The Celebreality Interview – Jordan Murphy

A companion piece to yesterday’s interview with Tool Academy‘s resident couples therapist, Trina Dolenz, the interview below with host Jordan Murphy covers tool ego, what it’s like to corral a bunch of unruly guys and the tongue-in-cheek nature of the show.

How does this season differ from the first?

There seems to be a little more of an authenticity of emotion. These guys seem more emotionally engaged, both in raging drunken anger but also in legitimate regret and legitimate transformation and legitimate emotional breakdowns. This is much more intense. The women, too, are much more explosive. They have more balls than the women on Season 1.

Is it hard to corral this large group of unruly men?

No, it’s fascinating. I think that what Trina and the producers do by jarring these guys awake is compelling. There are guys that go their whole lives without being given the opportunity to look in the mirror and realize what douchebags they’re being. These guys get that rare opportunity, whether they like it or not.

Trina kind of described your dynamic with her as good cop/bad cop.

She’s the mama bear, and I have to be the headmaster. She has that soft, sweet British angle. But these men and women show a great deal of respect to both of us, when you would think that they would maybe pop off. There seems to be a line drawn in the sand. I don’t know if it’s an authority thing, or what.

As an authority, you do lose your cool at the end of this second-season premiere.

I don’t know what came over me. I guess it was the rare opportunity to release. They guys are releasing all the time. People will say to me, “Where do you get all these tools?” “Are there really guys out there like that?” I ask them, “Do you live on Earth?” I live in L.A., and there’s a cacophony of tools here, but you can go to any major city and find ample tools.

I was saying to Trina that the description of “tool” doesn’t necessarily bring to mind “bad boyfriend.” It’s more like “obnoxious assh***.”

Yeah, exactly! And you see someone like that, and you think, he must be alone, because there’s no way he could actually be in a relationship. I think what these guys exhibit, this blatant disregard for anyone else in their world, is one of those qualifying factors beyond being covered in Ed Hardy from head to toe. That’s what’s compelling about this show: not only are these guys in a relationship, they’re in a relationship that they’ve maintained over time. That’s an important question: who are these women and why are they with these guys?

I was surprised that the guys were fooled into being on this show, much like they were fooled into appearing on the first season. Why do you think no one has actually left after the reveal that they’re enrolling in Tool Academy?

I think these guys were so blinded by the simple reality of hot girls and being put up in Vegas. They were so caught up in their ego fiesta, there was no concept of them being bamboozled. It’s fascinating to me that more guys don’t walk. I think it comes down to the $100,000 possibility and that they’re already highly ego-driven. The potential of fame is tempting. They probably don’t have jobs. Many of them don’t. They’re getting paid. And some of them really do want to want to work things out with their girlfriends.

Do you ever fear for your safety, dealing with these guys?

Sometimes during elimination because the room is so small. And this season struck me as much more unpredictable. There’s security in the room, but there is an uneasiness about it. I know these guys are warned, but I also know that no one would mind if there was a brawl with me involved in it (laughs).

Is it satsifying to tell them, “I’m sorry, you’re just a tool,” week after week?

Depending on the guy, yeah. There are some that you just want to say, “Dude, get out of here.” But there are other ones that really don’t deserve a full-blown slap across the face, like Matsuflex. I was happy they let me tell him he wasn’t that much of a tool anymore.

Do you watch the show and laugh?

Oh yeah, absolutely. I would assume most people watch it with a sense of humor. There’s a certain insanity to it because you’re watching people who do live this way. I mean, these are obviously amplified versions of all of these people, but there’s gotta be some gasoline to start a fire. When people come off these shows complaining, “They portrayed me in a bad light,” it’s like, “We portrayed you in your light; we just turned it up a little bit.” I think the sense of humor is also in the way it’s produced. When I read the copy for the trailers or whatever, there’s an over-the-top nature to how I deliver it. I don’t normally TALK. LIKE. THIIIIIS! I think there’s a tongue-in-cheek quality to it. We’re taking it seriously, but we’re not taking it that seriously.

For Tool-related updates, follow Jordan on Twitter.

Related content
Tool Academy 2 cast reveal
Tool Academy 2 show page
Tool Academy videos and extras