November 13, 2025 • 51 mins
Join Reality After Show Podcaster Lauren Pratt and Julie Schuster (Player 443) as they take a deep dive into Julie's experience on Squid Game The Challenge Season 2!
#squidgame #squidgamethechallengeseason2 #netflix #realityaftershow #realitytv
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#squidgame #squidgamethechallengeseason2 #netflix #realityaftershow #realitytv
🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/6552588463636480
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reality-after-show--5448874/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Reality?
Speaker 1 (00:02):
After show, we are back talking squid Game. I'm so
excited for this podcast. But I have a very special
guest joining me too. I have Julie Player four four
three in the house. How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm good. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
I'm super excited, very excited to be speaking with you.
And just can I say what an intense season this is?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Oh my god, yep, intense, that's the.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Word for this show. For sure.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's crazy, it's all over the place. But that's all
you can ask for a show such as this. But
I want to dive right into how did you get
cast for this show? What made you want to do it?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So? Honestly, Like when the whole series, right, like the
series came out of Squid Games. I really wasn't you know,
all about it, wasn't gonna watch it. And then my daughter,
who's twenty two, it's just like, Mom, you have to
watch this. It's your kind of show. You're gonna love it,
you know, Like, all right, I'll give it a chance,
you know. And then next thing, you know, like I
find myself, you know, on the treadmill crying and crying
(01:04):
when they're showing like Marbles, and I'm just like, oh
my gosh, you know, like I can you know, blah
blah blah. And then all of a sudden, I see
that there's a reality show season one of course, and
I'm like, there's a reality show. This is gonna be
super cool. So I'm watching it and I'm like, of course,
I'm thinking, like I can do that. I you know,
(01:26):
I can do that, you know, no problem, blah blah blah.
And when I saw that season two was open for casting,
and I was like, no, I got this, like I
have to, I gotta sign up. I gotta have some
you know, Latina presents up in there, like I think
that's what they were missing first season. Okay, I was like,
they need some Latinas on there. So I'm gonna go
ahead and apply and yeah, I'll think about whatever it
(01:50):
is that I need to think about later on. So
that's how I, uh, I you know, got myself into
applying for the show.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Now, casting was that was something.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Totally different, of course, out of my control, but obviously
they saw something in me and they kept calling me back,
and you know, one thing to another and to another,
and finally they were like, all right, you know like
you're in so just make sure that you take care
of what you need to take care of.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
So yeah, and then finally you're there and ultimately you
see everybody and you walk right into the dorms. What's
going through your mind? Because in season one that's not
the case. They're not walking into the dorms. They're hitting
red light green light.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Just that intense feeling of anxiety of what's going on.
You know, we're all thinking we're going in there for
red light green light. We're we're just thinking like, okay,
you know, they're letting us in in smaller groups so
that we can line up and not all huddle in
there together. That was my thought, right, And of course
(02:54):
the nerves are going, I'm you know, shaking, and we're
all looking at each other, you know, those of us
that kind of connected right away, or looking at each
other like good luck, good luck. We're saying good luck
to each other. Oh my gosh. And then when we
walk in there, it's like, oh shit, like this is real.
It was just it was crazy. It was just when
(03:17):
people are like, how do you feel like? I don't like.
It was just this overwhelming feeling of anxiety and excitement
and nervousness, Like we we just didn't know what to expect.
We're like, something is up, and then you know, like
after a little while is when we started noticing like
there just wasn't enough beds for everybody, So we definitely
(03:39):
knew that something was up. But yeah, I think it
was really really cool of them to let everybody at
least experience the dorms, you know, period, just to be
in there.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
So there's always something up when it comes to Squid Game,
and that's what makes the show so dynamic and different
in compare to everything else. Were you one of the
earlier groups that came in or one of the later
groups that came in.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
No, I was actually one of the earlier groups that
came in. So as as I'm watching right I'm watching
the episodes, I can see myself at the top of
the stairs, So I wanted to be at the top
so that I could see everybody that was coming in.
And it just took forever. It just took four ever,
and then finally at some point I'm like, all right,
(04:27):
let me go down there, let me start to like
mingle and talk to people. But honestly, I felt like
just the higher I was, the safer I was.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Right. And I also think it's harder to be one
of the earlier groups because the anticipation, the waiting game,
it just drags and drags. I would love to be
a later group because then you're not having just the
anxiety of what is coming next, and then you're processing
because you're already in there. Everyone's waiting to go in,
but you're in there right away almost.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Right, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
It's just a waiting game, that's basically it is.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
And I just kind of feel like since we were
an earlier group, there was just so many more people
that we had to talk to, you know, because it
was like welcoming new people and hey, where are you from?
Where are you from? And it was just non stop,
non stop, just talking to people for hours and hours
and hours. And I didn't think that was going to
be that hard because I love to talk, but man,
was it hard. It was hard, I bet.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And then all of a sudden, they're asking for two volunteers.
So really, then this is where the game is going
to begin?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Oh yeah? And so what they don't say? And I
know that a lot of you know, my castmates have
already said this, but what they don't say is that
they're asking for two volunteers. But it had to be
a pair, you know, a pair of siblings or you know,
father daughter whatnot. And we actually, like in our alliance,
we had a pair of twins.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
And I just remember turning around and there's a.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Scene where you see my buddy olla Anga where he's
just asking me should they do it? Should they do it?
And I'm telling him and I'm telling our twins like no,
don't do it, like, do not do it.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Nothing good comes from this when you're volunteering for stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
So do not do it whatsoever. So, yeah, that was
that was an intense moment for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, and now it all makes sense because you see
Kurt and Zoe and Zoey saying Dad no, Dad no,
And so now you kind of get the full picture
in circle when it comes to that about how many
twins were out there, because I keep hearing there's a
lot more twins that we didn't see.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Oh yeah, there was a lot more twins that you
all didn't see. That of course, you know, we're eliminated
and you know the O room. But then they had
catathlon where they didn't show. You know, some twins getting
you know, eliminated. I know somewhere from like Las Vegas.
They were there. I talked to them. But yeah, there
were several sets of twins that weren't even shown on
(06:51):
the show, and married couples that come to find out,
I don't even know they were married. You know, I'm like,
what I mean, they could have fooled me seriously, like
they could have probably gone all the way and know
would have even known that they were married.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
It's hard because when we're viewing it, we don't know
how many actual relationships are coming in with each other
because we only get shown certain one. So when I
found out that there was way more twins, I said,
where are the twins? I didn't see many of them.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
No, yeah, I agree. I agree with you one hundred percent.
And to be honest with you, you know, the twins
four three one and four three two, I think I
said maybe two words to them the entire time that
I was there. So it's like there's so many players
there that you don't get to talk to everybody in
that room. You really don't.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
You can't. And then also it leads to a little
bit of suspicion because if you're seeing someone constantly walking
around the room speaking to everybody, then who are they
actually working with?
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Exactly Yeah, no, exactly yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
It makes it makes it so much harder. So ultimately
you have to pick O or X. What made you
go X?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Oh my gosh, So I was gonna go I'm not
gonna lie. I was gonna go oh, just because my
husband's favorite color is blue. So I was like, you
know what, I'm gonna stick to the blue color, you
know whatnot. But then I saw that most of my
alliance was sticking with X, and something within me was like, okay,
(08:18):
like just go with X. Just go with X. Most
of your alliance is on there anyway, so if you
need anything, they're gonna be the ones to have your back.
So honestly, that's why I stuck with X, even though
it hurt to see some of our alliance on OH,
but like most of our alliance was already over here
on X, So it just made sense for me to
(08:40):
pick X.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Right, It makes sense to stick with the alliance, stick
with the group what you know, because it's a risk
either way, and people obviously know that going in, you
just don't know what the correct group is going to be.
But you get into your X room and everything's being
explained and then y'all are kind of deciding who's stepping up,
who's leading, and y'all looked way less chaotic than the oa's.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
You know what. Honestly, like, I feel like it was
less chaotic, and I know that there was a lot
of a drama going on in the O room from
what I heard right from like our alliance where they
said there was a lot more drama that happened in
the OH room than what we saw, you know, And yeah,
(09:26):
our side was, I mean pretty chill. There were a
few people that kind of you know, spoke up about
their ideas, and but it wasn't anything like crazy. I
feel like we all kind of listened, and uh, I honestly,
like me and myself, I just kind of like stood
back and watched it, like I was just trying to
(09:46):
pay attention to what, you know, people were saying, who
was doing what? And I know there was one player
that gave an idea about something, and you know, somebody
was like, oh, no, that's a bad idea, and then
somebody else said, oh, you know, what a great way
to get your self eliminated, you know, like right off
the bat, and I'm just thinking, like, why would you
say something like that, you know, I mean at the
beginning of the game. I mean it just just things
(10:09):
like that were like getting to me. But I was
the one that was actually paying attention to what everybody
was kind of like saying and doing.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So, Yeah, your group ends up surviving a big, huge
celebration and then you're back in the dorm and four
to three one shows up. What's running through your mind?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Oh, it was not good again. I'm at the stairs.
Like I'm at the stairs. You see me on the
little balcony and it's myself and my girl Julia and
my friend Eric. I mean, we're up there, and I
hate that they don't show my commentary because I had
pretty funny commentary. But it's like he's coming back, and
I'm like looking at Julia and I'm just like, this
(10:49):
is not good. This is not good whatsoever. Like something's up,
something's really really up. And I was right. I was right,
And so like I said that, I tried to stay
as far away from those two as I possibly could, like.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Exactly because you don't want them approaching you, because as
you said, you can tell the way they're walking around
something's going on. I think other people weren't as aware,
but you were paying attention based on what you're saying,
where you're sitting, your location, you have eyes all areas.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Oh yeah, one hundred person. So what people don't know
about me? And again, you know, Netflix let me know
they weren't going to use my interview, which I was
very upset about, by the way, But I'm retired law enforcement,
and so I have done thousands and thousands and thousands
of interviews right where I just watch or I'm the
one asking all the questions and you know, body language
(11:43):
and whatnot. And so I just stood up there and
I was just watching. I would watch people and just
them to walking around, just the way that they were
walking and whispering, like it's one thing to walk around
and you know, like talk to people, but just the
way that they were by themselves, and you know, one
twin kept doing this and you know, looking around, and
(12:04):
I'm just like, oh my god, like this is not good,
Like do not come talk to me because I don't
want any of that whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
I'm not here. Don't approach me. Mentality.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I love it. Yeah, pretty much pretty much like anywhere
they were. I'm like, heck, no, dude, do not involve
me in any of that, because yeah, and people like
they'd come up to me and be like they're actually
really nice, and I'm like, no, like just trust me,
you guys, watch your back, is all I'm saying, you know,
because I had some you know, alliances in there, they
(12:36):
were like, well, they're actually really cool. They actually talked
to me and this and this and nope, no parts
none was so none none.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So they're walking around they're trying to navigate who they're
going to get eliminated from this game for the first
time ever. Did you see or know about what player
one of seven had said to them about the whole
yacht scenario or did you see that for the first
time on TV?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I okay, so I saw that for the first time
on TV. As to why they eliminated her, which okay,
I mean by all means like I don't think that
was a bad elimination, Like okay, cool, Like if that's
your reasoning for eliminating somebody because they don't have a
good reason as to what it is that they would
(13:23):
do with the money, Yeah, okay, I get it. There's
a lot of people in there that you know, they
have way better things that they're going to do with
that money. So I can see that one. I definitely can.
