Stars Spill on Celeb Encounters, Bad First Impressions & Regrets (Exclusive)

15 years ago, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi exclaimed those words as MTV debuted a brand new show following the lives of seven 20-somethings picked to live together — all while having their debaucherous lives filmed for one epic summer in Seaside Heights.

What began with a show the cast wasn’t sure would even make it to air became a juggernaut for the network, sparking six seasons, and a followup — Jersey Shore Family Vacation — currently on Season 7, as well as international versions, spinoffs and imitations.

In the process, Snooki, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, Jenni “JWoww” Farley, Pauly “DJ Pauly D” Delvecchio, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, Samantha “Sammi Sweetheart” Giancola, Angelina Pivarnick and Deena Nicole Cortese became household names, while terms like “Guido,” “Guidette,” “Grenade,” “GTL” and “Beat the Beat” took over the pop culture lexicon.

In celebration of the show’s 15th anniversary, TooFab spoke with The Situation, Snooki and JWoww about filming that first season, how it felt to blow up overnight, their wild experiences with celebrities — including Jennifer Aniston — and whether they have anything they truly wish was not caught on camera.

The group first met on the Shore, not knowing how much it would change their lives once it aired … or how close they’d become. And when it comes to first impressions, Jenni has one she regrets all these years later.

“I always regret Nicole’s. I always say it’s editing, but she says, ‘No, it’s not, you truly did that,'” recalled JWoww. “Nicole comes in, but I’m like, ‘Dude, you look like a rabid chihuahua, you came in with so much energy,’ and I kind of went like this [disgusted] to her. Of course, they showed it, and I was like, oh my god.”

“But she still to this day, 15 years later, holds that against me. She’s like, you weren’t my friend in the beginning, it took me getting punched for you to be my friend,” added Jenni, who is adamant she loved Nicole before that infamous Season 1 moment. “I was intimated; I was like, girl, you were very intimidating. You were loud, you knew who you were, and I’m introverted … she loves holding that against me and I’m like I loved you, that’s why I reacted to your punch. I loved you before that.”

Mike, meanwhile, admitted they were all “probably wrong about everyone” when it came to their snap judgments.

“15 years later, everyone had so much growth, so much change … That’s what’s so great about it and makes us so relatable,” he added. “That there has been so much growth with all of us.”

When the cameras were rolling on the first season, Mike admitted that, for him, he was just “in the moment” the whole time.

“I definitely wasn’t looking past the first season. I was so grateful and so excited to be getting my break, I guess,” he said, adding that none of them expected much from it initially. “We were literally living by the second, probably. Then when I left, I knew we had filmed something special, and everything exploded from there.”

“We didn’t know about TV. We were just going for the free summer, free Shore house, just to like have a good time,” added Nicole. “I always wanted to be on a reality show, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is my chance to do it, and just come home and go back to my normal life.’ We don’t look at it how we do now, where its our career … we were newbies.”

While Mike said they were all in it “for the drinks at the time,” Nicole joked she was “happy for the $200 for the Shore shop.”

Jenni admitted she was concerned the show wouldn’t work out while filming … and became even more worried when the first commercial for the series didn’t air as intended.

“At the end [of filming] we did a photoshoot and shook each other’s hands. We were still on Blackberries, and we were trying to try to create those little Blackberry group messages; remember those?” she said of wrapping Season 1. “I remember Pauly giving his DJ business card because that was the only way to communicate. It just died down.”

While Jenni said they were told a commercial was probably going to air during the MTV Video Music Awards that September, it didn’t happen.

“I got all of my friends and family to tune in and it never aired. I just remembering being, ugh,” she recalled. “They wouldn’t even tell us the name for it. So fast forward, I had MTV on, and I was cooking in the kitchen, and I hear my annoying ass voice on the television. I run around from the corner of the kitchen and into my living room, and was like, ‘What is this?!’ I’d just seen the first commercial, which was chaos.”

“I just remember Jersey Shore and I was like, ‘That’s what they named it?’ I had no idea,” she added. “I just called all my friends and family back and I was like, ‘See I told you I was going to be on TV!’ and I hung up on them. Nobody believed me because we filmed it months prior. We ended Labor Day weekend, and it didn’t come out until December.”

Though Jenni said they had no idea the show was “going to be iconic,” she’s glad that’s how they felt filming the first batch of episodes — because they “actually came in with zero expectations and we were just ourselves.”

December 3, everything changed for the cast, as the show premiered on MTV. It was instantly iconic, making names of its stars — who had never been in the spotlight before.

“Totally petrifying,” Jenni said of their overnight success. “You have to understand we had Kardashian fame with no money. I was broke as hell.”

“I had people looking through my windows, following me in my car, stealing my garbage; I would wake up and people would be like little raccoons,” she recalled. “I would be like, ‘What are you doing? Just say hi to me.’ I would wake up in my second-story place, and there would be someone in my window. It was just madness.”

