The Bachelor bachelorette Brianna Thorbourne has dished on drama viewers didn't see on the premiere and how some of the women actually tried to stop her from talking to Zach Shallcross.
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Brianna, a 24-year-old entrepreneur and model from Jersey City, NJ, appeared to make a lasting impression on Zach during The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose special for Season 19 in September 2022, and so she won "America's First Impression Rose."
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Brianna therefore walked into Night 1 of The Bachelor's 27th season totally safe from elimination, with a red rose in hand.
"It was really tough for me because all night I was getting comments, like, 'Oh, you don't need to talk to him. You're safe!'" Brianna told Becca Kufrin and Michelle Young on the January 24 episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast.
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Brianna said while most of the 29 other bachelorettes were "nice" to her overall, she would hear "the occasional snide comment from girls" throughout the evening.
It probably didn't help that Brianna was wearing a stunning red dress with roses all over it. (But just for the record, Brianna said she had already owned that standout dress for years, long before she ever signed up for The Bachelor).
"[The women would be] like, 'Why didn't you wear sweatpants? You didn't need to wear that dress [or] talk to him tonight,'" Brianna recalled.
"I was really trying to be cognizant [of the fact] it would look bad if I tried to pull Zach for a second, third, fifth, or even tenth [time]. But to the girls, it would look bad if I tried to pull Zach at all that night."
Brianna said she "finally got to talk to" Zach around 4:30AM, but even then, women still weren't happy.
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"Literally people were, like, physically trying to get in the way of me going over there," Brianna said of her competition.
"I was standing outside waiting for his conversation, when there would be a little lull, and people were, like, 'You better not go in there. Do not go in there and talk to him -- you already have a rose.'"
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But Brianna said she stood her ground and would reply, "You know guys, I'm here for the same experience as you."
"I think what people didn't understand about the situation is that despite the fact that yeah I was safe, this was also my first opportunity to really get to know Zach as well," Brianna explained.
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"Outside of what you saw on [After the Final Rose], Zach and I didn't get a chance to speak."
Brianna, whose mother convinced her to apply for the show, admitted she was nervous and worried about having a big target on her back going into Night 1 due to "America's First Impression Rose."
"That was something I was actually really concerned about just because of the fact I was so excited and I was so happy because I feel like when America saw Zach and I, they felt what I was feeling," Brianna shared.
"In that moment, I genuinely was feeling like head over heels. I was feeling the connection and I was feeling the chemistry, and I feel like it really translated well."
Brianna wondered how she was ever going to top that moment on The Bachelor.
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"I was feeling, like, 'How am I going to do more than that? Are people going to want to be a certain way towards me because I came in with [a rose] already?'" Brianna said.
The bombshell also insisted she is "not an arrogant person" or "someone who wants to make anyone feel bad."
"I know [coming] in with a rose and, not only having it, but walking around with it all night, I know that can be kind of an anxiety point for other people who don't have [a rose] yet," Brianna acknowledged.
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As a result, Brianna said she walked around the cocktail party holding her rose low at her waist or even behind her back.
"I was really trying not to... show it off. That was not my intention," Brianna insisted.
"If I was in the other girls' position, I would be like, 'Oh my god, she's walking around with this rose and I don't have one! That's so messed up!' I put myself in their shoes and I get that."
While Brianna came across extremely confident on The Bachelor premiere, she confessed that dating in that environment was challenging for her because she's actually an "introverted" person.
Brianna said she was also nervous about the idea of living with a bunch of the bachelorettes.
"Walking in, I was like, 'I actually am here to make friends,'" Brianna said, adding how her friendships with women are of the highest priority in her life and so she was looking forward to making lifelong connections.
When asked if Brianna could tell on Night 1 if there was going to be a troublemaker or villain -- or just someone who's misunderstood -- Brianna dodged the question and playfully said viewers could see for themselves, for the most part, what went down at the mansion on that first night of filming.
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In addition to Brianna, Zach immediately connected with many of his bachelorettes at the mansion, including Greer Blitzer, who received Zach's First Impression Rose ahead of the Rose Ceremony.
Brianna said that Greer was very nice to her and actually revealed she had voted for Brianna to win the first rose of the season on The Bachelorette last year.
By the end of Night 1, Zach managed to narrow his initial 30 bachelorettes down to only 20 women.
The Bachelor will continue to air on Monday nights at 8PM ET/PT on ABC, and Brianna teased of her journey on the show, "You may get to see me win something again, so you need to stay tuned!"
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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