But I know that there were a lot of people saying, oh,
she was so nice, you know this and this, and
it was random, like we were just we knew it
was them, but we're like, man, that was really random,
(13:45):
Like we were just wondering if they did it just
to kind of throw people off that it wasn't them.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
But yeah, what did you think about their decision to
eliminate the twins?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I didn't like it whatsoever. I didn't think see those twins,
they didn't even how do I see it? And those
were our twins, That's what I like to call them.
I liked it, you know, uh, Bryce and his brother,
And I'm just like I was salty. I was so
salty because they were so nice, you know, like so sweet.
They had good reasons as to why they wanted to
(14:17):
use the money, and I just feel like it was
I don't know, I think they were just too scared
to target somebody like Zoe and her dad. I'll just
put it that way, you know what I'm saying? Like
my move would have been to if you're gonna eliminate somebody,
you eliminate like one twin from this section and one,
(14:39):
you know, a person from this other you know, little
group of two. That's that's what I would have done.
But I didn't like their decision to vote off you know,
the twins.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Well, they even could have utilized the twins in the
sense of that's another pairing that's in here, so that's
another target that could be potentially on them, and then
it keeps it off you a little bit more. Or
because there's more duos in the house, if you're eliminating
one of them, then you're the next one in line.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Mm hmm, right. And I know that, like all the
duos were kind of looking at each other, like, you know,
after they they got out one of our twins that
like and and I was standing right in front of them,
so I just remember hearing like this loud of pop,
and I thought, you know, Bryce had thrown up or something.
That's what it sounded like. It's not like somebody threw
(15:25):
up behind me. And I just remember turning around and
looking at him, and yeah, it was just it was sad.
It was like really sad, But at the same time,
that's when I was like, oh fuck, like it has
be gone, Like shit's about to get real in here.
And yeah, that's when you knew, all right, here we go.
(15:46):
It's it's go time, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Absolutely, And you know it was going to be unpredictable
because they're not doing anything so far that they've done
from season.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
One exactly exactly. Everything's different like they didn't do this,
and so everything's just new, and uh, you know, I
think what viewers don't understand is, you know, like, oh,
why is there we so emotional? But it's you.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
You have to be on your game, like twenty four
to seven.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
You know that anxiety is just like through the roof,
you know, like make sure you take your anxiety bits
because you're about to have anxiety twenty four to seven,
you know, until this game is.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Over, absolutely, walk me through the next one. We're going
into the pentathlon. Talk me through how you ended up
in the group that you did, what your thought was
when oh boy, they split us in half.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
So of course we're not thinking that we're going to
be split in half. We're thinking, all right, group of
ten's gonna go up against group of ten, you know,
so our alliance, you know, all our friends are like,
all right, everybody, grab somebody that's in our alliance. Let's
get our groups of tens, you know whatnot blah blah blah.
And we waited, like we waited for hours an hour
(17:00):
to even play, you know, and my line, like my group,
we were the last group to go, so we didn't
play until two in the morning. So we were like hungry,
we were exhausted, and it was like, oh my gosh,
like come on, just you know, call us up, like
we're ready to go. And when they called us, we're
(17:20):
kind of like, damn okay, like where's everybody else? Are
we paying against the other team? You know, they're taking
us to another room. And as soon as we see
that room and they say, okay, you're about to be
split up. You gotta you know, split up into two
teams right away, I'm like, oh shit, you know who
am I gonna pick? Who's gonna be on my team?
(17:42):
But then when the guard just came and just split
us up, I was like, oh my gosh, like those
are my teammates over there, you know what, Like it was, yeah,
I was just I was sad, but I was like fuck.
And then I'm thinking to myself like, okay, like does
my team you know, have what it takes? Are we
(18:03):
gonna do this? And so it was definitely a very
intense moment. And uh, they had some good people. They
had some good people on the other on the other team,
and so I knew that it.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Was gonna be a very very close race.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
You have to walk in and as soon as you
lose some of the people you thought you were gonna
be with. Oh boy, y'all are my new best friends?
How are we going to team up? How are we
going to make this work? What was your leg in
the event?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Okay, so I got the rock. So here's the thing
is that I had been practicing GONGHI like NonStop right
the game with the little pebbles and all that. I mean,
I ordered on Amazon ID the whole kid everything. We're
doing this, right, So I practiced at home. When I
you know, got to the hotel, practiced everything. I'm like,
all right, I'm good, Like I know that this is
(18:53):
what I'm gonna do. But then when one of our teammates,
I think it was one ten, when he said, okay,
who's gonna do what my friend Eric. I wish I
could remember everybody's numbers, but I just know that by name.
My friend Eric was like, I have GONGI. I'm gonna
do Gongy, and so he said it with so much
(19:14):
like confidence that I'm thinking, okay, all right, so you
have you've got this game, you're good, and yeah, I've
got I'll do Gongi. And I'm like, okay, so then
I'll do rock, you know. And you know, Natalie had
the cup and Julia had the cards, which made sense
because she was like petite little and we're like, all right,
(19:34):
she's got a little hands, she's got this. And then
Isaiah had the Hackey sack. And so as we're going
through our games, we're going, you know, their teams still
stuck on cup and we're just rocking and rolling and
you know, I think it took me like four times
to actually hit the rocks. Are like, ah, yes, you know,
like all's already. And we get to the Gongi and
we're like telling Eric like how many times, like have
(19:56):
you played, like you know whatever, and he's like, oh,
this is my first time, and so we yes, yes,
And I wish they would have shown our pentathlon because
when he said that, When he said that, I turned
around and I looked at Natalie. I looked at her
and I said, we're done. I said, we're fucking done.
(20:17):
I remember telling her and she's like, no, no, no,
we've got this, we got this. And I'm like, we're done.
We're fucking done. Like he's never played before, so what
is it like I was. I honestly, I was like,
we're done completely, one hundred percent. There's no way if
he's never played before. And sure enough, like he struggled.
He was struggling so much that they caught up to us.
(20:41):
So the other team caught up to us. They even
went ahead to House of Cards, and I remember Isaiah,
you know, I remember Eric, the one that was doing Gong.
He looked over and he was just like, oh my god,
they're ahead, and you know, Isaiah's telling him, no, they're not, No,
they're not. And I just remember screaming saying, yes the
fuck they are. Hurry up. Like I just remember yelling
(21:05):
at him like, hurry the fuck up, Eric, And so
that probably didn't help, but it's like you got to remember,
like I'm like an emotional Latino okay, like I wear
my feelings like on my sleep. You can tell if
I'm pissed off, if I'm happy whatever. At that moment
I was pissed. I was like, hurry the fuck up,
like if you've never played, like I should have been
doing this, and so luckily, somehow he got it. We
(21:28):
moved a house of cards and then we moved on
to a hacky sack, but they were also on the
hacky sack and we we won by like three seconds,
so it was just, oh, my gosh, I don't even know.
I think I probably fell asleep that morning slash night
(21:49):
because my body was just so tired from the adrenaline
and you know, all the emotions. So it was so intense.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
I can't believe they didn't show that. It was just
so intense.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I'm kind of surprised they didn't because you won a
photo finish.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah, I know. Like the only time they showed our
pentathlon was when they called out like the slowest players
from each like from each group, like each activity. I
guess you could say was when Eric. Of course he
was the slowest player at Gonghi, so he was put
up on stage and when they called his number to
(22:26):
go on stage. They showed us like they showed us
and you can just like see all of us, you know,
just kind of like talking to him or whatnot. But yeah,
that's the only time that they showed it, and yeah,
we all kind of wish they would have showed it
more because it was a very dramatic.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Very I know I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but
I just want to get there. Since we're here. Did
you keep Eric? Did you vote to keep Eric? Vote
to eliminate?
Speaker 2 (22:50):
No, I vote. I voted to keep him, like I
voted to keep him. Like That's the thing is about me,
is that I know, in the end, if it was
between myself and somebody and my alliance, I'm gonna pick myself, right,
But now, I don't think now was like the time
(23:12):
to do something like that for me, Like for me,
like that wasn't my game plan. You know, I'm trying
to keep as many people in my alliance as I
possibly can, just so that I can get, you know,
further into the game. And so I and it wasn't
just you know, Eric, it was also Jirell. You know,
Jerell was my boy also, and.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
He was the slowest at the Cup.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Toss whatever and yeah, so I voted oh and a
lot of our alliance voted oh as well, so it
is what it is. Some of our alliance voted X.
So we weren't too happy about that, But I mean,
everybody has a choice.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
I guess they have their own mindset, and that's why
I enjoyed them bringing the vote aspect into this season.
They're doing so well with having like the parallel from
the drama and then bring it into the challenge version
of it, which I think is a really neat concept
that they do. So how did you feel about the
scratcher of it all when you saw that you had
the option to take a scratcher or grab the food?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Oh my god, that's so funny because as soon as
they brought the scratchers out, and my family's watching right
they're watching the like the episodes where I come out
right away, they were like, you picked a scratcher, didn't you? You
picked a scratcher, And I'm like, dude, yes, like of
course I did. Like, Hello, we play litteria. We like
scratch offs, you know, like in my family, the Hispanic family,
(24:30):
they'll all agree, we love bingo, we love scratch offs
and I was like, I'm gonna take a scratch off, Like,
there's no way I'm gonna let this moment go. So
I picked a scratch off, but I wish I would
have been more at the front of the line because
every single scratch off that I wanted to pick, they
were taking, you know. And so oh, I'm kind of
glad I didn't pick the one that that one player
(24:52):
picked where he got a disadvantage because I was going
to pick that one, but I'm glad he did Peters. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
And so I was like, all right, I'm good. I'm
good with that. The donuts, I really wish I would
have gotten that because donuts are life for me. I
love donuts one hundred percent. So yeah, but uh yeah
I got I got coins. So yeah, I got coins
in my scratch off.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
So it's a it's a high risk, high reward depending
on what you do receive out of it. But I
always say, with this type of game, if you don't
take the risk, you have to at some point, right at.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Some point, I mean at some point you can't just
like not take a risk, you know what I'm saying.
