When Stephen Colletti first entered the Traitors castle, he has fans divided over how he was represented.
As some viewers of the Peacock competition reality series speculated that Colletti hates his Laguna Beach roots after choosing One Tree Hill as the credit below his name during video confessionals, the actor and TV personality recently clarified “that’s not the case at all.”
“I had written down One Tree Beach, but they didn’t go for it,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I thought that that would’ve really stirred the pot for everyone if they saw that. I wish that it just said ‘actor,’ but they never gave me that opportunity. I had written down, Everyone Is Doing Great, the show I’ve been working on of late, and they’re like, ‘That’s maybe not necessarily as recognizable as some of your earlier shows.’”
Colletti recalled, “They’re like, ‘Pick between One Tree Hill and Laguna Beach.’ I worked on One Tree Hill for a longer time, more episodes, and it was more recent. Figured it cast a wider net, so I went with that one. Did not expect to get the blowback. I mean, people were accusing me of hating Laguna because I didn’t choose that one. That’s not the case at all.”
Born and raised in Newport Beach, California, Colletti broke out among the cast of MTV’s 2004-’06 teen reality series Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County. He later went on to play celibate teen Chase Adams on The CW’s One Tree Hill from 2007 to ’12.
ONE TREE HILL, from left: Kate Voegele, Stephen Colletti, ‘A Kiss To Build Dreams On’, (Season 6, episode 621, aired April 27, 2009), 2003-. photo: Michael Tackett/ © The CW / Courtesy Everett Collection
“I mean, Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, it’s a little word sandwich under there,” explained Colletti. “It’s very long. I mean, you can’t do LBTROC, that doesn’t really have the kind of the zip to it as the Housewives ones. So yeah, One Tree Hill was clean and easy, and I stand by that.”