Larsa Pippen on ‘House of Villains’ Debut: ‘Baby Doesn’t Like to Be Put in a Corner’

Surprise! There’s a new villain in the house, and she’s come to play. The Real Housewives of Miami star Larsa Pippen made a rather dramatic entrance to the House of Villains on Thursday’s (October 17) new episode — spinning in on the very same chair that the first eliminee, Larissa Lima, went out on. 

She told TV Insider that she decided to join the show after her positive experience filming the second season of The Traitors introduced her to the competition subgenre. 

“I really enjoy doing competitive reality TV,” she explained. “It’s super fun. I feel like doing Traitors made me really enjoy it, and House of Villains is basically a lighter version of The Traitors.”

Though the shows have a similar premise — reality television favorites gather in a house to game it out against one another — one very big difference between House of Villains and The Traitors is that in the latter, even the bad guys have to keep their cool as much as possible, while this house encourages nonstop skullduggery. Still, while Pippen isn’t the most notorious villain in TV history, she doesn’t mind tapping into her meaner side when necessary.

“Listen, I could be a villain if pushed. Baby doesn’t like to be put in the corner,” Pippen said. “If you are going to put me in a corner and poke the bear, then I’m definitely a villain. I definitely have a sharp tongue if need be. I don’t come for you, but I’m definitely good with confrontation.”

Her very presence had some villains losing the little bit of cool they had right away. After Pippen insisted she could not share a bedroom with other guys and hoped that someone else might trade with her, Kandy Muse was incensed and lashed out in dramatic fashion. Kandy later explained that she felt protective of her bed as her lifelong defense mechanism kicked in, but did Larsa buy that excuse?

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“My relationship with Kandy definitely got better after she explained the reason why she was so aggressive initially.  But for me, I was like, ‘I’m just walking into this house. Can I get a little bit of love for five minutes and then we can play the game? Can I feel welcome just for the first hour?'” she explained. 

Coming into the house, Larsa had no idea who would actually be in the game alongside her, but she figured out at least part of the personality landscape right away: “I think once I got into the house, I started to think about New York [a.k.a. Tiffany Pollard] and how she navigates on these TV shows, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m scared of her. I’m definitely scared,'” she admitted. Still, she saw a few friendly faces in Victoria Larson, who she had a casual acquaintanceship with  — “We basically just had a mutual friend at some point. I invited her to an event that I had,  and I’d never really spoken to her after that,” she explained — and fellow housewife Teresa Giudice. 

With Teresa, it was a shared experience in the Bravo world that gave her an instant connection. The housewife symbiosis, she explained, is owed to the fact that “most of us are moms, we’re independent, we’re career women. And I think even if we don’t get along, we respect each other and we respect the journey. I feel like we’ve all been on this journey for a long time.” In this particular case, she added, “Teresa has been on [The Real Housewives of New Jersey] for 100 seasons. I was on 14 years ago. So I think for us, we have this mutual respect for each other and we’re just really close. We both have four kids and we’re both [chefs so] I feel like we have a lot in common.”

So what can fans expect from Larsa Pippen’s time on House of Villains? “What’s ahead for you this season is so good. I feel like I’ve had a lot of good luck. I was on The Traitors Season 2 that won an Emmy. I’m thinking maybe House of Villains will win an Emmy because I’m on it,” she predicted. 

Still, she’s willing to concede that she won’t emerge as the most malevolent force in the house. “The biggest villain would probably have to be Wes [Bergmann],” she said. “I think he plays a really hard game and I think that he strategizes and basically manipulates everyone in the house. I think he really came to play.” Watch this space!

House of Villains, Thursdays, 10/9c, E!, streaming on Peacock