I feel that, and that's kind of what upset me
like I got coins. Other people that took the scratch
off got coins. And so when we get to that
boiler room and we have the chance to kind of
put all our coins together and you know, vote somebody out,
(25:46):
because if you put our coins together, it would have
been ten coins. They were all kind of like, no,
we're not ready, We're not ready to vote anybody out.
And I'm thinking to myself like, I'm ready, like you know,
but I couldn't say anything because then I think I'd
look like a total asshole or something and be like
I'm ready to vote somebody out, you know, because then
they'd be like, well, we're ready to voute you out
because you're being an asshole. So I was like, oh, okay, yeah,
(26:08):
well then I'll just hold onto my coins. I was like, dude,
I'm just gonna hold onto these in case I get
more coins later or something and I need them. But
I was a little disappointed. I was like, mmm, yeah,
I was. I was ready, But.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Who would you've eliminated.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
One of the twins for sure? Yeahuny the twins for sure. Yeah.
I was ready to just make that move, and yeah,
it would have been one of them for sure.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Talk to me about the boiler room, because I really
thought it was quite interesting that they brought this component
into the game, because you think when you're going to
a vending machine, you're getting something good that comes out
of it. That's a reward for you, right.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, So we didn't even know that there was a
boiler room until like Ryan and Joan had and Viper
had gone in there and grabbed cookies or something, I guess,
and brought it out and showed everybody cookies and you
know who wants one, And of course that's something I'm
staying away from still, So that's when we initially found
(27:10):
out about the boiler room. We're like, oh damn, you know.
And I just remember myself like walking by that room
every single time trying to see that door was open,
and it was never open. So I'm like, come on,
people open this door because I'm ready to go in there,
you know. And you had people like looking under towels
in the bathroom or under benches trying to see if
there was any type of clue or something. And yeah,
(27:33):
I remember when I was in the boiler room with
the others that got coins, I'm like answering the phone
like with somebody gonna say, hello, I'm looking under tires
and I was just trying to do what I could
to just find something, just anything, but it was it
was an interesting room and it was just crazy, like
how immersive this whole thing was. I think they did
(27:55):
such a great job at kind of like doing it
as realistic as to the actual series as possible, and
they did a really really good job with that. I'll say.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
The sets are incredible.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I mean, yeah, so good.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
I'm loving it. And it matches up so well to
it you think it's the actual one that they did.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, to a t like Mingle, the Pentathlon. Everything just
it was just so perfect, like spot on. It was crazy.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
I love it. I'm I'm here for it. So let's
dive into the next game.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Catch No, let's not.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I know, I know, I knew we were gonna have
to get here, but talk to me first about picking
your dot and then how y'all decided the order and
take it from there.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
So okay, so picking the dot that wasn't too hard.
You know. It's again, you know, my alliance and myself,
we're all like pink obvious, right like because we called
ourselves the Pink Squad. So we were just like, pink,
We're going to pick the pink dot. Or we were
also thinking, wherever the two people went that have a disadvantage,
(29:09):
we're going to stay away from them.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
So whatever color they have, stay away.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
From them completely. But it was a matter of a
second where you know, they came on the intercom and said, okay,
pretty much it was pretty much like, okay, you have
ten seconds to pick a dot. And so you see
people like, you know, running like trying to get a
dot as fast as possible. And I picked my dot.
And at that point that moment in time, like I
(29:35):
was next to you know, people that I didn't know,
but I could see people in my alliance, you know,
around me, and so I was, you know, around people
I didn't know, and I'm thinking, okay, this is my spot.
I get like, this is my spot for the game.
But that, of course, that wasn't it. And so, you know,
and then the three that didn't get a spot, you know,
Heath in August and a Jantie, We're like, oh my gosh,
(29:58):
they're about to be eliminated, you know, and then they
were like, you know, no, they're not eliminated. They're safe.
I'm like, damn, Like I should have just not ficked
a dot, you know, and I would have been safe.
But yeah, when they take us to the actual like court,
I guess, like basketball court, we don't know what game
it is. We just see like the dots all over
(30:20):
the court, and we're thinking, Okay, who's athletic, you know, basketball,
it's probably basketball. You know, who can shoot? We're all
like all these things. And then we see like all
these obstacles like a rope and climbing, and I'm like, y'all,
I can climb. So I'm just thinking of all these
different things, and everybody's thinking of all these different things.
(30:40):
And yeah, when we finally find out what the game is,
and we're trying to decide, Okay, who's gonna be which
but I'm very salty.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
I'm just gonna say this.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Right now, we're trying to pick who's going to be
in the front, who's going to be in the middle,
who's going to be in the as far as catching
a ball goes, And so I believe it was Darryl,
who's part of our alliance, you know, just asked everybody
like how comfortable do you do? Does everybody feel catching
a ball? Like all the athletes. He said, all the
athletes should go in the back because we can catch
(31:17):
a ball. Right again, people like Daryl, myself and my alliance,
we were thinking more with our heart and not with
our mind. That was just the type of people we were.
And I'm not sure if you know Darryl which player
Darryl is, but he's like a little white boy kind
of read head. He's the one that was praying with
player ninety eight. I don't know if you saw that.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yes, yes, I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yes, okay, So I love Darryl. And so he's like,
you know, us athletes, let's go to the back. You know,
people who cannot catch go to the front, and then
people who think they can catch can go like in
the middle. And that's when player two seven to two
Ryan of course, he yes, God, I can't like, I
can't like if you see my face and my husband,
(31:59):
my husband, my family, everybody, they say this, they're like, Julie,
you don't even have to say anything, Like if you're
thinking something, your mouth will not say it, your eyebrows
and your faces will definitely say it. And I'm just
gonna say that in that scene, my jaw dropped and
it stayed that way because I'm thinking to myself, right,
(32:21):
what the fuck? I mean? I'm sure that other teams
thought of the same strategy, because I think I heard
Viper say, hey, you know, those of you that can't catch,
you're not good catchers, get in the front, you know,
or whatever. But I think that player two seven to
two went his way of saying it came out wrong,
you know, like you don't just single out one person.
(32:45):
He should have at least said like, hey, like, if
you can't catch, say it now and we'll put you
in the front. But instead he decided to single out
Mark and say that they were gonna judge Mark, and.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
That's why Mark should be in the front.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
But what they don't show you, of course, is like
it went on for a while and Mark just left
the room, like he just left the room crying in tears.
And before this, like I had had conversations with Mark
and he's a good guy and you know whatnot and
he got to know about my kids and I got
to know about him, and it's Beyonce and everything, and
(33:17):
so we had conversations. And so when Mark left that
room crying, everybody was kind of like, fuck, you know,
I mean, what's gonna happen now, you know. So then
the production team puts us all in this quiet room
where nobody could say a single word to each other,
like you had to be quiet. We were probably in
there for about an hour and a half or two hours,
(33:39):
so you can just feel this heaviness in the room
because of what had just happened. Mark was in the
bathroom crying still, and we were all kind of like
out in the room, like knowing what was going on.
And I'm sure that you know, two seven to two
could feel everybody's eyeballs just looking at him like what
the fuck, you know, like now we're going into this
(34:02):
game with this heavy ass feeling. And so as we're
going back to the set, I just remember Mark telling me, hey, Julie,
do you mind being in between myself and Ryan because
I can't stand to look at the back of his
head right now. And so me, I'm like, yes, I
(34:25):
will be in the middle of the two of you,
of course, you know. And so if not, I would
have been in front of Ryan, you know, because my
girl Julia would have been right in front of me.
And so me and Julia were like this in the game,
and that's how I ended up in between those two.
And yeah, that's what I have to say about how
(34:47):
I ended up in the middle. Geez.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
I mean that was just loaded right there. And two
we knew this. That was going to be my follow
up question, what did we not see? Because there's no
way that was all everything. Yeah, I had to go
on for as you said, hours.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Well, the commentary went on for like I don't know,
and don't get me wrong, like Ryan's a good guy,
he really is. I just think he couldn't read the
room or he's one of those people that he can't
read the room, and I think that's what happened. It's
we were all kind of like shocked, and it went
on for a little bit too long until finally, you know,
(35:27):
one of the players was like, hey, we're not going
to do this, like let's stop singling people out, like
y'all we have to be smart and decide who's going
to go where. And it was one of those things
that is I'm gonna say, like the girls in the front,
let me just say this. This is where I'm salty.
Is that the very like first three players, right, they're
(35:52):
not part of our alliance. I don't even know how
they got to the front of that line, but they
got to the front of that line without any of
us knowing, Like what the hell? You know, Like they
just went as straight and just when people were picking
their spots, I know, I was gonna be between Ryan
and Mark, but they just went straight and just got
(36:13):
like the first three spots, and I'm like, first of all,
the girl in the first pink spot, she does CrossFit
and she was playing catch with the twins in the
freakin' dorms. You're gonna tell me you can't catch a ball,
but you decide to put yourself in the front of
the line. And then the second one.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Same thing, third one, same thing.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
You're gonna tell me you cannot catch a ball, like
one of you is a cop, come on, like the
other one's.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
A fitness instructor. And I'm just like, I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
I just I was so salty about that, because yeah,
I'm like, who agreed to let you all be in
the front of this line?
Speaker 3 (36:51):
But I mean, it is what it is. Whatever, I'm
just gonna say that, But.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yeah, they just went for the me mentality, which is
that SAME's that's what it is, and that's why this
game is very cutthroat because people are going to do that.
There's a lot of money on the line. And still
I was, I'm sitting here watching as a viewer, how
the damn Twins ended up in the front of the line.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Yes, yes, and that right there, that's where I was like,
what the fuck? Like I guess how I say, like
we played with more heart, like myself and our alliance,
because we were like, hey, like, if you can't throw, like,
put yourself in the front, like we want to make
sure that you get your chance, you know, just like us,
you know whatever. And that's why I put myself in
the middle, because I'm like, dude, I can catch a ball,
(37:32):
Like I was like, I can catch a ball if
somebody's gonna throw out at me from afar, like, I
have confidence that I'm going to catch it. But these
people that put themselves in the front and then you know,
put people that couldn't catch, like in the middle towards
the back, which they were then eliminated. I just think
that was selfish. And I remember in one of my interviews,
(37:55):
Production was like, so what do you think about the
Twins doing that? And I'm like, oh, I just I
think they're selfish asshole And then I just remember production
saying can you repeat that again, and I'm like, yeah,
there's selfish assholes, Like that's when I think of them.
