time. And some days I'm just going to have bad days. And, hey, that's the reality of it.

I'm human. Well, I think you'll be very relatable and people are going to love that about you. And we're just really excited to watch this hopefully happy ending for you. So, Jen, thank you so much for joining us. And hopefully we can talk to you mid-season. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I can't wait to talk again soon. Bye.

Bye. Follow the Ben and Ashley I, almost famous podcast on IHartRadio, or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her.

Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just. want or gone. Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor.

And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you.

Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. Hi, I'm Jenna Lopez and in the new season of the Overcomfit Podcast, I'm even more honest, more vulnerable, and more real than ever. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? Like, am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time? Join me for conversations about healing and growth, all from one of my favorite spaces, The Kitchen.

Listen to the new season of the Overcombered podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Everyone thinks they'd never join a cult. But it happens all the time to people just like you. And people just like us. I'm Lola Blanc and I'm Megan Elizabeth. We're the hosts of Trust Me, a podcast about cults, manipulation, and the psychology of belief. week we talk to fellow survivors, former believers, and experts to understand why people get pulled in and how they get out. Trust me, new episodes every Wednesday on exactly right. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number of a new york state number and we own you listen to shock incarceration on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts this is an iHeart podcast