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Not to bring up the dreaded “manosphere,” but Southern Charm does a good job of showing men talking about their feelings. The core three—Shep Rose, Austen Kroll, and Craig Conover—have no issue hashing out their issues of a few shots of Casamigos at a beach bar. Conover is a great-looking lawyer from Delaware who has navigated his reality-celebrity status correctly. He launched Sewing Down South, a lifestyle brand that started with (I shit you not) decorative pillows and has expanded into an “eight-figure” business selling apparel, home decor, and other products. He keeps an immaculate garden, practices beekeeping, and is an investor in a few restaurants and bars. His recent breakup with fellow reality star and podcaster Paige DeSorbo has been well chronicled online and Conover is once again searching for love on Season 11, which is airing on Bravo as we speak.
We chatted on Zoom about ambition, what his law school dean told him about doing reality TV, his DMs, and getting away from downtown.
GQ: I just saw that you launched a production company.
Craig Conover: I love the production side. I love making television and sharing my life with people. I just don’t want this to be my only thing. After 12 years, there are more stories to be told.
People can misuse the success of reality television. You’ve done an excellent job of capitalizing on it in ways that aren’t directly TV-related.
Yeah. No. I appreciate it. And that’s what is fun, because I have a good relationship with Southern Charm’s production company, Haymaker, but I run a lot of this shit when I’m filming. I’ve done it for a long time. Obviously, not in an official capacity, but they’re always like, “You should come produce.” For a lot of my law background, on the litigation side of things, you’re just telling a story to the jury, and you’re laying this story out fundamentally. So, I’m excited. We’ve got three concepts on the unscripted side right now. It will either work or it won’t, but you can’t wait for permission in life. No one’s going to come to me one day and be like, “You know what, Craig? We think it’s your turn to make television.”
I can’t believe how television moves. It’s either pedal to the metal or it takes 10 years.
I was in a movie two years ago, but the script was written 20 years ago. They won the best script at the Austin Film Festival 20 years ago, and then 18 years later, the movie was made. I don’t want to have to wait that long to do these.
Having these ambitions is smart. People get stuck in this rut of just doing the same thing over and over. You have to be looking forward at all times, or it could be a wasted opportunity.
I see it in the industry I’m in—if you don’t have purpose or value, and all you do is wait for these three months to film, you’re a hamster on a wheel.
I’m familiar with the show and how it works. Whitney co-created it?
I always tell people, “This weird guy named Whitney just showed up in Charleston one day.” We definitely didn’t think it was real. We thought he was just trying to meet girls. And he’s still doing it for those reasons, but I remember talking to my dean, because I was in my second year of law school. And Dean Laughton was like, “Look, Craig. What will you regret more? Not doing it and wondering what if, or doing it and dealing with the consequences later?” And five years later, I was in front of the Supreme Court of South Carolina explaining what a reality show was and what my relationship was to a known felon.
