Sandoval says that he learned from being bullied, and from occasionally bullying others, as a preteen. “I felt like an asshole,” he says. “And I don’t like that feeling.” When popularity followed his awkward stage, he took on a white knight vibe, becoming “a bully to bullies.” And on TV, his white knight vibe has been the catalyst for high drama, especially as the cast learned to navigate being followed by cameras and press.
“I will always try to speak up when I feel like something’s not right,” Sandoval says of his instinct to confront his castmates, even as the others stay quiet. “You know, people in the cast…” He pauses. “It’s like they’re afraid to speak up. I can tell that something’s bothering them and I sometimes feel like, okay, I guess I’ll have to be the one to say something.”
Sandoval’s willingness to be extra—whether it’s creating an on-camera scene about the out-and-out hypocrisy of Cartwright and Taylor, or arriving at his 36th birthday party (the theme? Extra AF, duh!) on a pair of sky-high stilts—makes for great television, but it also inspires the men in his life to embrace a freer, more true version of themselves.
“It’s benefitted me,” Peter Madrigal, the SUR manager and sometimes VPR cast member, said, “because you know, I’m a very masculine guy. But seeing him be the way he is has helped me progress a little bit. I used to just wear black, but now I wear, like, blue pants.” Madrigal is dead serious about incorporating blue pants into his wardrobe and into his life—about what being a blue-pants guy would say about him, about the vistas blue pants might open, about the change in internal chemistry that accompanies a shift in self-expression. “Seeing someone else have the courage to be himself gave me the courage to be myself,” he says. Like so much else with Sandoval, his peacocking is two things at once: a flagrant display of narcissism, and something close to inspiring.
In some areas, Sandoval has been slower to grow however; he, along with decision-makers like the Bravo brass and Vanderpump herself turned a blind eye to several racist incidents involving the cast. It wasn’t until protests broke out across the country, and the cast of VPR dutifully jumped on the black-squares-on-Insta bandwagon to proclaim their support for calls for racial justice and police reform, that these straight, white reality stars faced actual consequences for their off-camera racist behavior.