Last season on Bravo's Work Out, out lesbian Jackie Warner introduced us to her Beverly Hills gym, Sky Sport & Spa; developed an S/M-tinged fitness clothing line; kept her attention-seeking trainers in check; and battled a biting girlfriend. On the second season of her drama-laden reality show, Warner launches a fitness camp, breaks up with her girlfriend and, according to previews, embarks on a relationship with heteroflexible trainer Rebecca. She recently chatted with us about how she keeps it all together and finds time to work out her abs.
AfterEllen.com: How are things at Sky Sport & Spa?
Jackie Warner: They're great. It's an exciting time. I started Skylab, which is an offshoot of Sky Sport, and that's featured heavily in the second season. It's the life-changing camp [where] you can live [and] breathe fitness and nutrition. I'm hoping to really inspire people with that.
AE: A big part of the show focuses on the drama that's created by your trainers. Is it hard to keep them from running amok?
JW: It's sometimes hard being a boss with this particular [group]. They're featured on the show because they're terrific trainers [but also] because they have strong personalities. It's a TV show, after all. I've always been a boss. When I was an assistant at Warner Brothers, I sucked. You know, I'm not a good follower. I'm a better leader.
AE: I was shocked to read that your trainer Doug Blasdell died in January.
JW: It was very sudden. It happened [while] we were still shooting. It was very sad for all of us, and we were traumatized. Everyone is still dealing in their own way. This season, if it's about anything, it's about emotion, power, pushing forward.
AE: You also had another kind of loss: the end of your five-year relationship with Mimi. Do you still speak to her?
JW: I see her all the time. This is a small town, especially in the lesbian community. I'm polite, I'm friendly, but I have no interest in having a relationship with her in any way.
AE: Did the show contribute to the demise of your relationship?
JW: No. I would love to be able to say it was misrepresented, but sadly it wasn't. Sometimes people do [some] things very well and excel, and then they fail in one area. I feel like I've failed miserably in my personal life. But all you can do is pick yourself up, learn from it and [not] repeat those past mistakes.
AE: So, no biting this season?
JW: No. Those days are gone. I haven't been single in years, and I'm having a lot of fun. I have my friends; I have my businesses. I have to work very hard on myself and then, in between, date. So, I'm … in a good place.
AE: How's your clothing line doing?
JW: It's going well. It's all a learning experience, and I love it. You know, I got my degree in fashion and illustrating, so it's fun for me.
AE: The look that was featured in Season 1 was a little edgy. It had a little S&M flavor to it.
JW: Everything does! [But] that's not my sex life. I'm not into it there, but I like [clothes] to have an edge. I'm not into form-fitting lycra. I started the line because I couldn't find it anywhere, so I started making my own things and that's how it came into fruition.
AE: Workout machines remind me of S&M contraptions.
JW: [Laughs.] So what you're saying is: You don't like the gym.
AE: Let's just say I want to do nothing and still look like you. Can you help me with that?
JW: Um, no. Listen, if there was a magic pill, I would take it and I would sell it, but there's not. But you don't have to kill yourself. It takes smart, hard work.
The way I teach — and the way I teach my trainers to teach — is an hour at Sky Sport is, in my opinion — and I'm sure it's a little ego-driven, I'm sure — like five hours with another trainer [or at] another gym. I came up with the — for lack of a better phrase — "the three F's of fitness."
AE: What are those?
JW: Using the right functioning with the perfect form to complete fatigue. And complete fatigue means that you do certain back-to-back exercises until you cannot lift yourself again.
AE: I can think of a fourth F for that.
JW: [Laughs.] No, you would love it. It becomes addictive.
AE: Yeah … uh, no.
JW: I couldn't do and take on as much as I [have] right now if I did not do my workouts. I would go insane.
AE: Do you have any aspirations to be an actor, too?
JW: No. I like being behind the scenes. I am not an actress.
AE: Well, that's too bad because you have the look to play a kick-ass action star.
JW: Oh gosh. No way. I'll be an action star in my own life.
Work Out airs Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. EST on Bravo.
What About Rebecca?
Rebecca
Eaten alive
If I had a wish...
I'd love to be one of the SkyLab guinea pigs!
One of the fun things about watching Work Out is that it inspires me to get moving. I look at the glow that Jackie and the trainers have, and I want that. I see abs flex and think "I can get that body, too."
I would love it if Jackie & Crew made workout podcasts; they could help promote the show and give the fans that SkyLab experience at home.
Have fun being single, Jackie! You're a rock star in the GLBT community now, and you ought to take advantage of it...why look so close to home when there's a whole nation of women that would love to buy you champagne?
A2 Connection: Lesbian Social Network
Personally I think Jackie's
Personally I think Jackie's a bad leader. She may be a leader, but not a very good one. Good leaders do not allow their "followers" to tear each other apart and they especially do not instigate fights, pick favorites or treat them like inferior people.
Just watching two episodes it is clear to me that she's not a good leader at all because leaders can be judged on how their group communicates and functions. There is too much in-fighting. She may be a leader but you can also lead people down a bad or negative path.
But I suppose it's just for the entertainment value. Too bad.
Just my 2 cents.
[West - The Writers Mafia]
Totally agree with you. I'm
Totally agree with you. I'm sure this won't be a popular take, but she is the worst kind of manager to work for -- one that has a bratty member of the staff as a personal pet. That person gets away with absolute murder while everyone else is expected to tow the line -- nothing can tank morale faster than playing favorites. No, I am not talking about Rebecca either, I'm refering to Jesse. The fact that she asked him to clear the air with Doug instead of collaring them both and putting a stop to it immediately is just a further example of who is really managing whom. She thinks he presents a poor image for their gym, yet he still works there.
