FBOY Island Australia 2023 lead Molly O’Halloran has spilled a sh*t tonne of behind-the-scenes tea, and get your favourite mugs ready!
The series follows three leads as they navigate a pool of boys to determine if they joined the show as an “Fboy” or “Nice Guy”.
Although you wouldn’t expect it from the show’s name, Season One star Molly luckily found love with Nice Guy Nick Brown, whom she’s still with today.
And after sharing some juicy tidbits about her red flag co-stars (which you can read here), the occupational therapist revealed lots of filming secrets during her tell-all on episode 413 of the So Dramatic! podcast.
What happens during a typical day of filming FBOY Island Australia?
According to Molly, the leads would wake up three hours before filming started at five or six am for hair and makeup.
They’d also have a debrief with host Abbie Chatfield about the night before commuting to their dates, which were usually quite far away by car.
“We’d go on a date, or group date, then drive back. We’d stop for half an hour for lunch and dinner,” she told host Megan Pustetto.
Then, the contestants would have a mixer or an elimination at night.
“Three boys were getting eliminated every two days. So one night we’d have mixers, and then the next night we’d have the elimination,” she added.
“The hair and makeup team would also touch us up throughout the day and often wanted to make it look like we were filming on different days.”
After a full day of filming, they’d go to bed around midnight (or even later), giving them five to six hours of sleep per night.
“It’s very high intensity,” she said.
Molly also revealed that the cast filmed “pretty much every day” over the three-week period, with only one day off after the first two days of filming. Sheesh!
How scripted is FBOY Island?
Molly said the show was “curated” rather than “scripted”, as information was withheld from the leads to create a “big reveal” when they eventually found out.
“They’ve created this story arc, so they want big reactions,” she recalled. “So when Caleb [Duncan] said: ‘She ain’t got no good p*ssy‘, no one was allowed to repeat that information to me until the ‘big reveal’ in the second last episode.
“That way, it snowballs and becomes bigger, so there’s this big reaction to it.”
She added that while the show wasn’t scripted, there were instances when participants had to reshoot scenes.
“You’d sometimes have to reshoot walking into a scene or kissing scenes so they could get it from a different angle,” she dished.
“Also, anytime the cameras were down, you weren’t allowed to talk so they could catch everything on camera. Other than that, the show is pretty true to what [actually] happened.”
How did the leads choose which boys to go for on FBOY Island?
Molly then explained how each lead chose which boys to go for.
“For us girls, things happened pretty naturally. When we met them, there were maybe one or two that each of us were genuinely interested in,” she recalled. “You’re not going to be interested in everyone.”
Molly explained that the show wanted the leads to pursue different people. However, she confessed that her co-star Ziara Rae initially liked her now-boyfriend Nick.
“I quickly told her, ‘No, I want him. He’s mine, please,” she laughed. LOL!
How much are the producers involved during the eliminations on FBOY Island?
During the eliminations, the three leading ladies had an earpiece so the executive producer could “feed them lines”, especially when the girls were stuck on their reasoning for sending someone home.
“I refused lines because I’m not a good actress,” Molly said. “But we needed to listen to our earpieces for timing.”
However, whilst the ladies were fully in charge of choosing their bottom two, the producers would sometimes tell them who to send home,
“We’d have the final say. But if the producers said it made more sense to the storyline for a particular guy to leave first, we’d sometimes do it if it was one of the people we didn’t really care about.
“But if there was someone you liked, you could keep them around, and producers were very accepting of it,” she added.
Who chooses whether someone is an ‘Fboy’ or a ‘Nice Guy’?
According to Molly, the boys sign up for the show as either a FBoy or a Nice Guy. However, producers do intervene from time-to-time.
“Nick was asked to go on as a Fboy, and he stood his ground. But you run the risk of not being cast on the TV show if you’re not what the producers want,” she spilled.
How much are contestants allowed to drink on FBOY Island?
Like many reality shows, contestants were only allowed two standard drinks per night on FBOY Island.
“You could maybe have a third if the mixer went long enough. But you had to have a meal beforehand,” she recalled.
“In the final couple of dates, we got to drink more. But a lot of the time, it was just cordial.”
How much is the cast of FBOY Island paid?
Molly said the boys made $100 a day while the leads each pocketed a cool $20,000. Not bad!
“I had to take a lot of time off work compared to the boys,” she explained. “Every second weekend, we flew to Sydney, and we’d have to take days off for press and continued filming.
“Even whilst we were in the villa, we put in more [filming] time in comparison to the boys… I’m sure it’s the same on every other show, but the leads get paid a hell of a lot more.” Fair!
Were the FBOY Island cast allowed their phones?
Molly also revealed that their phones were confiscated during the three weeks of filming.
“There were times we had access, like when we were looking through the boys’ Instagrams. But the access we were given was through a computer, with producers monitoring what we were doing,” she said.
Who chooses what the FBOY Island leads wear?
When it came to wardrobe, Molly explained that the girls were each given options of what they could wear, but they weren’t forced to wear outfits they didn’t like.
“The three girls had a curated look,” she said. “It’s about how we all look as a whole rather than as individuals.”
She also explained that each girl had different “specific styles”.
“Sophie [Blackley] wore the sequins and the small numbers. Ziara was more flowy and a bit edgy, and I was sleeker,” she added.
Do the leads spend much time with FBOY Island host Abbie Chatfield?
Molly then revealed that the girls didn’t spend much time with their host, Abbie.
“She had an incredibly tight schedule on our season because she was also doing radio at that time, so it was really hard to spend time with her,” she said.
“She only came in for filming, and we would never get hair and makeup done in the same room together, so we didn’t really see her.”
Abbie also stayed in a hotel whilst the leading ladies and the boys stayed in separate villas, so there wasn’t much crossover.
What is FBOY Island host Abbie Chatfield like IRL?
Molly described Abbie as very “professional” IRL.
“She was there to do a job, and sometimes she had to learn lines, which [the leads] didn’t have to do, because we didn’t have scripted content” she recalled.
“She was pretty busy and in the zone, but she was lovely when we were filming. I cannot fault her for the role she played on the show. I think she did an amazing job.”
Is there any psychological support during filming FBOY Island Australia?
Molly revealed that psychologists were on hand during filming; however, she opted to get “external help” instead.
“Us three girls had a psychologist, and the boys had a different one,” she said.
“But they’re limited in what they can do from a liability perspective. They still have the production’s interest at heart.”
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