April 05, 2024 • bachelor insider
Kelsey Toussant Discusses ‘Most Unique’ Way She Was Cast on ‘The Bachelor’ After Working on the Show
Sharing her story.
Bachelor Nation fans got to know and love Kelsey Toussant as she looked for love with Joey Graziadei on Season 28 of “The Bachelor.”
And last month, she opened up about how she worked on the show as Charity Lawson’s stand-in before being cast on Season 28.
Now, she stopped by the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast to talk more about her role on the show and how she ended up on-screen.
Kelsey told co-hosts Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt, “I was Charity’s stand-in and I worked with the show for two years. I did a few others too. I did the ‘Men Tell All’ and I also did ‘AFR’ for them. It’s been a couple of years for me with the show. While I was working on Charity’s season doing the blocking for her onstage, I got approached by some of the producers and they were like, ‘Would you actually want to come on the show?’ I was so confused, I was just getting snacks from crafty.”
Joe asked Kelsey more about what exactly she did as Charity’s stand-in and what that role means.
Kelsey explained, “There is a first team and a second team. The first team is the cast and the second team are the people who stand in for the cast. We do all of their potential movements and potential lines. We do all of that for them. There are no lines or anything; we just improv and try our best. We also stand in for lighting too. They want to know how these people are going to look on camera. They want to know which angle is the best.”
She went on, saying, “I run through those steps for them so when the cast comes onstage, it’s all taken care of and ready for them and they can have the least amount of problems as possible. My job is to make sure everything runs seamlessly during the filming. This is only for live shows. I had never been to the mansion before or traveled with crew or cast. It was only on the lot, just at the studio.”
And then there was a moment last season when Kelsey remembers getting approached for Season 28 of “The Bachelor.”
She said, “I remember getting some snacks and I remember seeing this guy and I wasn’t sure who he was, but we were talking and having a great conversation. Then one of the production assistants came up to me and asked if I knew who that was. I had no idea, but he seemed cool and nice, and the PA was like, ‘That’s one of the head men in charge. He’s one of the big producers and I think they’re trying to see if they want you on the show.’”
Kelsey continued, “I was just there working and doing my job. Then three producers approached me and asked if I would actually like to be on the show. I kind of froze up a bit because it came out of nowhere. I wasn’t sure if they were serious or if it was real. They asked if I was single and I was very single. Then we had a couple more conversations and eventually I made it on the show.”
She shared that one of the main reasons why she was excited to do the show was she knew Joey was going to be the Bachelor and she was hoping to look for love with him.
Serena called Kelsey’s casting experience one of the “most unique” in the show’s history and asked Kelsey if being at “Women Tell All” felt like a full-circle moment.
She said, “‘Women Tell All’ felt so full circle for me. I took a moment when I got there to just stand in the space and take it all in. I was on the other side of this, and I know what it feels like to be on the other side of this. I know what it feels like to be crew and now I’m on this side. I never thought it would happen… Reality TV was never in the cards for me, I’d say. But if it was for love, I was open to it. So just being at the ‘Women Tell All,’ having that full-circle moment of being here again but it being different now was crazy.”
How cool! Check out more of Kelsey’s conversation with Serena and Joe on the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast below.