How Candiace Dillard prepped husband Chris Bassett for ‘Hush’ sex scenes

Reality TV

No other dude can do it like that. 

Candiace Dillard’s husband, Chris Bassett, was surprisingly cool with the “Real Housewives of Potomac” star’s steamy sex scenes for ALLBLK’s scripted TV drama “Hush.”

“It’s so funny. When I posted the trailer on my Instagram, I feel like I had like 500,000 cousins who were like, ‘Ooh, I’m tellin’ your man, girl!’ It was hilarious,” Dillard, 36, says on Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast. 

“Everybody’s like, ‘Oh my God, does Chris know that this is happening?’ It’s like, well, yes,” she continues.

“It’s just pretend. I’m acting. Hundreds of actors simulate intimacy on TV and in film every day. It’s OK.”

Per an AMC press release, “Hush” tells the story of a “top marriage and sex therapist, TV personality and best-selling author, who finds herself entangled in a web of lies, sex, and murder that could cost her everything.”

Candiace Dillard
“Real Housewives of Potomac” star Candiace Dillard appeared on Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast.
PageSix

In the eight-episode series, Dillard plays Syleena Gibson, “a trophy wife who, despite the dangers, keeps her marriage to her high-powered attorney [husband] Terrell Gibson (Lanre Idewu) spicy by [fulfilling] his fantasies, alone and with others.”

The Bravolebrity says sensual material was “inevitable” as she’s been acting for more than a decade — and her spouse had plenty of time to mentally prepare himself, saving the couple from any arguments. 

Candiace Dillard and Chris Bassett
Dillard’s husband, Chris Bassett, was surprisingly cool with her sex scenes on ALLBLK’s scripted TV drama “Hush.”

Candiace Dillard and Chris Bassett
Dillard’s husband, Chris Bassett, was surprisingly cool with her sex scenes on ALLBLK’s scripted TV drama “Hush.”


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Candiace Dillard and Chris Bassett
Dillard’s husband, Chris Bassett, was surprisingly cool with her sex scenes on ALLBLK’s scripted TV drama “Hush.”


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“Chris was very understanding. We’ve talked about, before, getting to this place because I’ve been acting for 15 years,” she explains. 

“So it was inevitable that I would get to a place where it would be time for me to, you know, portray a character who is intimate with a partner.”

Candiace Dillard
Dillard (far left) plays trophy wife Syleena Gibson on “Hush.”
Photo Credit: ALLBLK

Although Bassett, 44 — a successful restauranteur and chef in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area — is supportive of Dillard’s provocative performances, that doesn’t mean he wants to see them. 

“He definitely was like, ‘I don’t think I’m gonna be able to watch it, but I love you and support you.’ And we kind of left it there,” says the former pageant queen, whose August 2018 wedding to Bassett aired on “Potomac” Season 3.

Candiace Dillard and Chris Bassett on their wedding day
Dillard and Bassett’s August 2018 wedding aired on “Potomac” Season 3.

Candiace Dillard and Chris Bassett on their wedding day
Dillard and Bassett’s August 2018 wedding aired on “Potomac” Season 3.


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“I did ask him and I said, ‘Did you want to read the script?’ And he said, ‘No, I’m good. I trust you and I’m good.’”

Elsewhere in her chat with “Virtual Reali-Tea,” Dillard admits that she doesn’t share her “Hush” character’s penchant for threesomes. 

Candiace Dillard and her "Hush" co-stars
“It was inevitable that I would get to a place where it would be time for me to, you know, portray a character who is intimate with a partner,” says Dillard (far right).
ALLBLK

“I’ve kissed my co-stars before, I’ve laid in a bed before. But as Syleena, I have to actually simulate having relations, relations with other people, so that was a lot for me,” she says. “But still, it was liberating.” 

If “Hush” is renewed for a second season, the actress jokes that she might interrogate “RHOP” co-star Mia Thornton, Thornton’s husband, Gordon “G” Thornton, and new “friend of” the cast Jacqueline Blake for research purposes. 

Candiace Dillard on "Hush"
“It’s just pretend. I’m acting,” Dillard says of her provocative performances. “Hundreds of actors simulate intimacy on TV and in film every day. It’s OK.”

Candiace Dillard on "Hush"
“It’s just pretend. I’m acting,” Dillard says of her provocative performances. “Hundreds of actors simulate intimacy on TV and in film every day. It’s OK.”


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The trio has faced accusations of polyamorous bedroom play but denied having a ménage à trois.

However, Mia, 38, and Blake, also 38, have copped to previously sharing a sexual partner — who wasn’t Gordon — in the past. Meanwhile, Mia has divulged that she and her husband have sex with others from time to time. 

The Season 7 cast of "The Real Housewives of Potomac" standing together for a promo picture.
From left to right: “RHOP” Season 7 stars Mia Thornton, Gizelle Bryant, Dillard, Karen Huger, Ashley Darby, Robyn Dixon and Dr. Wendy Osefo.
Paul Gilmore/Bravo via Getty Ima

“I didn’t think about that,” Dillard says. “I actually could have gone to the Gordons and/or Jacqueline and Mia about this. But maybe for Season 2, as we’re exploring these characters further … yes, I would happily explore real-life experience with the [Thorntons] — from afar.”

“Hush” is available to stream on ALLBLK with new episodes dropping Thursdays. “The Real Housewives of Potomac” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.

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