They're like, okay, thank you. I'm like, oh shit, they're
about to show their shit on TV, you know. But
I was like, but that's how I felt like And
(38:16):
like now looking back, of course, like how you say,
you know, some people were on me, me me, me me,
But I don't know. I don't know if if I
could probably play that game me me me towards the end,
but I just don't think that I was ready, Like
I don't think I was ready for that.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
So yeah, it's always going to be a dilemma. And
that's why they have specific people they do on the cast.
You have the people that think with their heart, not
always with their head. They have the emotions that come
into play, and then you have the people it's me,
nobody else matters. Yeah, I don't care about anyone else.
And not to say that which one is right or wrong,
there's it's just a mentality. It's how someone personally approaches
(38:56):
the game and how they feel going into it and
what they're choosing to say, Okay, I'm okay with pushing
this limit, but I'm not okay pushing that limit. Everyone's
mindset's different.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Right exactly. And I know that like player ninety eight,
I think that's Natalie's number, I can't remember, but I
know she got a lot of shit, and I know
I gave her a lot of shit too in the
game for some of the choices that she made. But
I can't really like blame her for some of the
choices that she made. I guess because you know, it's
a game. And I know that she said nobody promised
(39:27):
me anything, and I didn't promise anybody anything, So she's right,
you know. I mean, she went into that game and
nobody promised her anything or whatever. But I still feel
that if she would have just trusted in her alliance,
which was us, that she could have gotten further in
the game. So yeah, it's all.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
It all comes down to the choices you make. And
some people are just more intense players than others, and
you're going to see that. You get that even in
sporting events, you have that one person on the team
they're just so invested and it's not as though they're
doing anything wrong per se. They are just wanting to
win at all costs.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah, exactly, So.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Let's get into your moment here. Of I know, it's
it's tough because let me tell you, the way they
edited the slow motion, the emotion in general of the
back and forth, the communication. It just people are standing
up trying to watch this moment. I'm telling you, people
(40:25):
were not sitting on their couches. They were standing waiting
to see what was going to happen. And we're rooting
hardcore for it to be a huge success.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Yeah. Yeah, that right there. That was not that was
not acted out, That wasn't anything like. That was real.
That was raw. You could hear a pin drop. I mean,
it just felt like it was just myself and Mark
like that's it, you know, And I just kept telling
him like like you can do this. Just It's like
(40:56):
I was just trying to give him so many words
of encouraged that I was like, look, dude, like this
is your moment, you know, And that's what I was
trying to do. I was just thinking to myself like
he just had such a terrible experience about like being
picked on and not being picked and all this sort
of stuff that I was like, okay, dude, like this
is your moment. I'm gonna throw at you. You catch it,
it's gonna be like like glory, okay, like glory. And
(41:22):
I just I just could not not throw him the ball,
you know, like not pick him, because then he'd feel
even worse. And besides the other two players back here,
they were further and then the other player was Natalie,
and I wasn't about to throw it to her. So
I was just like all right, like you've got this, Mark,
(41:43):
You've got this. And so there was a lot of
talking back and forth and people, I think people they
were just hoping that he caught that ball, you know,
myself included. And I just remember that as soon as
I saw that ball drop, I immediately immediately dropped to
(42:05):
my knees and just cried my heart out, like just cried.
And the first like, I just know that, the first
person that came to my head was my son because
he's just like my biggest fan, you know, he's the
one that was like, Mom, you've got this, you know,
blah blah blah, and so I was just like, fuck, man,
like he's gonna see this.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
And I just feel like I'm just going to disappoint
him so much.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
And uh, I hate that. I hate that feeling of
disappointing my kids. So it was. It was rough. It
was rough. I couldn't stop crying. It was rough. So
I if I felt terrible, I can't even imagine how
terrible Mark felt.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
So yeah, it was just so sad to watch too,
because you even see the emotion, not only y'all's emotion,
but everyone that was over, even still standing on their
dots and we were still over on the benches. Everyone the silence,
no one was speaking.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Yeah, yeah, I have cast men you know in my
inbox that'll stay. I cried so much when you and
Mark left, Like I cried. So my my friend Melissa,
like you see her and her eyes are all red
and she's like, Julie, I couldn't stop crying, and I'm like,
I know.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
Like I saw, like it was just really like production
was crying.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
I'm like, what, like y'all crying so much? Put me
back in. Please give me a second chance, you know,
like please, But yeah, they were crying, and you know,
one of them gave me a hug as I walked
out the door, and she was like, you did so good,
and I'm like, thank you so much. So yeah, it's
just it was so so intense, and I just I
was so exhausted after that. I was just so exhausted.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
And we just, you know, we know that we're seeing
these clips here and there, but y'all are filming this
for hours and.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Hours, hours and hours, and there was hours and hours
of no talking because of course, when we do talk,
they wanted to be real. They want us to get
to know each other like in real life when we're
in the dorms, but not when we're sitting in a
(44:07):
quiet room. You know, they don't want any of that
because of course they're not going to be filming any
of that. So they want us to wait to talk
until we're back in the dorm or back on set
or whatnot. And so there was a lot of silence,
a lot of hours, a lot of sitting. There was
times when there wasn't anything going on in the dorms,
and even I felt guilty for, you know, wanting to
(44:27):
take a nap because I'm like, dude, I gotta be
talking to people. You know. I just get so guilty of,
you know, even thinking of taking a nap. But you're
just so exhausted from just everything.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Yeah, it's a big time experience, but sadly you do
end up getting eliminated. At least you had the experience, though.
Can you touch on that. What is the biggest takeaway
you had from the experience, because I know you were
so excited that you got on the show.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Yeah, So my biggest takeaway is how I played the game.
Like I don't know, I feel like, like I that
I shouldn't like judge people for how they play the game,
because it's like you said, like some people go in
(45:14):
there and they're just like balls of the walls, Like
we're doing this. It's me, it's nobody else. It's like
I'm all that matters. And I just like I can't
believe that there's people out there that it's like it's
just about me. It's just about me. Like there's just
like no heart, there, no nothing. And I feel that
I trust people way too easy and I love way
(45:35):
too hard, and that if I do get another chance
to be a part, you know, of the next season,
that I might have to go in there and just
change up my game, you know, and just maybe be
a little bit selfish. That's probably My biggest takeaway is, yeah,
that I need to be smarter and not play with
(45:55):
my feelings, definitely.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
And it's so difficult to know how you're going to
play until you're actually in that moment.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Yeah, because you just don't know, Like you don't know
who you're gonna connect with, you don't know who's going
to betray you, You don't know you know who's talking
like behind your back or what they have, you know,
scheming or you know whatnot. I mean, I know there's
you know, people right now that I see that are
still you know, they haven't been eliminated and they're still
(46:25):
on there on the show. And I'm just like, man,
like I didn't say one word to that person. They
didn't say one word to me, like, and I probably
could have really connected with that person, like things could
have been different. But again, you're just so like in
this mindset of you want to stay as close to
your alliance as you possibly can until the numbers dwindle
down and then you can start kind of you know,
(46:47):
getting to know more people.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
Absolutely, and as you said too, it's just tough. You
end up with one group and you start talking with
them and you might not even talk to other people
are on the other side of the room because you
can't speak to everyone's in paw. Well, there's so many
of you.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Yeah, there's like people I didn't even meet, you know,
even though there was only like a hundred of us
left when I was eliminated. There's only like a hundred
of us left. But still there were people there that
I don't even remember. And that's terrible to say, but
I'm just like, I don't even remember, you know, to
remember her being there, and so yeah, it is pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
Well, Julie, is there anything you would like to plug
before we wrap this up?
Speaker 2 (47:29):
I just like, I do want to say that I
am like a little disappointed of how they didn't show
like my interview, because I feel if they would have
shown that, they would have understood why I played the
way that I did, why I threw the ball to Mark.
Because of course I'm getting a lot of why did
you do this? I would have picked him, you know whatever,
blah blah blah. But it's like like in my interview
(47:51):
that I gave about me myself personally, like I grew
up just like Mark grew up, you know, being picked
on and whatnot, you know, because we were poor. Like
I'm right now, I live in South Texas and it's
you know, one of the poorest cities in the entire
state of Texas.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
You know, we're right here, right right by the border.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
A lot of us are raised by a single mom
and uh, growing up in the projects, things like that.
So I really wish that they would have, you know,
shown who I really was as a person so people
could get to know me, you know.
Speaker 3 (48:24):
Because I know a lot of people are like, oh, you.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
Know, like we feel sorry, like for Mark, We feel
sorry for Mark, And I'm just kind of like, bro,
does anybody feel sorry for the person that actually threw
the ball? You know what I'm saying, Like, does anybody
you know? And I'm just kind of, like I tell
my daughter, like I feel not seen because everybody's so
worried about Mark that nobody's worried about Hey, what about
the girl that took that chance and through the damn ball? Like,
(48:48):
is anybody wondering how she's doing? You know? So it's like, yeah,
that's probably That's what's been like the hardest thing for
me right now.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
That's why I wanted to bring you on this podcast,
because I want you to be able to share your
experience from the show and what you did while you
were on.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
It, and like, I truly one hundred person appreciate that
because I'm like, this is the only way that I'm
going to be able to show people like who I am,
what I experienced in the dorms, what I saw, my thoughts,
and just like who I am, you know, as a person,
so people can get to know me.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
Definitely. And that's why I was so curious, because I said,
I'm going to get her on here. You know what
you shoot your shot and I said, listen, come on
this podcast, so I can hear all assets of your
game and everything that you experienced, so people get to
know you. Because I'm doing this, I want to know
more people's storylines because we just don't get them all.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Yeah, and that's so important. I feel like there was
just so many stories that were not told that I
wish would have been told, Like, there was just so
many I met so many amazing people, you know, and
I just kind of feel like I'm a little disappointed
in some of the stories they used. And yeah, but
you know what, here's the season three, so we'll we'll
(50:04):
see what happens. So I'm still I'm still hoping and.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Praying, well absolutely see what is in store for season three.
But Julie, thank you so much for joining me on
this podcast here today. It was so nice being able
to hear your entire story and just getting to know
you better as well.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
No, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
This was so much fun awesome. Will everyone else be
sure to check out everything we have going on at
the Reality after show. I will have more squid Game interviews.
