‘The Circle’ Exit Interviews: The First Week’s Evicted Players Look Back on All the Drama

Decider: What made you audition for The Circle?

Bryant: Shout out to my casting producer Raphael [Dorval] for walking me through everything. Couldn’t have done it without you. I wanted to be on The Circle because I thought it was the most genius social experiment that gives the world a new perspective on social media. A lot of us have our own ideas behind our screen of what goes on. When we’re able to observe people interacting with different identities, trying to win something, it exacerbates all things that are bad and good within the world of social media. I wanted to go in and play and experience that. The circle is a gigantic ecosystem. It’s an incredibly interconnected thing, interwoven. There’s so many things that go into it.

Did it ever cross your mind to catfish?

It never crossed my mind to catfish. You still have to construct an identity of yourself, which is interesting. At some level, we’re all projecting a 2.0 version of ourselves on social media and that gets incredibly amplified when you go into a social experiment that you’re playing to win. So I was like, okay, what’s the best part of myself, and what is something that allows people to feel relatable to me? I chose gardening, and I’m a breathwork instructor. I let people know that I’m a triplet. I have two brothers just like me. So just these key things that I really enjoy and love myself, I decided to share that with the world.

Did any of your breathwork exercises help you through the experience?

Yeah, breathwork was a huge tool on The Circle. If anyone goes on The Circle, I highly recommend that. You’re going to need it. At one point, I had all of the producers, there’s like 40 of them—we’re all breathing at the same time before we were filming. And when I got in The Circle, I’m so stressed out, I have so much anxiety, I don’t know what’s gonna happen. Breathe, let it go. If you [already] feel really good, you’re going to make better decisions. And at the end of the day, your health and your happiness is way more important than suffering for $100,000.

What was the most stressful thing you encountered in The Circle?

There’s always stressful things in those environments. The trick is, how quick can you recover? The most stressful experience for me is when they told me that I was voted last, and it wasn’t even stressful as much as it hurt my heart really bad. I remember when I saw my name was last, I grabbed my heart and fell to my knees. Then after that I breezed through it and moved the energy and I was like, okay, cool. That’s what it is.

The first player you connected with was Courtney. What made you want to talk to him at the start?

Courtney’s energy just really jumped out at me. He had this beautiful smile and I was like, “My friend.” And I messaged him. You know, there were some barriers of trust that had to be broken down, because it is a game and everyone thinks that they’re manipulating the other. That didn’t even come into my awareness until after. We connected as a friend. At the end of the conversation we came to this conclusion like, we got each other’s back. We’re loyal lads and you saw in the ratings. When I had a chance to put Courtney first, I was like, for sure. And he did the same.

You also opened up to Terilisha about your past on day one. Did you have any trepidation about going that deep so soon?

I am who I am and I love myself for it, so that allows me the chance to be more for the other person. Terilisha, she commanded that. She was like, no, listen, give me the truth. Who are you? What did you go through? Show me who you’ve become. I was like, you’re so right and it’s part of my story. It’s just facts. I was like, this is what I went through, this is how I came out of it, this is why I’m so happy and productive and fun.

Terilisha shared her heart and then I was like, yeah, okay, we’re getting somewhere. Because I only have so much bandwidth to have surface level conversations for a long period of time. That was what was going on. I don’t know how to communicate this way, because I just want to know what’s your deepest heart’s desire? And why are you on this planet? And how are we making it better? And Terilisha, she gave me an opportunity to connect in the way that I really wanted to connect.

After getting blocked, you chose to go visit River, a.k.a. Lee. 

He’s just the most gentle, loving kind. So he constantly checks up on me, you know, like, once every couple of weeks I get a message from Lee: “Hey, how are you?” That, to me, is a beautiful love language for someone to go out of their way and check in on how I’m really doing. And so we’ve stayed connected, in a sense. Even on The Circle, I had an incredibly deep conversation with Lee. We’re talking about philosophy and all these amazing things and books and his incredible poetry. Both Lee and I got voted last in the poetry slam, and Lee’s was next level. Mine was, you know, mediocre at best. I had the opportunity to go visit somebody from The Circle after I got eliminated and first thing that came to mind was go visit Lee. I didn’t know that he wasn’t playing who he was saying he was playing. There’s just something that didn’t add up. I wanted to go see him face to face, tell him I love him and it doesn’t matter who he is playing. You can play whoever you want to play. I love you for who you are, because I felt your sincerity through the words.

Even though you’re only around for the two episodes, you came in, told your story, and set an example in a short period of time. Did you feel that when you were blocked?

Yeah. Even though I was only on The Circle for two days, I felt that I fulfilled my mission. I was there to give people tools for their stress and I had the whole cast doing breathwork and dropping back into their bodies. I wanted to connect in love and appreciate others, and I got to connect with Courtney, Terilisha, and Lee very profoundly in a very short amount of time. I wanted to be myself. So my intention, everything came true. Granted, they didn’t keep me on for a little bit longer, but I’m also incredibly grateful that I’m on for the short amount of time and I got to spread what I did. Because it’s not about winning. It’s not about being on there so long that people get to know me for something. It’s if this information can touch one person’s life, and there’s somebody that watches it and resonates with the message and allows them to drop back into their heart and feel a little bit more authentic. That’s what the whole thing’s about.

