‘Claim to Fame’: Why Gracie Lou and Jill Think Their Uncles ‘Should Be Best Friends’

It all started with the day’s water challenge, in which they were both on the blue team, and when things didn’t go well — “valkyrie” is one of the more challenging words they had to spell — the captain, Gracie Lou, had to go down with the ship … er, the canoe.

Gracie Lou also had to choose who from her team to bring down into the guess-off, and the honors went to Jill. Unfortunately for both, neither of them had correct guesses about their chosen targets — Miguel is not related to Antonio Banderas, and Adam isn’t kin to Dustin Hoffman — so their celebrity relatives were revealed.

As it turns out, both of their celebrity relatives are TV legends who became household names in the ’80s and have kept busy ever since: Gracie Lou’s uncle is Jon Cryer, while Jill’s is John Stamos, who is now a TV uncle in a very different way than he was as Uncle Jesse.

TV Insider caught up with Gracie Lou and Jill to discuss their experience on the show and to find out how their celebrity relatives helped them prepare for their time in the spotlight for ABC’s hit show.

What drew you to Claim to Fame?

Gracie Lou: Oh, they actually found me with their secret service ways. I don’t know how they did it, and I did think it was a scam at first. I thought it was somebody getting something out of me, but no, it was a legit opportunity. And actually, my relative really encouraged me to pursue it because they thought it’s a fun show, it would be a great opportunity to make new friends, and it’s something that I’ve never done before — never thought that I would do. I’m not really a competitive person, so definitely outside of my comfort zone, but that’s originally what drew me to it.

Jill: I kind of have the same experience. I got reached out to as well. I knew about the show previously because I am a big fan of the Jonas Brothers, but I also had a lot of my friends be like, “Have you ever heard of this show? You should do it. You should go on it.” And I was always like, “Yeah, what are the chances that I’m gonna actually be picked for this? Like, there’s no way.” And then someone reached out to me, and I kind of thought it was a scam. And I was a little hesitant at first, and I finally was like, “Okay, like, let’s hear a little more. Let’s hear a little more.” And then, yeah, I mean, my uncle was the same way, super supportive. I actually, right after my first phone call with the casting people, I called him right away and was like, “This just happened. What are your thoughts? How are you thinking? Is this okay? Would you be supportive of this?” And he was incredible and was like, “This is so cool. This is your opportunity. I am going to be there to support you the whole way. Let me know if you need any help or any tips or anything.” So I’m just super grateful. ,

About your celebrity relatives, what kind of advice did they give you about going on TV and being in the spotlight?

Jill: I got a lot of different advice. One of the main things that my uncle told me was to be myself and just be someone who I got back and be proud of and not have to be embarrassed of the situation that happened or something I said, or anything like that. So I definitely say that’s the biggest one. But he definitely gave me tips on how to sit up properly and all that fun stuff, too.

Gracie Lou: My advice was very similar. I feel like our uncles should be best friends. He said the same thing: “Just have fun and be yourself.” But my uncle can be very competitive. So he did say, “Trust no one.” And he is a fan of the show, so as he was watching it, he would like, live-tweet me advice and be like, “I’m telling you, you’re too nice. Don’t trust anyone. Be competitive.” So that was his advice to me. And to not look at the cameras. Don’t look into the camera.

Jill: I would go along with that. My uncle was very into it. He was the one who was like, “Strategy, come on, let’s practice!” He called me and was like, “Okay, pretend like I’m one of the people on the show. Tell me how you’re going to talk to me. Tell me how you’re going to do this.” He was like, “You’re going to win this thing.”

Speaking of strategy, your lie, Gracie Lou, was that your celebrity role was a musician, and Jill, you lied about it being your grandfather. How did you choose those lies? And what was the strategy?

Gracie Lou: Oh, boy, I toyed with a lot of different strategies and landed on the Gracie Lou one because I’m not a great actor. Um, so I thought, You know what, I’m gonna go the musician route because I have at least a little bit of talent in that to play into it and try to throw them off track early. I thought, “You know, I can really play into that because music is more of my talent than acting. That’s why I landed on that.

Jill: Yeah, I would say I was going back and forth between possibly lying about the fact that he is a basketball coach — because he did play that — but then I was like, I don’t have very much knowledge on basketball, and I don’t think that’s good. So I stuck with grandfather. I was going back and forth between doing grandfather and grandmother, but I was like if I have to use pronouns here, I’m gonna mess this up — trying to do something as close as possible that I couldn’t mess up.

In the premiere, you both kind of worked together and try to save Bianca. Were you surprised that Miguel’s ploy worked? 

Jill: Absolutely shocked. You know, there’s a clip of my face where I’m like [shocked face] and that is like 100% my real reaction. I was so not thinking that Bianca was going to be out there.

Gracie Lou: No, everyone was shocked. We were played. Everyone was played.

Jill: Everybody.

What was your reaction to finding out that he did a fake-out with the Antonio Banderas thing?

Gracie Lou: That sneaky, sneaky boy! I think he was really playing the game. He had this strategy to really go all-in on what people were thinking about him, and applause to him because it pretty much worked.

Jill: Yeah, I was gonna say props to him. I mean, he stuck with this strategy, and he got all of us.

Have you guys like talked after the guess-off, and Jill how are you feeling about it now that Gracie Lou chose you for the guess-off? 

Jill: Yeah, I think we talked about it a little bit before it happened, too, while we were still in the house. I honestly don’t blame her. I feel like I was probably the one who had the least knowledge going into it and was kind of just there. So I think that if the roles were reversed and she was acting the way I was, I probably would have chosen her, too. I don’t blame her. Obviously, I was a little bit hurt in the moment, because I was like, I don’t want to go home, but she took what she had and she went with it. And so, I mean, we’re still great friends, so I can’t be mad at her.

Gracie Lou: Yeah, that was probably the hardest decision ever. And I know when I picked Jill, I just remember thinking, “No matter what, we have to figure this out together. Stay together.” So Jill and I were working on helping each other out as best as we could. And we both agreed, if we go down, we’re going down together.

Jill: Exactly. I feel like we said, “If we go down, we’re going down together,” at least five times to each other. We were like, “Whatever happens, we’re together, that’s all that matters.”

Claim to Fame, Wednesdays, 9/8c, ABC

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