I'm looking to do the recap as well. This week
we'll be hitting the ground running. We have our football podcast,
Survivor Podcast. Bobby Goodsby does his live stream, so be
sure to check that. A lout and Julie once again
(50:43):
is such a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Thank you, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Reality?
Speaker 1 (00:02):
After show, we are back talking squid Game. I'm so
excited for this podcast. But I have a very special
guest joining me too. I have Julie Player four four
three in the house. How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm good. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
I'm super excited, very excited to be speaking with you.
And just can I say what an intense season this is?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Oh my god, yep, intense, that's the.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Word for this show. For sure.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's crazy, it's all over the place. But that's all
you can ask for a show such as this. But
I want to dive right into how did you get
cast for this show? What made you want to do it?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So? Honestly, Like when the whole series, right, like the
series came out of Squid Games. I really wasn't you know,
all about it, wasn't gonna watch it. And then my daughter,
who's twenty two, it's just like, Mom, you have to
watch this. It's your kind of show. You're gonna love it,
you know, Like, all right, I'll give it a chance,
you know. And then next thing, you know, like I
find myself, you know, on the treadmill crying and crying
(01:04):
when they're showing like Marbles, and I'm just like, oh
my gosh, you know, like I can you know, blah
blah blah. And then all of a sudden, I see
that there's a reality show season one of course, and
I'm like, there's a reality show. This is gonna be
super cool. So I'm watching it and I'm like, of course,
I'm thinking, like I can do that. I you know,
(01:26):
I can do that, you know, no problem, blah blah blah.
And when I saw that season two was open for casting,
and I was like, no, I got this, like I
have to, I gotta sign up. I gotta have some
you know, Latina presents up in there, like I think
that's what they were missing first season. Okay, I was like,
they need some Latinas on there. So I'm gonna go
ahead and apply and yeah, I'll think about whatever it
(01:50):
is that I need to think about later on. So
that's how I, uh, I you know, got myself into
applying for the show.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Now, casting was that was something.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Totally different, of course, out of my control, but obviously
they saw something in me and they kept calling me back,
and you know, one thing to another and to another,
and finally they were like, all right, you know like
you're in so just make sure that you take care
of what you need to take care of.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
So yeah, and then finally you're there and ultimately you
see everybody and you walk right into the dorms. What's
going through your mind? Because in season one that's not
the case. They're not walking into the dorms. They're hitting
red light green light.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Just that intense feeling of anxiety of what's going on.
You know, we're all thinking we're going in there for
red light green light. We're we're just thinking like, okay,
you know, they're letting us in in smaller groups so
that we can line up and not all huddle in
there together. That was my thought, right, And of course
(02:54):
the nerves are going, I'm you know, shaking, and we're
all looking at each other, you know, those of us
that kind of connected right away, or looking at each
other like good luck, good luck. We're saying good luck
to each other. Oh my gosh. And then when we
walk in there, it's like, oh shit, like this is real.
It was just it was crazy. It was just when
(03:17):
people are like, how do you feel like? I don't like.
It was just this overwhelming feeling of anxiety and excitement
and nervousness, Like we we just didn't know what to expect.
We're like, something is up, and then you know, like
after a little while is when we started noticing like
there just wasn't enough beds for everybody, So we definitely
(03:39):
knew that something was up. But yeah, I think it
was really really cool of them to let everybody at
least experience the dorms, you know, period, just to be
in there.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
So there's always something up when it comes to Squid Game,
and that's what makes the show so dynamic and different
in compare to everything else. Were you one of the
earlier groups that came in or one of the later
groups that came in.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
No, I was actually one of the earlier groups that
came in. So as as I'm watching right I'm watching
the episodes, I can see myself at the top of
the stairs, So I wanted to be at the top
so that I could see everybody that was coming in.
And it just took forever. It just took four ever,
and then finally at some point I'm like, all right,
(04:27):
let me go down there, let me start to like
mingle and talk to people. But honestly, I felt like
just the higher I was, the safer I was.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Right. And I also think it's harder to be one
of the earlier groups because the anticipation, the waiting game,
it just drags and drags. I would love to be
a later group because then you're not having just the
anxiety of what is coming next, and then you're processing
because you're already in there. Everyone's waiting to go in,
but you're in there right away almost.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Right, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
It's just a waiting game, that's basically it is.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
And I just kind of feel like since we were
an earlier group, there was just so many more people
that we had to talk to, you know, because it
was like welcoming new people and hey, where are you from?
Where are you from? And it was just non stop,
non stop, just talking to people for hours and hours
and hours. And I didn't think that was going to
be that hard because I love to talk, but man,
was it hard. It was hard, I bet.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And then all of a sudden, they're asking for two volunteers.
So really, then this is where the game is going
to begin?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Oh yeah? And so what they don't say? And I
know that a lot of you know, my castmates have
already said this, but what they don't say is that
they're asking for two volunteers. But it had to be
a pair, you know, a pair of siblings or you know,
father daughter whatnot. And we actually, like in our alliance,
we had a pair of twins.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
And I just remember turning around and there's a.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Scene where you see my buddy olla Anga where he's
just asking me should they do it? Should they do it?
And I'm telling him and I'm telling our twins like no,
don't do it, like, do not do it.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Nothing good comes from this when you're volunteering for stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
So do not do it whatsoever. So, yeah, that was
that was an intense moment for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, and now it all makes sense because you see
Kurt and Zoe and Zoey saying Dad no, Dad no,
And so now you kind of get the full picture
in circle when it comes to that about how many
twins were out there, because I keep hearing there's a
lot more twins that we didn't see.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Oh yeah, there was a lot more twins that you
all didn't see. That of course, you know, we're eliminated
and you know the O room. But then they had
catathlon where they didn't show. You know, some twins getting
you know, eliminated. I know somewhere from like Las Vegas.
They were there. I talked to them. But yeah, there
were several sets of twins that weren't even shown on
(06:51):
the show, and married couples that come to find out,
I don't even know they were married. You know, I'm like,
what I mean, they could have fooled me seriously, like
they could have probably gone all the way and know
would have even known that they were married.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
It's hard because when we're viewing it, we don't know
how many actual relationships are coming in with each other
because we only get shown certain one. So when I
found out that there was way more twins, I said,
where are the twins? I didn't see many of them.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
No, yeah, I agree. I agree with you one hundred percent.
And to be honest with you, you know, the twins
four three one and four three two, I think I
said maybe two words to them the entire time that
I was there. So it's like there's so many players
there that you don't get to talk to everybody in
that room. You really don't.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
You can't. And then also it leads to a little
bit of suspicion because if you're seeing someone constantly walking
around the room speaking to everybody, then who are they
actually working with?
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Exactly Yeah, no, exactly yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
It makes it makes it so much harder. So ultimately
you have to pick O or X. What made you
go X?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Oh my gosh, So I was gonna go I'm not
gonna lie. I was gonna go oh, just because my
husband's favorite color is blue. So I was like, you
know what, I'm gonna stick to the blue color, you
know whatnot. But then I saw that most of my
alliance was sticking with X, and something within me was like, okay,
(08:18):
like just go with X. Just go with X. Most
of your alliance is on there anyway, so if you
need anything, they're gonna be the ones to have your back.
So honestly, that's why I stuck with X, even though
it hurt to see some of our alliance on OH,
but like most of our alliance was already over here
on X, So it just made sense for me to
(08:40):
pick X.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Right, It makes sense to stick with the alliance, stick
with the group what you know, because it's a risk
either way, and people obviously know that going in, you
just don't know what the correct group is going to be.
But you get into your X room and everything's being
explained and then y'all are kind of deciding who's stepping up,
who's leading, and y'all looked way less chaotic than the oa's.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
You know what. Honestly, like, I feel like it was
less chaotic, and I know that there was a lot
of a drama going on in the O room from
what I heard right from like our alliance where they
said there was a lot more drama that happened in
the OH room than what we saw, you know, And yeah,
(09:26):
our side was, I mean pretty chill. There were a
few people that kind of you know, spoke up about
their ideas, and but it wasn't anything like crazy. I
feel like we all kind of listened, and uh, I honestly,
like me and myself, I just kind of like stood
back and watched it, like I was just trying to
(09:46):
pay attention to what, you know, people were saying, who
was doing what? And I know there was one player
that gave an idea about something, and you know, somebody
was like, oh, no, that's a bad idea, and then
somebody else said, oh, you know, what a great way
to get your self eliminated, you know, like right off
the bat, and I'm just thinking, like, why would you
say something like that, you know, I mean at the
beginning of the game. I mean it just just things
(10:09):
like that were like getting to me. But I was
the one that was actually paying attention to what everybody
was kind of like saying and doing.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So, Yeah, your group ends up surviving a big, huge
celebration and then you're back in the dorm and four
to three one shows up. What's running through your mind?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Oh, it was not good again. I'm at the stairs.
Like I'm at the stairs. You see me on the
little balcony and it's myself and my girl Julia and
my friend Eric. I mean, we're up there, and I
hate that they don't show my commentary because I had
pretty funny commentary. But it's like he's coming back, and
I'm like looking at Julia and I'm just like, this
(10:49):
is not good. This is not good whatsoever. Like something's up,
something's really really up. And I was right. I was right,
And so like I said that, I tried to stay
as far away from those two as I possibly could, like.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Exactly because you don't want them approaching you, because as
you said, you can tell the way they're walking around
something's going on. I think other people weren't as aware,
but you were paying attention based on what you're saying,
where you're sitting, your location, you have eyes all areas.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Oh yeah, one hundred person. So what people don't know
about me? And again, you know, Netflix let me know
they weren't going to use my interview, which I was
very upset about, by the way, But I'm retired law enforcement,
and so I have done thousands and thousands and thousands
of interviews right where I just watch or I'm the
one asking all the questions and you know, body language
(11:43):
and whatnot. And so I just stood up there and
I was just watching. I would watch people and just
them to walking around, just the way that they were
walking and whispering, like it's one thing to walk around
and you know, like talk to people, but just the
way that they were by themselves, and you know, one
twin kept doing this and you know, looking around, and
(12:04):
I'm just like, oh my god, like this is not good,
Like do not come talk to me because I don't
want any of that whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
I'm not here. Don't approach me. Mentality.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I love it. Yeah, pretty much pretty much like anywhere
they were. I'm like, heck, no, dude, do not involve
me in any of that, because yeah, and people like
they'd come up to me and be like they're actually
really nice, and I'm like, no, like just trust me,
you guys, watch your back, is all I'm saying, you know,
because I had some you know, alliances in there, they
(12:36):
were like, well, they're actually really cool. They actually talked
to me and this and this and nope, no parts
none was so none none.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So they're walking around they're trying to navigate who they're
going to get eliminated from this game for the first
time ever. Did you see or know about what player
one of seven had said to them about the whole
yacht scenario or did you see that for the first
time on TV?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I okay, so I saw that for the first time
on TV. As to why they eliminated her, which okay,
I mean by all means like I don't think that
was a bad elimination, Like okay, cool, Like if that's
your reasoning for eliminating somebody because they don't have a
good reason as to what it is that they would
(13:23):
do with the money, Yeah, okay, I get it. There's
a lot of people in there that you know, they
have way better things that they're going to do with
that money. So I can see that one. I definitely can.