Follow Bryant on Instagram at @bryant.give

Decider: What made you want to audition for The Circle? 

Savannah: I was a big fan of the show in the first season. I didn’t watch it right when it premiered, but there was so much buzz around this show and I was like, I need to see it to believe it. And I loved it. I loved the strategy behind the game. I loved the idea behind it. I feel like it’s so timely, especially because we were all in COVID and I thought that I would be good at it. I don’t really like to do things that I’m not good at. I really thought that I would excel at this game and I think even for the short amount of time that I was in the game I did. It was an amazing experience. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

One of the first things you say in your intro is that you’re ready “to put a bitch in check.” Do you feel like you lived up to that energy?

[Laughs] Absolutely without a doubt. I think I accomplished that. I feel like even in real life, if someone has issues with me—I’ve never been the argumentative type. I’ve always been able to work it out with them. But I grew up with an older brother and I grew up with him always trying to bully me, so I feel like I have it down. I can stand up for myself. And people may look at me and see an innocent, quiet, maybe submissive Asian girl, but they’re forgetting that I’m half Latina. So there’s a little fire inside.

Did you ever consider going into The Circle as a catfish?

No. I mean, I did consider going in as a guy for the reasons that took me out, honestly. Not all the time, and I think women are doing a better job of this, but oftentimes women find themselves pitted against each other by themselves and by society, whatever it may be. And so the idea did cross my mind [to go in as a guy]. But I didn’t regret going in as myself. In fact, I’m actually very thankful I did because I’m not a good liar. I can’t remember my lies to save my life. So I think I would have been my own downfall if I did go in as a catfish.

And in true Circle fashion, the first group chats were grouped along gender lines. But during the first four episodes, #GirlGang fell apart fast and in a fashion that was way more intense than anything in Season 1.

I mean, look: I love Season 1. I thought it was great. I’m friends with a lot of the cast on Season 1. I’m really close friends with Sammie. And so we actually went out to lunch a few weeks ago and I told her, no offense, Season 1 was great, but Season 2 was so much crazier. Season 1 was very “Kumbaya.” No one really knew [the show] at the time. And coming into Season 2, we had all seen Season 1. We had all watched The Circle in the UK, Circle in France. We were all ready to to win.

It’s so shocking watching the first episode again where you and Terilisha immediately click and rank each other #1. And then things quickly fell apart in the influencer chat when Terilisha wanted to block Courtney, who you’d just bonded with. Could you feel the rift forming during that conversation?

Absolutely. I think we were both feeling a lot of the same feelings at the time. I mean, it’s a game. Everybody wanted to make it to the end. Everybody had the objective of protecting their numbers. Nobody wanted to give it up. I didn’t want to give one up. She didn’t want to give one up. And I thought leaving that meeting we had reached a compromise. I gave her an ultimatum. I said, I know you want to save River. He’s not particularly my favorite just because I hadn’t spoken to him yet. But I was willing to give him a chance, to the point where I would let her save him. So she wanted to save River, I wanted to save Courtney. So that left two people and I knew it wouldn’t have been good for my game to get rid of Chloe. And so the only person really left was Bryant. I thought it was a compromise, but clearly it wasn’t!

It clearly wasn’t, and everyone found out during that heated truth or dare game. You and Terilisha both let your guards down and really said what was on your mind. Were you nervous about being that honest about your feelings in front of everyone?

Of course, in a game where you are supposed to be the most popular, I did not want to say anything. And I didn’t. There were so many moments in that day where I was biting the inside of my cheek and I was just going like, hmm. In my everyday life, that’s how I am. I will turn the other cheek when it’s necessary. But there comes a point where I can’t help it. Like, I have to say something or I’m just going to explode. And when you’re in a room by yourself, there’s no TV, there’s no clock, there’s no one else to talk to, I can’t call my friends and get their opinion on it, you start to go a little crazy. I felt at that point that she had gone off to so many people and told her story and I just wanted to wash my hands and say this is what happened in front of everyone. Was it the best decision at the time? You know, I don’t really know but I don’t regret anything that I did because I really played as myself.

I gotta say, I spend a lot of time watching The Circle screaming at the TV, just wanting the players to cut through all the 4D chess gameplay and tell it like it is. Just drag out the dirty laundry and sort through it! So I loved that truth or dare game, and I loved when you visited Courtney after getting blocked. You just laid it all out for him.

Yeah, exactly. It’s so frustrating when you’re watching a show and you’re like, Why didn’t you tell them this? My connection with Courtney was so real right off the bat. And I feel like, not to boast, but I feel like I have really good intuition when it comes to people and so I was really hoping to utilize that skill in the circle. And I still think, you know, all the people that I met in The Circle are great people, including Terilisha. And when I saw Courtney, I just knew I had to do him a solid and tell him everything I knew because at that point, I wanted either him or Trevor to win because they were just my favorite people. They kept it real from the beginning and they had my back and I really loved them. I still do.

Follow Savannah on Instagram at @savpalacio

Stream The Circle on Netflix