She added that their fame was organic and not thanks to the help of social media, as Instagram and Twitter were only in their early stages when the show launched.

“I remember Ashton Kutcher signing us up to Twitter … and [Nicole] was like, ‘You have to sign up to this thing called Facebook.’ I was like, ‘I don’t want to,'” Jenni continued. “She was constantly forcing me to be on social media, but at that time you just rode the wave through old school media, magazines, paparazzi. There were no cellphones and TikTok, things that made people famous today. It was very captivating, it was crazy.”

“We were stoked,” Nicole said of that early fame. “I never went to California before. I never really traveled before, unless it was like Florida. So, I was like, ‘Holy crap, I’m going to California. We’re not paying for anything; everything is like taken care of. We’re going to meet celebrities'”

“I feel like we were all stoked because we obviously loved attention; we still love attention. We were like, ‘This is great,'” she added.

“It definitely exploded so quickly, but I thought that we remained ourselves for a very long time,” added Mike. “Like we would go out, and we would just be focused on just how we felt; being so happy, being together. We had no idea what was about to happen, and everything that came with it.”

As they became celebrities, they also got to meet a ton of them … first at red carpets hosted by MTV, before getting invites to swanky events around the world.

“So, I got to meet Leonardo DiCaprio at a club, and we took a selfie. You can Google it, it’s out there,” JWoww boasted, before spilling on her Jennifer Aniston encounter backstage at a different MTV show.

“I just remember her shaking my hands, with both hands, and looking me in the eyes,” she recalled. “I just remember my jaw completely dislocating and falling to the floor. But I never forget she treated me so kindly — and she didn’t see the show at that point, so it was just her being like, ‘Oh, you’re [MTV programming president Tony DiSanto’s] friend, it’s so kind to meet you.'”

“Then she became a fan of the show after, and I was like, ‘I win at life,'” she exclaimed. “This is the most iconic thing that ever happen to me. She is so sweet, there is nobody as sweeter.”

The Situation, meanwhile, name dropped Leo, The Rock and Jason Statham — all of whom he also spoke about in his book.

“It just all happen so quickly, and we were just being ourselves, being authentic. That is what worked at the time, and that is what still works today,” he added.

Considering some of the totally wild experiences that were captured on film — including arrests, physical fights, battles with substance abuse, and more — it would be totally fair if the stars of Jersey Shore wished some of those moments weren’t captured on camera.

“50% of it. That’s embarrassing, I wish that was never there,” Nicole quipped when asked if there were moments she wishes didn’t make the final cut, before explaining why she doesn’t really have regrets.

“That is what made us who we were. We were just unapologetically ourselves,” she added. “I think that is why the fans loved us because we were just so real and raw with everything. Even if it was embarrassing.”

“Reality TV is reality TV. There is no script, we are the script,” added Mike. “Early on in our career, it’s very realistic to see us make mistakes, see us succeed, see us fail. That’s all in the process.”

Jenni, however, would pinpoint one thing she would change.

“I just wish the first season, I think I got really sick, we called it the Seaside Swine Flu, where it just annihilated you,” she shared. “I looked rough. So they didn’t play the fact that I had the flu. They just played me looking like a mess.”

“I just remember being like, couldn’t you have just gotten your s–t together, Jenni? Like, if you would’ve known this freaking show would have been the number one hit, could you have washed your hair?” she laughed. “I looked a hella mess, but again I was super sick, and they only had so little things to put in each episode. I’d be in the background looking like an absolute disaster, which I regret.”

The show’s success brought the Jersey Shore aesthetic to the masses — and we still haven’t fully recovered. Thanks to the cast, the poof and blowouts gained popularity, while Ed Hardy and fake tans took over. And now, 15 years later, those late 2000s fashions are already making a comeback.

“[Her daugher] Meliani wants a Juicy Couture for Christmas. I was like, ‘What is going on in life?’  Shout out to Juicy, can you please contact me? I don’t even know how to buy it anymore. I used to go in malls,” said JWoww of the brand’s iconic sweatsuits. “I’m like, do you buy it online now? I am so ancient; I need help.'”

“My 10-year-old wants it. My eight-year-old wants Ed Hardy. He’s mad at me that he saw episodes and pictures, and outfits that I wore that I don’t have anymore,” she continued. “I’m like guys, I had bins of Ed Hardy. Bins! My parents said it best, to never get rid of your stuff because it’s going to come around again. They are right.”

“I miss it,” Nicole said of that 2009 style. “Pauly just brought back Ed Hardy on our last trip to Jamaica. I went shopping this morning and [remembered] all of the Juicy bags I used to wear. That was the best style for me, like I just loved all of it. So no, that was really my favorite era ever. The 2000s, the gaudiness, I miss it so much.”

Mike, who still loves a Versace print, said he does nothing but smile when he looks at old photos. “I’m grateful for the good, grateful for the bad, grateful for it all!” he added.

Catch new episodes of Jersey Shore Family Vacation every Thursday on MTV!