But I know that there were a lot of people saying, oh,
she was so nice, you know this and this, and
it was random, like we were just we knew it
was them, but we're like, man, that was really random,
(13:45):
Like we were just wondering if they did it just
to kind of throw people off that it wasn't them.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
But yeah, what did you think about their decision to
eliminate the twins?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I didn't like it whatsoever. I didn't think see those twins,
they didn't even how do I see it? And those
were our twins, That's what I like to call them.
I liked it, you know, uh, Bryce and his brother,
And I'm just like I was salty. I was so
salty because they were so nice, you know, like so sweet.
They had good reasons as to why they wanted to
(14:17):
use the money, and I just feel like it was
I don't know, I think they were just too scared
to target somebody like Zoe and her dad. I'll just
put it that way, you know what I'm saying? Like
my move would have been to if you're gonna eliminate somebody,
you eliminate like one twin from this section and one,
(14:39):
you know, a person from this other you know, little
group of two. That's that's what I would have done.
But I didn't like their decision to vote off you know,
the twins.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Well, they even could have utilized the twins in the
sense of that's another pairing that's in here, so that's
another target that could be potentially on them, and then
it keeps it off you a little bit more. Or
because there's more duos in the house, if you're eliminating
one of them, then you're the next one in line.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Mm hmm, right. And I know that, like all the
duos were kind of looking at each other, like, you know,
after they they got out one of our twins that
like and and I was standing right in front of them,
so I just remember hearing like this loud of pop,
and I thought, you know, Bryce had thrown up or something.
That's what it sounded like. It's not like somebody threw
(15:25):
up behind me. And I just remember turning around and
looking at him, and yeah, it was just it was sad.
It was like really sad, But at the same time,
that's when I was like, oh fuck, like it has
be gone, Like shit's about to get real in here.
And yeah, that's when you knew, all right, here we go.
(15:46):
It's it's go time, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Absolutely, And you know it was going to be unpredictable
because they're not doing anything so far that they've done
from season.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
One exactly exactly. Everything's different like they didn't do this,
and so everything's just new, and uh, you know, I
think what viewers don't understand is, you know, like, oh,
why is there we so emotional? But it's you.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
You have to be on your game, like twenty four
to seven.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
You know that anxiety is just like through the roof,
you know, like make sure you take your anxiety bits
because you're about to have anxiety twenty four to seven,
you know, until this game is.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Over, absolutely, walk me through the next one. We're going
into the pentathlon. Talk me through how you ended up
in the group that you did, what your thought was
when oh boy, they split us in half.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
So of course we're not thinking that we're going to
be split in half. We're thinking, all right, group of
ten's gonna go up against group of ten, you know,
so our alliance, you know, all our friends are like,
all right, everybody, grab somebody that's in our alliance. Let's
get our groups of tens, you know whatnot blah blah blah.
And we waited, like we waited for hours an hour
(17:00):
to even play, you know, and my line, like my group,
we were the last group to go, so we didn't
play until two in the morning. So we were like hungry,
we were exhausted, and it was like, oh my gosh,
like come on, just you know, call us up, like
we're ready to go. And when they called us, we're
(17:20):
kind of like, damn okay, like where's everybody else? Are
we paying against the other team? You know, they're taking
us to another room. And as soon as we see
that room and they say, okay, you're about to be
split up. You gotta you know, split up into two
teams right away, I'm like, oh shit, you know who
am I gonna pick? Who's gonna be on my team?
(17:42):
But then when the guard just came and just split
us up, I was like, oh my gosh, like those
are my teammates over there, you know what, Like it was, yeah,
I was just I was sad, but I was like fuck.
And then I'm thinking to myself like, okay, like does
my team you know, have what it takes? Are we
(18:03):
gonna do this? And so it was definitely a very
intense moment. And uh, they had some good people. They
had some good people on the other on the other team,
and so I knew that it.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Was gonna be a very very close race.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
You have to walk in and as soon as you
lose some of the people you thought you were gonna
be with. Oh boy, y'all are my new best friends?
How are we going to team up? How are we
going to make this work? What was your leg in
the event?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Okay, so I got the rock. So here's the thing
is that I had been practicing GONGHI like NonStop right
the game with the little pebbles and all that. I mean,
I ordered on Amazon ID the whole kid everything. We're
doing this, right, So I practiced at home. When I
you know, got to the hotel, practiced everything. I'm like,
all right, I'm good, Like I know that this is
(18:53):
what I'm gonna do. But then when one of our teammates,
I think it was one ten, when he said, okay,
who's gonna do what my friend Eric. I wish I
could remember everybody's numbers, but I just know that by name.
My friend Eric was like, I have GONGI. I'm gonna
do Gongy, and so he said it with so much
(19:14):
like confidence that I'm thinking, okay, all right, so you
have you've got this game, you're good, and yeah, I've
got I'll do Gongi. And I'm like, okay, so then
I'll do rock, you know. And you know, Natalie had
the cup and Julia had the cards, which made sense
because she was like petite little and we're like, all right,
(19:34):
she's got a little hands, she's got this. And then
Isaiah had the Hackey sack. And so as we're going
through our games, we're going, you know, their teams still
stuck on cup and we're just rocking and rolling and
you know, I think it took me like four times
to actually hit the rocks. Are like, ah, yes, you know,
like all's already. And we get to the Gongi and
we're like telling Eric like how many times, like have
(19:56):
you played, like you know whatever, and he's like, oh,
this is my first time, and so we yes, yes,
And I wish they would have shown our pentathlon because
when he said that, When he said that, I turned
around and I looked at Natalie. I looked at her
and I said, we're done. I said, we're fucking done.
(20:17):
I remember telling her and she's like, no, no, no,
we've got this, we got this. And I'm like, we're done.
We're fucking done. Like he's never played before, so what
is it like I was. I honestly, I was like,
we're done completely, one hundred percent. There's no way if
he's never played before. And sure enough, like he struggled.
He was struggling so much that they caught up to us.
(20:41):
So the other team caught up to us. They even
went ahead to House of Cards, and I remember Isaiah,
you know, I remember Eric, the one that was doing Gong.
He looked over and he was just like, oh my god,
they're ahead, and you know, Isaiah's telling him, no, they're not, No,
they're not. And I just remember screaming saying, yes the
fuck they are. Hurry up. Like I just remember yelling
(21:05):
at him like, hurry the fuck up, Eric, And so
that probably didn't help, but it's like you got to remember,
like I'm like an emotional Latino okay, like I wear
my feelings like on my sleep. You can tell if
I'm pissed off, if I'm happy whatever. At that moment
I was pissed. I was like, hurry the fuck up,
like if you've never played, like I should have been
doing this, and so luckily, somehow he got it. We
(21:28):
moved a house of cards and then we moved on
to a hacky sack, but they were also on the
hacky sack and we we won by like three seconds,
so it was just, oh, my gosh, I don't even know.
I think I probably fell asleep that morning slash night
(21:49):
because my body was just so tired from the adrenaline
and you know, all the emotions. So it was so intense.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
I can't believe they didn't show that. It was just
so intense.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I'm kind of surprised they didn't because you won a
photo finish.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah, I know. Like the only time they showed our
pentathlon was when they called out like the slowest players
from each like from each group, like each activity. I
guess you could say was when Eric. Of course he
was the slowest player at Gonghi, so he was put
up on stage and when they called his number to
(22:26):
go on stage. They showed us like they showed us
and you can just like see all of us, you know,
just kind of like talking to him or whatnot. But yeah,
that's the only time that they showed it, and yeah,
we all kind of wish they would have showed it
more because it was a very dramatic.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Very I know I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but
I just want to get there. Since we're here. Did
you keep Eric? Did you vote to keep Eric? Vote
to eliminate?
Speaker 2 (22:50):
No, I vote. I voted to keep him, like I
voted to keep him. Like That's the thing is about me,
is that I know, in the end, if it was
between myself and somebody and my alliance, I'm gonna pick myself, right,
But now, I don't think now was like the time
(23:12):
to do something like that for me, Like for me,
like that wasn't my game plan. You know, I'm trying
to keep as many people in my alliance as I
possibly can, just so that I can get, you know,
further into the game. And so I and it wasn't
just you know, Eric, it was also Jirell. You know,
Jerell was my boy also, and.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
He was the slowest at the Cup.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Toss whatever and yeah, so I voted oh and a
lot of our alliance voted oh as well, so it
is what it is. Some of our alliance voted X.
So we weren't too happy about that, But I mean,
everybody has a choice.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
I guess they have their own mindset, and that's why
I enjoyed them bringing the vote aspect into this season.
They're doing so well with having like the parallel from
the drama and then bring it into the challenge version
of it, which I think is a really neat concept
that they do. So how did you feel about the
scratcher of it all when you saw that you had
the option to take a scratcher or grab the food?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Oh my god, that's so funny because as soon as
they brought the scratchers out, and my family's watching right
they're watching the like the episodes where I come out
right away, they were like, you picked a scratcher, didn't you? You
picked a scratcher, And I'm like, dude, yes, like of
course I did. Like, Hello, we play litteria. We like
scratch offs, you know, like in my family, the Hispanic family,
(24:30):
they'll all agree, we love bingo, we love scratch offs
and I was like, I'm gonna take a scratch off, Like,
there's no way I'm gonna let this moment go. So
I picked a scratch off, but I wish I would
have been more at the front of the line because
every single scratch off that I wanted to pick, they
were taking, you know. And so oh, I'm kind of
glad I didn't pick the one that that one player
(24:52):
picked where he got a disadvantage because I was going
to pick that one, but I'm glad he did Peters. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
And so I was like, all right, I'm good. I'm
good with that. The donuts, I really wish I would
have gotten that because donuts are life for me. I
love donuts one hundred percent. So yeah, but uh yeah
I got I got coins. So yeah, I got coins
in my scratch off.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
So it's a it's a high risk, high reward depending
on what you do receive out of it. But I
always say, with this type of game, if you don't
take the risk, you have to at some point, right at.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Some point, I mean at some point you can't just
like not take a risk, you know what I'm saying.