An effective leader doesn't spend most of their time bragging about themselves and sniping with employees about their co-workers -- a real leader spends their time working hard and leading by example. So far, we have seen very little of that with Jackie. She may fancy herself charismatic and competent, but that is not how she's coming across. I know that she and Jillian Michaels were co-owners at one time (and may still be), but I can't imagine how they could ever work together, they have vastly different styles and attitudes.
I was also put off by how poorly Jackie and some of her staff view those who are truly overweight. Jackie acts like the whole Skylab project is a big favor to those clients she is working with -- like some grand charity project she's created. If she were truly invested in promoting fitness and health these are precisely the clients she should be trying to reach.
Similarly, the whining and caterwauling by the trainers over their body-fat profiles was so uncalled for given their individual levels of fitness. The only one who remotely had reason to worry was Jesse and he's clearly self-indulgent enough not to really care. Imagine how their poor Skylab clients must have felt seeing their trainers behave so poorly with BMIs well within or below acceptable limits while those same clients had BMIs that were off-the-charts. The whole ew-ick-fat attitude was totally unprofessional.
It all makes for great television, but it doesn't speak highly for their business integrity.
OOoooh
rebecca
Having that pic up there with Rebecca and saying "the 'work out' star on business, fitness and DATING" were a bit misleading! I thought there was going to be something about that whole thing in this interview. Anyway, Jackie obviously has bad taste in women...she likes immature younger girls. I'm starting to think she just kind of puts it on for the camera a little bit and is not as great as she portrays herself to be. All that stuff in the last episode about not being interested in Rebecca is obviously a lie, to me.
love her
Jackie's business is for the
Jackie's business is for the upper class. jackie is greedy ass capitalist. most people can't afford to go to a gym like that and have a personal trainer. yea america is an obese nation. but shows like this are purely for promotion and popularity and prestige. basically this show is saying if you have a surplus of money to spend on a high tech-fitness facility, and personal trainer to order you around, only then can u have a great body.
Immature Young Girls
WTF!?!
Sorry but why didn't you ask thee question? Whats up with her a Rebecca!?! geesh. it would hade fun to ask her lol
-Nathiest
About Rebecca
I interviewed Jackie for this column a few weeks before the season began. When I asked her to dish about her Season 2 love connections, all she said was, "Yes, you'll have to see. There are. There are a couple." She never even hinted one of them was Rebecca!
If she had, I would've been all over that, trust me. She's a sly one, that Jackie.
Bad Business 101
I agree that Work Out is entertaining drama but this is supposed to be reality TV. Where’s the reality? If this were a “real” business without the “lights, camera, action”, then Jackie would have her workout gear silk-screened with a target on the back. Her demonstrative behavior with Rebecca at the slumber party and at the comedy club could have only resulted in the shock of her staff. Even Jesse, in his struggle to express his frustration, just wanted to say, “WHAT ARE YOU THINKING???” It was like watching a train wreck; I was horrified but could not turn away knowing that Jackie was the driver of that anarchy fun-bus. And she’s in therapy?????
Cuddling, kissing and perhaps (gasp) sleeping with a subordinate is like going to the batting cage to hit live grenades – Work Out Jackass. Can we say sexual harassment? A successful businessworman knows how to conduct herself with clients and especially with her staff, even in the face of attraction. She understands the great risks of crossing emotional boundaries with either. If my boss asked me to take off her shoe, it would be sent so far up her digestive tract that she would have to walk on her hands just to get home.
I certainly hope that Jackie is being the drama queen for ratings because a good business lesson is not why we watch the show. I also hope she had all her staff sign litigation-proof releases for when they are sick of playing their assigned parts and Rebecca is awarded “Rebecca’s Work Out in the Sky Gym and the Hollywood Hills Home”.
The show should come with a preamble – this is NOT reality so do not try this at the office. Jackie, a bit of advice. Brookstone sells a “neck massager” that will never sue you just in case you need the instant gratification.
I both agree and don't
Ok so yes is dating someone you work for the best idea? No its not, it does open alot of bad doors. At the same time remember Jackie had just gotten out of a emotionaly charged long term relationship. I know from my own experinces that sometimes you just go alittle nuts. Does Jackie have an Ego the size of Texas of course she does, right now she is like the lesbian Tom Cruse as Rebecca put it. Jackie is a woman of power this is utterly attracting to most. So obviously even the straight girls dig it lol. What I didn't care for was even though Jackie is being honest with both Rebecca and the other girl she's dating. (I dont remember her name because she's boring) Making out with Rebecca then leaving with another girl is just rude. If it was true that the girl came without notce thats a bit odd. If I was Rebecca I wouldn't have been hurt that Jackie was dating someone else but that when given the face to face choice she turned to the boring girl. Yes she is dating both, and they know of each other. But her evening had started with Rebecca and should have finished with Rebecca. I suppose I just see it as a respect issue. I give it up to Rebecca for keeping her cool. Because I probably would have l stomped off in a true lesbian dramtic tantrum. All that said I love Jackie as a whole, she's self made and driven. Is she the best boss no, would I want her as my girlfriend not so much. She's an amazing woman, and yes a good lesbian role model of sorts. Could she work on something of course but just remember we all can. She is of course human. And remember is so easy for us to judge her. We dont really know her, what we do know is she has the balls to put herself out there knowing she will be judged, without every detail and fact.
jackie