Jersey Shore's Vinny Guadagnino on Miami, Suspicious Girls, and Firing Rumors

Vinny Guadagnino is the self-touted family man of MTV's reality juggernaut Jersey Shore, the ever-pinchable voice of reason who declares the "GTL" lifestyle a little ridiculous and who tames JWOWW after she punches The Situation in the chest. He's a party guy whose fist-pimping prowess is second to none, though his vainglorious co-stars tend to dwarf him when it comes to rambunctious spectacle and occasional insanity. Luckily, with the premiere of season two less than a month away, Vinny's just as torqued as Snooki or DJ Pauly D for the debauchery to begin anew. But did he thrive away from Seaside Heights in the new ecosystem of Miami? Movieline wanted answers.

We phoned Vinny earlier this week to discuss season two, his artistic (and political!) ambitions, and the rumors that he won't be on board for season three.

Can you talk about the pressure of following up season one? Did you have to sacrifice your character or act crazier to make sure it lived up?

You know what, obviously just being on the show in general there are some butterflies that come with it. And I guess pressure, you know, knowing it's a huge TV show that's seen by the whole world, literally. But besides that, like, getting down to the minor details of it, like, "Do I have to act a certain way?" and stuff like that -- not really. What made the show so great in the first place was just being ourselves. People seem to just have positive reactions to who I am personally. I didn't really feel the need to change personally or anything like that. And once you get into that environment, you're kind of forced to forget that it's a TV show. You don't really think about that. You just kind of live the life.

Are you suspicious of the girls you meet now? And when you meet a girl, do you have to wonder if she makes for good TV?

I'm definitely suspicious of girls. I've been suspicious of girls my whole life though, so it's not anything new. But yeah, definitely now with the show, you don't know which ones -- right off the bat, sometimes you know which ones are just for the show, the little groupie girls. And that's cool, you know, I really appreciate them being fans and whatever. It's great. But then there are the girls that seem like they're not interested in the show, and those are the ones you have to be careful for. You don't know if they're putting on an act or not. It takes a little bit of figuring out. It comes with any celebrity. You have to figure out which girls are in it for what reasons.

Talk about Miami in comparison to the Jersey shore. Was it a comfortable fit for you? You've been dragged out of your natural habitat, so to speak.

It felt really, really, really comfortable. I don't speak for everybody but for me and for a couple of the guys on the show, it felt very comfortable. It felt more comfortable me than in Jersey. I just like that beach-y environment.

Did you ever miss the way things were before season one, when you didn't know what viewers would love about the show?

It was the same to me either way, I'm not gonna lie. Once you get there, you're stripped of your -- you don't have a phone, you don't have a TV, you don't have anything like that -- it king of forces you to be who you are. You're not a celebrity performing for a crowd. I definitely like this life. It's a blessing, I get to entertain people and have fans. Going into season two and having that at the back of my mind, it gives me more of a reason to do my job and give people something to laugh at.

Your Twitter indicates that DJ Pauly D is your closest associate in the house. Can you tell us something we don't know about him? Or the others, for that matter?

Pauly is the funniest person alive. He's going on 30 years old, and he's like a 2-year-old. He's hilarious, he's always joking around, he keeps it going whenever there's a dull moment. With his spiky hair and his muscles, you probably wouldn't expect that. You'd expect "Oh, a douchebag." He's the most humblest kid in the world. The same thing goes to Snooki -- Snooki's not a diva at all. She's a really sweet girl. Snooki would walk down the street right now without a security guard and just act like she's not a big star. But those two, you might think are a little standoffish, are actually the exact opposite of that.

You guys seem to be everywhere. Why do I feel like the cast of Jersey Shore gets to meet Barack Obama? Do you have outrageous encounters often?

[Laughs] Yeah, I feel like that too. It's really crazy. We've become those people that are crashing every Hollywood party and hanging out with everybody. Obama did actually mention our show at the Correspondents Dinner. I do want to meet him, but I haven't. It's just outrageous being at the MTV Movie Awards, being among the celebrities there. I've got celebrities coming up to me and basketball players literally giving me high fives during the game. But we know our place too, you know? We're know we're those kids who keep on crashing the scene. We're not acting like, "Oh, we've been here, and we're big celebrities, and we're all that." We just take it all and it's a blessing.

So far, you've assumed a brotherly role with most of the girls in the house. Did you expect that going in?

It's funny, because I would expect the opposite. Seeing the people in the house, the outrageous Snooki and Jenni, stuff like that -- I would never picture myself really friends with that. Beneath the surface, if they're good people, they're good people. I get along with all good people. It's not what I expected, but if you live with people for months you either hate each or love each other. So I did definitely recognize the realness in all of them.

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