I feel that, and that's kind of what upset me
like I got coins. Other people that took the scratch
off got coins. And so when we get to that
boiler room and we have the chance to kind of
put all our coins together and you know, vote somebody out,
(25:46):
because if you put our coins together, it would have
been ten coins. They were all kind of like, no,
we're not ready, We're not ready to vote anybody out.
And I'm thinking to myself like, I'm ready, like you know,
but I couldn't say anything because then I think I'd
look like a total asshole or something and be like
I'm ready to vote somebody out, you know, because then
they'd be like, well, we're ready to voute you out
because you're being an asshole. So I was like, oh, okay, yeah,
(26:08):
well then I'll just hold onto my coins. I was like, dude,
I'm just gonna hold onto these in case I get
more coins later or something and I need them. But
I was a little disappointed. I was like, mmm, yeah,
I was. I was ready, But.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Who would you've eliminated.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
One of the twins for sure? Yeahuny the twins for sure. Yeah.
I was ready to just make that move, and yeah,
it would have been one of them for sure.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Talk to me about the boiler room, because I really
thought it was quite interesting that they brought this component
into the game, because you think when you're going to
a vending machine, you're getting something good that comes out
of it. That's a reward for you, right.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, So we didn't even know that there was a
boiler room until like Ryan and Joan had and Viper
had gone in there and grabbed cookies or something, I guess,
and brought it out and showed everybody cookies and you
know who wants one, And of course that's something I'm
staying away from still, So that's when we initially found
(27:10):
out about the boiler room. We're like, oh damn, you know.
And I just remember myself like walking by that room
every single time trying to see that door was open,
and it was never open. So I'm like, come on,
people open this door because I'm ready to go in there,
you know. And you had people like looking under towels
in the bathroom or under benches trying to see if
there was any type of clue or something. And yeah,
(27:33):
I remember when I was in the boiler room with
the others that got coins, I'm like answering the phone
like with somebody gonna say, hello, I'm looking under tires
and I was just trying to do what I could
to just find something, just anything, but it was it
was an interesting room and it was just crazy, like
how immersive this whole thing was. I think they did
(27:55):
such a great job at kind of like doing it
as realistic as to the actual series as possible, and
they did a really really good job with that. I'll say.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
The sets are incredible.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I mean, yeah, so good.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
I'm loving it. And it matches up so well to
it you think it's the actual one that they did.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, to a t like Mingle, the Pentathlon. Everything just
it was just so perfect, like spot on. It was crazy.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
I love it. I'm I'm here for it. So let's
dive into the next game.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Catch No, let's not.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I know, I know, I knew we were gonna have
to get here, but talk to me first about picking
your dot and then how y'all decided the order and
take it from there.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
So okay, so picking the dot that wasn't too hard.
You know. It's again, you know, my alliance and myself,
we're all like pink obvious, right like because we called
ourselves the Pink Squad. So we were just like, pink,
We're going to pick the pink dot. Or we were
also thinking, wherever the two people went that have a disadvantage,
(29:09):
we're going to stay away from them.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
So whatever color they have, stay away.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
From them completely. But it was a matter of a
second where you know, they came on the intercom and said, okay,
pretty much it was pretty much like, okay, you have
ten seconds to pick a dot. And so you see
people like, you know, running like trying to get a
dot as fast as possible. And I picked my dot.
And at that point that moment in time, like I
(29:35):
was next to you know, people that I didn't know,
but I could see people in my alliance, you know,
around me, and so I was, you know, around people
I didn't know, and I'm thinking, okay, this is my spot.
I get like, this is my spot for the game.
But that, of course, that wasn't it. And so, you know,
and then the three that didn't get a spot, you know,
Heath in August and a Jantie, We're like, oh my gosh,
(29:58):
they're about to be eliminated, you know, and then they
were like, you know, no, they're not eliminated. They're safe.
I'm like, damn, Like I should have just not ficked
a dot, you know, and I would have been safe.
But yeah, when they take us to the actual like court,
I guess, like basketball court, we don't know what game
it is. We just see like the dots all over
(30:20):
the court, and we're thinking, Okay, who's athletic, you know, basketball,
it's probably basketball. You know, who can shoot? We're all
like all these things. And then we see like all
these obstacles like a rope and climbing, and I'm like, y'all,
I can climb. So I'm just thinking of all these
different things, and everybody's thinking of all these different things.
(30:40):
And yeah, when we finally find out what the game is,
and we're trying to decide, Okay, who's gonna be which
but I'm very salty.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
I'm just gonna say this.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Right now, we're trying to pick who's going to be
in the front, who's going to be in the middle,
who's going to be in the as far as catching
a ball goes, And so I believe it was Darryl,
who's part of our alliance, you know, just asked everybody
like how comfortable do you do? Does everybody feel catching
a ball? Like all the athletes. He said, all the
athletes should go in the back because we can catch
(31:17):
a ball. Right again, people like Daryl, myself and my alliance,
we were thinking more with our heart and not with
our mind. That was just the type of people we were.
And I'm not sure if you know Darryl which player
Darryl is, but he's like a little white boy kind
of read head. He's the one that was praying with
player ninety eight. I don't know if you saw that.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yes, yes, I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yes, okay, So I love Darryl. And so he's like,
you know, us athletes, let's go to the back. You know,
people who cannot catch go to the front, and then
people who think they can catch can go like in
the middle. And that's when player two seven to two
Ryan of course, he yes, God, I can't like, I
can't like if you see my face and my husband,
(31:59):
my husband, my family, everybody, they say this, they're like, Julie,
you don't even have to say anything, Like if you're
thinking something, your mouth will not say it, your eyebrows
and your faces will definitely say it. And I'm just
gonna say that in that scene, my jaw dropped and
it stayed that way because I'm thinking to myself, right,
(32:21):
what the fuck? I mean? I'm sure that other teams
thought of the same strategy, because I think I heard
Viper say, hey, you know, those of you that can't catch,
you're not good catchers, get in the front, you know,
or whatever. But I think that player two seven to
two went his way of saying it came out wrong,
you know, like you don't just single out one person.
(32:45):
He should have at least said like, hey, like, if
you can't catch, say it now and we'll put you
in the front. But instead he decided to single out
Mark and say that they were gonna judge Mark, and.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
That's why Mark should be in the front.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
But what they don't show you, of course, is like
it went on for a while and Mark just left
the room, like he just left the room crying in tears.
And before this, like I had had conversations with Mark
and he's a good guy and you know whatnot and
he got to know about my kids and I got
to know about him, and it's Beyonce and everything, and
(33:17):
so we had conversations. And so when Mark left that
room crying, everybody was kind of like, fuck, you know,
I mean, what's gonna happen now, you know. So then
the production team puts us all in this quiet room
where nobody could say a single word to each other,
like you had to be quiet. We were probably in
there for about an hour and a half or two hours,
(33:39):
so you can just feel this heaviness in the room
because of what had just happened. Mark was in the
bathroom crying still, and we were all kind of like
out in the room, like knowing what was going on.
And I'm sure that you know, two seven to two
could feel everybody's eyeballs just looking at him like what
the fuck, you know, like now we're going into this
(34:02):
game with this heavy ass feeling. And so as we're
going back to the set, I just remember Mark telling me, hey, Julie,
do you mind being in between myself and Ryan because
I can't stand to look at the back of his
head right now. And so me, I'm like, yes, I
(34:25):
will be in the middle of the two of you,
of course, you know. And so if not, I would
have been in front of Ryan, you know, because my
girl Julia would have been right in front of me.
And so me and Julia were like this in the game,
and that's how I ended up in between those two.
And yeah, that's what I have to say about how
(34:47):
I ended up in the middle. Geez.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
I mean that was just loaded right there. And two
we knew this. That was going to be my follow
up question, what did we not see? Because there's no
way that was all everything. Yeah, I had to go
on for as you said, hours.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Well, the commentary went on for like I don't know,
and don't get me wrong, like Ryan's a good guy,
he really is. I just think he couldn't read the
room or he's one of those people that he can't
read the room, and I think that's what happened. It's
we were all kind of like shocked, and it went
on for a little bit too long until finally, you know,
(35:27):
one of the players was like, hey, we're not going
to do this, like let's stop singling people out, like
y'all we have to be smart and decide who's going
to go where. And it was one of those things
that is I'm gonna say, like the girls in the front,
let me just say this. This is where I'm salty.
Is that the very like first three players, right, they're
(35:52):
not part of our alliance. I don't even know how
they got to the front of that line, but they
got to the front of that line without any of
us knowing, Like what the hell? You know, Like they
just went as straight and just when people were picking
their spots, I know, I was gonna be between Ryan
and Mark, but they just went straight and just got
(36:13):
like the first three spots, and I'm like, first of all,
the girl in the first pink spot, she does CrossFit
and she was playing catch with the twins in the
freakin' dorms. You're gonna tell me you can't catch a ball,
but you decide to put yourself in the front of
the line. And then the second one.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Same thing, third one, same thing.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
You're gonna tell me you cannot catch a ball, like
one of you is a cop, come on, like the
other one's.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
A fitness instructor. And I'm just like, I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
I just I was so salty about that, because yeah,
I'm like, who agreed to let you all be in
the front of this line?
Speaker 3 (36:51):
But I mean, it is what it is. Whatever, I'm
just gonna say that, But.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yeah, they just went for the me mentality, which is
that SAME's that's what it is, and that's why this
game is very cutthroat because people are going to do that.
There's a lot of money on the line. And still
I was, I'm sitting here watching as a viewer, how
the damn Twins ended up in the front of the line.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Yes, yes, and that right there, that's where I was like,
what the fuck? Like I guess how I say, like
we played with more heart, like myself and our alliance,
because we were like, hey, like, if you can't throw, like,
put yourself in the front, like we want to make
sure that you get your chance, you know, just like us,
you know whatever. And that's why I put myself in
the middle, because I'm like, dude, I can catch a ball,
(37:32):
Like I was like, I can catch a ball if
somebody's gonna throw out at me from afar, like, I
have confidence that I'm going to catch it. But these
people that put themselves in the front and then you know,
put people that couldn't catch, like in the middle towards
the back, which they were then eliminated. I just think
that was selfish. And I remember in one of my interviews,
(37:55):
Production was like, so what do you think about the
Twins doing that? And I'm like, oh, I just I
think they're selfish asshole And then I just remember production
saying can you repeat that again, and I'm like, yeah,
there's selfish assholes, Like that's when I think of them.
