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'Meet Me in Paris': Reese Witherspoon's company creates first reality dating movie, with Canadian bachelor

Executive producers Reese Witherspoon and Zoë Saldaña let three women live out their own leading lady romances

The world of reality TV dating shows was shaken up by Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine production company after creating the first-ever reality dating movie for Roku, Meet Me In Paris.

From executive producers Witherspoon and Zoë Saldaña, Meet Me In Paris lets three women live out their own leading lady romances.

Each day Jasmine Fleet, Danielle Mateo and Mimi Shou were given a script to lead them through a series of dates with eligible bachelors in the city of love.

One of those men is Canadian Marcel Williams, who we see go on a several dates with Fleet throughout the movie.

For Williams, he actually applied to be on a different reality production before getting the call to be on Meet Me In Paris.

“I applied to FBoyIsland initially and I think my application kind of got lost in the shuffle, so somebody from the casting agency reached out to me a few months later saying, ‘hey, this might be a great opportunity for you,’ and the opportunity to spend some time in Paris during my birthday,” Williams told Yahoo Canada. “I jumped on that right away.”

“Also, it being the first of its kind was pretty alluring.”

Meet Me in Paris (Roku)
Meet Me in Paris (Roku)

While it may seem like Williams was a reality dating aficionado, given his previous attempt to be on FBoyIsland, he says he's not actually a big fan.

“I think I've always had apprehension when it comes to reality TV in general,” Williams said. “I haven't really been a huge viewer of reality TV.”

“I think one of the fears I had was, are they going to spin the narratives and make me seem like I'm a villain, or just kind of edit strategically to kind of create their own narratives. But fortunately, that was not my experience and this being a feature film, only 80 minutes, and not being an episodic thing where people get really invested, ... I think this was probably the best case scenario for me.”

But Williams does point out that he thinks the men in this reality dating love story do, generally, come across as more "dry" than they are in real life, but the focus was on the women trying to find love.

“It's a really cool bonding experience and only we can really truly understand the experience that we actually went through,” he said.

For anyone sitting at home thinking they could be successful on a dating show, Williams has a few tips, primarily, remember whatever you do is going to be seen by the public.

"This is something that's going to be on the internet and in people's brains for the rest of your life," he said. "So just be weary of how you conduct yourself, if you do end up getting selected for one of these things."

"But ultimately if you like a show, there's a reason for it and put your all into it, ... hopefully you'll have an experience as good as mine was."