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In the first episode of MTV’s “Washington Heights,” JP Perez, an aspiring musician and one of the show’s creators, invites neighborhood people to a local bar to hear his new song. As his opening act, Perez asks Frankie Reese, a friend who wants to be a creative writing professor, to read one of her poems. She does, to an audience of friends and the bar patrons: “My uptown / you molded me and I will forever be in debt to you.”
“Washington Heights” may mark the first time a poem has been recited on an MTV reality show. From “Teen Mom” and “Laguna Beach” to “Jersey Shore,” the network has long trafficked in the salacious reality that guaranteed it coverage in gossip rags that reported every detail of the casts’ personal lives — babies, engagements, arrests.
But what makes the “Washington Heights” cast different is that they are all coming into the show with serious career aspirations. Rico Rasuk wants to be an actor, Ludwin Federo an artist and Jimmy Caceres a professional baseball player.
To celebrate their debut, the cast gathers for dinner at JP’s grandmother’s apartment.
“I’m nervous to see how people in our neighborhood are going to perceive it more than the whole world,” says JP.
The earnest reality show about a group of nine 20-somethings who grew up together was conceived three years ago when JP, then 22, started filming music videos with his friends. They grew tired of that and decided to go on Facebook to cast their own reality show about the neighborhood. None of their Facebook friends responded. So, JP turned to his real group of friends. They filmed a sizzle reel, shopped it around and MTV agreed to produce a pilot.
Over pastelones and empanadas, the group talks about their brushes with fame so far.
Reyna Saldana talks about a group of kids in the neighborhood that recognized her from the show’s promos. Rico says his dad, who lives in Florida, is learning English so that he can watch. Ludwin tells a story about his mom making photocopies of an early newspaper feature about the show and passing them out like fliers around the neighborhood.
JP opens the window of the cozy dining room to grab sodas being kept cool in the planter box on the fire escape, and they all talk over one another about what they plan to wear to the MTV Video Music Awards one day.
“I think about that all the time,” Rico says. “In my mind, I’ve hosted the VMAs three times already!”
Rico wasn’t part of the original cast. JP worried that a reality show would make it harder for his friend to be taken seriously as an actor.
Nobody in the group wants to be a career reality star — à la Snooki. The goal is to use any fame that comes from the show as a platform for their careers.
“I would rather have a successful fashion line than a spinoff show about me starting a fashion line,” Eliza Jefferson says.
“Reality TV doesn’t mix with baseball that much,” says Eliza’s boyfriend, Jimmy. “But a scout or a college could see me for who I really am, a person who loves the game and wants to play ball and be a team player.”
The TV cameras took some getting used to, but it helped that two of the four cameramen created the show along with JP. MTV added two more cameramen from its documentary branch.
“Half the time, it’s these guys in our house, and they’re shooting us and we’re giving them something to drink,” JP says. “It felt really homey.”
Taylor Howell adds: “It’s hard, though, because I’d start having conversations with them. They’d be like, ‘I’m not here!’ ”
The group insists that they’ll be happy for anyone who may prove to be the breakout star.
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“One person could shine, that’s fine,” JP says. “Rico could be the next Brad Pitt as long as he gives us an opportunity to make something out of ourselves, because we do depend on that if one of us takes off.”
“JP said one time that he always knew he was going to make it. It was just about how he was going to get all of us to be there with him, how he was going to help us get to where we wanted to go,” says Rico’s younger brother, Fred.
JP says that no matter how many seasons the show is on or how it does in the ratings, he is already proud of what he has helped create.
“I feel like we made history without it even doing numbers,” JP says. “Because three out of the four creators are Hispanic, eight out of the nine cast members are Hispanic. It’s showing a whole new perspective on a neighborhood that’s been talked about but not known really — and it’s not about drugs, and it’s positive.”
As the wineglasses are refilled and flan is served for dessert, the group talks about where Washington Heights fits into their future plans.
“How cool would it be if we were to live, like, Upper West Side, Upper East Side, in a really nice apartment that has these huge ceiling-high windows and you could just have the whole Central Park view,” Ludwin says to Fred, whose floor he has been sleeping on lately. “I mean, I love it here, but sometimes it’s like, wow, it’s the same people, same stuff. I take the same route to Fred’s house. I take the same route back home.”
“I feel like we come from nothing, so the little things still matter to us,” Reyna says. “I don’t think big like, ‘Oh, when I’m rich, I’m going to buy this huge house.’ No. I think of like, I’m going to get an apartment somewhere. Then, one day get a house.”
“I’ll be in Riverside [Drive],” JP says. “There’s a lot of beautiful parts of Washington Heights that people don’t think of. Riverside is beautiful! I could move over there, see the whole view, you know?
“There’s even a mansion that we go and chill by, over by 186 Street, I’m down to buy that one day!”
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS
Wednesday, 10 p.m., MTV