They're like, okay, thank you. I'm like, oh shit, they're
about to show their shit on TV, you know. But
I was like, but that's how I felt like And
(38:16):
like now looking back, of course, like how you say,
you know, some people were on me, me me, me me,
But I don't know. I don't know if if I
could probably play that game me me me towards the end,
but I just don't think that I was ready, Like
I don't think I was ready for that.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
So yeah, it's always going to be a dilemma. And
that's why they have specific people they do on the cast.
You have the people that think with their heart, not
always with their head. They have the emotions that come
into play, and then you have the people it's me,
nobody else matters. Yeah, I don't care about anyone else.
And not to say that which one is right or wrong,
there's it's just a mentality. It's how someone personally approaches
(38:56):
the game and how they feel going into it and
what they're choosing to say, Okay, I'm okay with pushing
this limit, but I'm not okay pushing that limit. Everyone's
mindset's different.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Right exactly. And I know that like player ninety eight,
I think that's Natalie's number, I can't remember, but I
know she got a lot of shit, and I know
I gave her a lot of shit too in the
game for some of the choices that she made. But
I can't really like blame her for some of the
choices that she made. I guess because you know, it's
a game. And I know that she said nobody promised
(39:27):
me anything, and I didn't promise anybody anything, So she's right,
you know. I mean, she went into that game and
nobody promised her anything or whatever. But I still feel
that if she would have just trusted in her alliance,
which was us, that she could have gotten further in
the game. So yeah, it's all.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
It all comes down to the choices you make. And
some people are just more intense players than others, and
you're going to see that. You get that even in
sporting events, you have that one person on the team
they're just so invested and it's not as though they're
doing anything wrong per se. They are just wanting to
win at all costs.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah, exactly, So.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Let's get into your moment here. Of I know, it's
it's tough because let me tell you, the way they
edited the slow motion, the emotion in general of the
back and forth, the communication. It just people are standing
up trying to watch this moment. I'm telling you, people
(40:25):
were not sitting on their couches. They were standing waiting
to see what was going to happen. And we're rooting
hardcore for it to be a huge success.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Yeah. Yeah, that right there. That was not that was
not acted out, That wasn't anything like. That was real.
That was raw. You could hear a pin drop. I mean,
it just felt like it was just myself and Mark
like that's it, you know, And I just kept telling
him like like you can do this. Just It's like
(40:56):
I was just trying to give him so many words
of encouraged that I was like, look, dude, like this
is your moment, you know, And that's what I was
trying to do. I was just thinking to myself like
he just had such a terrible experience about like being
picked on and not being picked and all this sort
of stuff that I was like, okay, dude, like this
is your moment. I'm gonna throw at you. You catch it,
it's gonna be like like glory, okay, like glory. And
(41:22):
I just I just could not not throw him the ball,
you know, like not pick him, because then he'd feel
even worse. And besides the other two players back here,
they were further and then the other player was Natalie,
and I wasn't about to throw it to her. So
I was just like all right, like you've got this, Mark,
(41:43):
You've got this. And so there was a lot of
talking back and forth and people, I think people they
were just hoping that he caught that ball, you know,
myself included. And I just remember that as soon as
I saw that ball drop, I immediately immediately dropped to
(42:05):
my knees and just cried my heart out, like just cried.
And the first like, I just know that, the first
person that came to my head was my son because
he's just like my biggest fan, you know, he's the
one that was like, Mom, you've got this, you know,
blah blah blah, and so I was just like, fuck, man,
like he's gonna see this.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
And I just feel like I'm just going to disappoint
him so much.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
And uh, I hate that. I hate that feeling of
disappointing my kids. So it was. It was rough. It
was rough. I couldn't stop crying. It was rough. So
I if I felt terrible, I can't even imagine how
terrible Mark felt.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
So yeah, it was just so sad to watch too,
because you even see the emotion, not only y'all's emotion,
but everyone that was over, even still standing on their
dots and we were still over on the benches. Everyone the silence,
no one was speaking.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Yeah, yeah, I have cast men you know in my
inbox that'll stay. I cried so much when you and
Mark left, Like I cried. So my my friend Melissa,
like you see her and her eyes are all red
and she's like, Julie, I couldn't stop crying, and I'm like,
I know.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
Like I saw, like it was just really like production
was crying.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
I'm like, what, like y'all crying so much? Put me
back in. Please give me a second chance, you know,
like please, But yeah, they were crying, and you know,
one of them gave me a hug as I walked
out the door, and she was like, you did so good,
and I'm like, thank you so much. So yeah, it's
just it was so so intense, and I just I
was so exhausted after that. I was just so exhausted.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
And we just, you know, we know that we're seeing
these clips here and there, but y'all are filming this
for hours and.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Hours, hours and hours, and there was hours and hours
of no talking because of course, when we do talk,
they wanted to be real. They want us to get
to know each other like in real life when we're
in the dorms, but not when we're sitting in a
(44:07):
quiet room. You know, they don't want any of that
because of course they're not going to be filming any
of that. So they want us to wait to talk
until we're back in the dorm or back on set
or whatnot. And so there was a lot of silence,
a lot of hours, a lot of sitting. There was
times when there wasn't anything going on in the dorms,
and even I felt guilty for, you know, wanting to
(44:27):
take a nap because I'm like, dude, I gotta be
talking to people. You know. I just get so guilty of,
you know, even thinking of taking a nap. But you're
just so exhausted from just everything.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Yeah, it's a big time experience, but sadly you do
end up getting eliminated. At least you had the experience, though.
Can you touch on that. What is the biggest takeaway
you had from the experience, because I know you were
so excited that you got on the show.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Yeah, So my biggest takeaway is how I played the game.
Like I don't know, I feel like, like I that
I shouldn't like judge people for how they play the game,
because it's like you said, like some people go in
(45:14):
there and they're just like balls of the walls, Like
we're doing this. It's me, it's nobody else. It's like
I'm all that matters. And I just like I can't
believe that there's people out there that it's like it's
just about me. It's just about me. Like there's just
like no heart, there, no nothing. And I feel that
I trust people way too easy and I love way
(45:35):
too hard, and that if I do get another chance
to be a part, you know, of the next season,
that I might have to go in there and just
change up my game, you know, and just maybe be
a little bit selfish. That's probably My biggest takeaway is, yeah,
that I need to be smarter and not play with
(45:55):
my feelings, definitely.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
And it's so difficult to know how you're going to
play until you're actually in that moment.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Yeah, because you just don't know, Like you don't know
who you're gonna connect with, you don't know who's going
to betray you, You don't know you know who's talking
like behind your back or what they have, you know,
scheming or you know whatnot. I mean, I know there's
you know, people right now that I see that are
still you know, they haven't been eliminated and they're still
(46:25):
on there on the show. And I'm just like, man,
like I didn't say one word to that person. They
didn't say one word to me, like, and I probably
could have really connected with that person, like things could
have been different. But again, you're just so like in
this mindset of you want to stay as close to
your alliance as you possibly can until the numbers dwindle
down and then you can start kind of you know,
(46:47):
getting to know more people.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
Absolutely, and as you said too, it's just tough. You
end up with one group and you start talking with
them and you might not even talk to other people
are on the other side of the room because you
can't speak to everyone's in paw. Well, there's so many
of you.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Yeah, there's like people I didn't even meet, you know,
even though there was only like a hundred of us
left when I was eliminated. There's only like a hundred
of us left. But still there were people there that
I don't even remember. And that's terrible to say, but
I'm just like, I don't even remember, you know, to
remember her being there, and so yeah, it is pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
Well, Julie, is there anything you would like to plug
before we wrap this up?
Speaker 2 (47:29):
I just like, I do want to say that I
am like a little disappointed of how they didn't show
like my interview, because I feel if they would have
shown that, they would have understood why I played the
way that I did, why I threw the ball to Mark.
Because of course I'm getting a lot of why did
you do this? I would have picked him, you know whatever,
blah blah blah. But it's like like in my interview
(47:51):
that I gave about me myself personally, like I grew
up just like Mark grew up, you know, being picked
on and whatnot, you know, because we were poor. Like
I'm right now, I live in South Texas and it's
you know, one of the poorest cities in the entire
state of Texas.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
You know, we're right here, right right by the border.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
A lot of us are raised by a single mom
and uh, growing up in the projects, things like that.
So I really wish that they would have, you know,
shown who I really was as a person so people
could get to know me, you know.
Speaker 3 (48:24):
Because I know a lot of people are like, oh, you.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
Know, like we feel sorry, like for Mark, We feel
sorry for Mark, And I'm just kind of like, bro,
does anybody feel sorry for the person that actually threw
the ball? You know what I'm saying, Like, does anybody
you know? And I'm just kind of, like I tell
my daughter, like I feel not seen because everybody's so
worried about Mark that nobody's worried about Hey, what about
the girl that took that chance and through the damn ball? Like,
(48:48):
is anybody wondering how she's doing? You know? So it's like, yeah,
that's probably That's what's been like the hardest thing for
me right now.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
That's why I wanted to bring you on this podcast,
because I want you to be able to share your
experience from the show and what you did while you
were on.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
It, and like, I truly one hundred person appreciate that
because I'm like, this is the only way that I'm
going to be able to show people like who I am,
what I experienced in the dorms, what I saw, my thoughts,
and just like who I am, you know, as a person,
so people can get to know me.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
Definitely. And that's why I was so curious, because I said,
I'm going to get her on here. You know what
you shoot your shot and I said, listen, come on
this podcast, so I can hear all assets of your
game and everything that you experienced, so people get to
know you. Because I'm doing this, I want to know
more people's storylines because we just don't get them all.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Yeah, and that's so important. I feel like there was
just so many stories that were not told that I
wish would have been told, Like, there was just so
many I met so many amazing people, you know, and
I just kind of feel like I'm a little disappointed
in some of the stories they used. And yeah, but
you know what, here's the season three, so we'll we'll
(50:04):
see what happens. So I'm still I'm still hoping and.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Praying, well absolutely see what is in store for season three.
But Julie, thank you so much for joining me on
this podcast here today. It was so nice being able
to hear your entire story and just getting to know
you better as well.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
No, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
This was so much fun awesome. Will everyone else be
sure to check out everything we have going on at
the Reality after show. I will have more squid Game interviews.
I'm looking to do the recap as well. This week
we'll be hitting the ground running. We have our football podcast,
Survivor Podcast. Bobby Goodsby does his live stream, so be
sure to check that. A lout and Julie once again
(50:43):
is such a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Thank you, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
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