Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Polizzis famous for being well, Snooki, as in the person whose name became synonymous withJersey Shore.
What they do have in common?
How did you get involved in this show?
Nicole Snooki Polizzi: Just to meet me.
Tortorella: Well, I have been a Viacom little…
Polizzi: Whore.
Tortorella: I dont want to say whore, but I am going to say whore.
I have been excited about MTV and they sent me the U.K. format.
We went through a list of girls…
Polizzi: How many?
Tortorella: Probably like ten.
Polizzi: I feel cheated.
Tortorella: When your name came up, it was a no-brainer for me.
I feel like she has been part of my family for the past ten years.
Did you watchJersey Shore?Tortorella: I come from a big Italian family.
I have a hundred cousins in Jersey.
So we got together and it was like we have been doing this forever.
Polizzi: It is very easy to hang out with him.
Nicole, do you watchYounger?Polizzi: No.
]But I dont care because I love him.
Tortorella: She knew me more for my LGTBQ activism, actually.
Polizzi: He is an amazing performer.
Polizzi: When we are not shooting the show, we will go on tour.
Polizzi: We only met like twice and we were friends already.
Tortorella: I had just come from a spiritual healer in Long Island.
A woman named Pat Longo.
She was telling me that Nicole had seen her months prior.
If that is not a sign from the universe, then I dont know what is.
Nico, you said you wanted to make a few tweaks from the British format.
What did you change?Tortorella: Their reality television is really loud.
Ours is loud, but theirs isextraextra.
There is one tattoo in particular that just said slut branded on this girls back.
Polizzi: Legit, like, branded.
I want to have, like, one more point of class.
I think we got half a point, I dont know if we got the whole point.
It does to a certain extent.
Listen, [the tattoo is] a penis.
That is where beautiful babies are from.
Would you trust each other to tattoo each other?
What would you write?Tortorella: We know it is happening at some point.
Not this season, but maybe next season.
Polizzi: We would do something very sentimental.
Tortorella: We both are extremely empathic and spiritual.
I feel like something along those lines.
Do you have any favorites of your own tattoos?Polizzi: Yeah, I love my squirrel.
And I love my galaxy.
Those are my favorite.
Tortorella: I have most of my arm done.
This David is really special to me.
Why the David?Tortorella: It is quite an interesting story, actually.
I went into a meditation one night and he came to me pretty strongly and … yeah.
I am just going to leave it at that.
Polizzi: You had sex with him?
Tortorella: I did, actually.
Polizzi: You had sex with David?
Tortorella: How did you just come up with that?
Polizzi: I dont know.
I could tell it was David.
Tortorella: Honestly, we can read each others minds.
Was it as the marble statue?
Or as the person?Tortorella: It switched from, like, Biblical representation to statuesque.
Why the squirrel?Polizzi: I call my kids squirrels.
So when I had Lorenzo, I got that right after I gave birth.
Im ready for that to go.
I have some work on my leg that is not really clean.
I want to get that covered up.
But as I continue to fill up my body, they will keep changing and getting layered.
All of this skin is going to die at the end of the day.
Nobody leaves it out here alive.
Do you have any spur-of-the-moment tattoos that you really like?Polizzi: Probably my galaxy.
I was in Vegas with my girls for one of my birthdays.
I was so drunk.
Usually it hurts here, but I was just like, Dig in more!
I was so drunk.
And a couple days on the shoot, Snooki showed up.
Polizzi: Snooki showed up for work.
Tortorella: They are going to be some of the greatest episodes of the season.
Snooki: I am curious to see how they are going to cut it.
Because at some points, I am just sogone.
Tortorella: I feel like I had been waiting my entire life for that moment.
I dont drink anymore.
I have been sober for almost four years, so I was living vicariously.
Polizzi: You got drunk off my breath.
Tortorella: Just energetically wasted.
Polizzi: I like matching ones.
Me and theJersey Shorecrew are eventually trying to get matching JS tattoos.
Tortorella: You all can think of something a little more creative than JS!
Polizzi: We dont want anything too crazy.
Its like hidden for us, just so we know.
I was thinking on my neck just like, JS.
Tortorella: Do you have tattoos?
I dont have any tattoos.Tortorella: You are a virgin!
Polizzi: Are you flirting?
Tortorella: Was that flirting?
I feel like if you reach a certain age and you dont have tattoos, you shouldnt get them.
Nico, do you think theYoungercast would do a group tattoo?Tortorella: No.
No one else really had tattoos besides me and Hilary [Duff].
Debi [Mazar] has tattoos.
She has one little tattoo.
Miriam [Shor] would never do it.
Peter Hermann, come on!
There is no way Mariska Hargitay is going to be like, Yeah, you might get that tattoo.
What were your first tattoos?Polizzi: Mine was a tramp stamp.
Angel wings on my back.
It is a little faded, Id like to fix it up.
But I still like it.
My dad got it for me for my birthday.
Tortorella: Its funny because my mom took me when I was 15 to get my tattoo.
What did it say?Tortorella: It says, health, wealth and happiness.
But the wealth actually means…
Polizzi: A lot of sex.
Tortorella: My sexual experience and knowledge will be abundant and therefore I will be wealthy.
Actually, pretty nail on the head.
Look at my life and my work outside of acting.
It is all about sexual identity and gender and health.
It goes hand in hand.
Tortorella: Yeah, my mom.
Or my dad, honestly.
That would be nice.
Polizzi: Do a crazy tattoo?
Tortorella: Liberal love on their back.
Everything that you believe is wrong and harmful and killing people!
Polizzi: Next season.
Tortorella: But honestly, no, I am not vindictive like that at all.
I would do something sweet to somebody.
I am not into 24-hour filmmaking for two weeks straight.
It is not conducive for my life.
I am a mom, I cant leave my kids like that anymore.
I am just in a different place in my life.
Tortorella: I think more than a competition show, this is actually a talk show.
Polizzi: A therapy talk show, honestly.
I got asked that not that long ago.
Like, What is your dream role if you could play any role in the entire world?
My answer was, the most truest, authentic, unapologetic version of myself.
I want my own talk show at some point.
I want to continue to find my voice.
Nicole, you mentioned Nicos LGBTQ activism and poetry.
It has been really fascinating.
I think it has only brought us closer.
Polizzi: I am still learning.
Tortorella: I am still learning too.
Polizzi: But it is nice to learn.
Polizzi: I still dont get it.
Tortorella: Its not going very well.
I understand that language is difficult to reappropriate.
Polizzi: Especially a stubborn Jersey girl.
Tortorella: And I know that the intention isnt malicious.
Polizzi: Ill get it eventually.
I dont know, I keep that sense of wonderment throughout all of the conversations I have.
Tortorella: We had some drag queens, we had a couple nonbinary folks on the show.
When I saw the breakdown, I was so pleasantly surprised.
Tortorella: The first one.
Polizzi: We were like, What the hell is this?
I was, like, fucking chanting.
Polizzi: Sage-ing the room.
Tortorella: I was like, I cant be part of something like this.
But you found a way through it?Tortorella: We chanted our way through that.
But that specific world is not something that I play with.
Spirituality comes first always.
