What didn’t kill her made her stronger.
Jasmine Cooper — the centerpiece of Bravo’s new reality series “Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard” — explains on Pvnew’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast how she bounced back from a “horrible” summer of living homeless in New York City years ago.
“I choose the path of least resistance,” she says over Zoom, while seated next to her husband, Silas Cooper.
“So I think that helped me … make it through living out of the car.”
Luckily, Jasmine had her best friend, Mariah Torres — who also appears in the network’s “Summer House” spinoff — by her side as the two navigated an extended period as vagabonds.
“Mariah and I have different personalities,” Jasmine says. “I’m an optimist, she’s a realist and [there is] that whole balance of our friendship of her being like, ‘Look, this is a horrible situation, how are we going to tell our folks?’”
The Atlanta-raised beauty adds, “Like, we never even told our family.”
Jasmine and Mariah — both 31-year-old screenwriters — ultimately turned lemons into lemonade by creating a TV pilot called “Rock Bottom,” which they are currently pitching.
“We just took a horrible situation and tried to share all the crazy, fun, explorative moments that we went through that genuinely all happened,” Jasmine tell us of her “finished and polished” script.
“That summer out of the car in New York City, someone had to write a script about it!”
Her supportive spouse, Silas, 31, then chimes in to say, “And ‘Rock Bottom’ is an amazing show. No bias!”
Jasmine hopes that her and Torres’ comedy can inspire others who are struggling to recover from their own rock bottoms.
“I love telling stories. My whole thing is just optimism and that life can get better no matter how far down you’ve come from,” she says. “So I’m excited to share more stories with you guys. I’m a creative at heart. So that’s never going to change.”
“Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard” follows 12 friends from across the country, reuniting for a two-week getaway organized by the Coopers. Massachusetts’ posh costal community is historically a travel destination for black Americans, which the couple is looking forward to shedding a light on.
“Martha’s Vineyard has always been a hallmark place for a lot of black folks,” Silas, a first-generation Liberian American, notes.
“There is such a rich history behind it. Our story is only a chapter in the many chapters that create the black experience in Martha’s Vineyard.”
The Army Reserve officer elaborates, “For the viewers to get to know about this place through our lens, it’s a pretty dope way to sort of introduce the island, for sure.”
“Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard” premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
