modern living room with void

^- are you encouraged to fight with your costars? ^uh... yeah. that's like the whole point of reality tv. - they definitely put you in situations where there's likely to be drama, they'll put you in a smaller group setting to allow that to happen naturally. - we fought off camera, and we let the producers know and they wanted us to repeat that fight on-camera,

which only increased the intensity of it because neither of us wanted to do it. - we're definitely not encouraged to fight. add drinking to the mix, not knowing each other, having no cell phones, no tv, we're gonna get on each other's nerves a little bit. - the other person on the show with me was told to start some things with me because they felt like i was going to, you know, bring it.

which i did, but it was still me. ^- do you or other people on your show ^turn up personalities for the camera? yes, they do, they'll be lying if they say otherwise. i think everyone knows where and when the cameras are on. including myself, i'm guilty. you can't be like, hi. my name's joe. who the heck would want to watch that?

you always got to turn it up. you don't turn up, you're not getting airtime, you're going to be edited out of the show or barely be in the show. - our personalities are real. we didn't turn it up for the cameras. we got casted because of our crazy ridiculous personalities and it's just us. ^- do you get paid to be on a reality show?

uh... yeah! - we do get a stipend. i'm not gonna go travel the world with a stipend, so... - it wasn't much. - as the seasons go on you typically get paid more because you negotiate your contracts, but we got paid per episode. ^- everyone makes about ten grand. ^it grows from about like 2,500 dollars i think per episode

^and it's kind of like who wants to be a millionaire, ^so as you get closer to first, it's like, i think, a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, fifty thousand for second, third, and then it kind of goes down. ^- do you feel like you have to do your hair and makeup ^perfectly every day because you're always on camera? - i did feel like i always had to do my makeup and i always had to have my hair done, which was quite expensive.

- i mean you want to look the best that you can on camera. - i actually dread doing it. i have to coach myself through it. i had my female roommates helping me and that was a little bit nice because i didn't have to do it myself. - come on, makeup? the hair, yeah. gotta be groomed nice, you gotta work out. always gotta look fresh.

if you're not fresh, don't even be on tv. - i would try to keep up every day with the old man bun. and then the hair, you gotta look good on camera. we only get one outfit for the entire time that we're out there, so, hopefully you're wearing something that you enjoy wearing because it is a long thirty-nine days. ^- do i ever watch my show? ^yeah i mean i watched it at the time.

it's hard to watch me on camera, but normally i don't like to watch myself on tv. - of course i watch my show! not only do i watch my show, i have episode release parties with my friends from my show. - come on, i'm not gonna be there for two months or a month whatever it may be and not watch my show. - i watched it when it was airing and then i live-tweeted, but after that, i mean, i'm not reliving my glory days

and watching it every night before i go to sleep. - i did watch it and quite frankly i don't need to watch it again, once was enough. i mean, your voice sounds really annoying all the time. - absolutely i watch my show. nothing else beats survivor, nothing. ^do you ever get used to a camera ^following you everywhere? i would say after about a week or so

you kind of forget that they're always around. - at first, couldn't get used to it. in the first couple of days i'm like oh my god, i woke up, i looked at carissa next to me, my castmate, and i was like aaah, there's a camera in my face! - at the beginning, it was insane. i was self-conscious, oh my god. - when i was in dating naked though, that was weird. because i'm naked!

and to have someone right there on you, like hey, looking at your naked parts, no no no! but actually, in the end, i kind of got used to it a little bit, so i go ahead and starting acting my personality like ten times higher. - i had never been in front of the camera before like that. i had never been on tv before, not into acting, none of that kind of stuff. but after three or four times and a few drinks,

things get a little easier. ^- does the publicity ever affect you negatively - yes! oh my god, people would use you. hey joe, you got any hookups for tv? yes, i do have hookups, but guess what? you're not getting them. don't just ask me to hang out with me for that. - people are always going to have their opinions about you regardless, so, you just have to be grounded

within yourself and not let people's words get to you. - i thought that i was just going to cry when i would read twitter and social media. i read these comments that people write to me at times and you can't help but laugh and just brush it under the rug. what is the best perk about being a reality tv star? - getting free stuff and getting paid to go places. - obviously all the dick pics that i've been getting. - i am a social worker first,

and i get to talk about what i do and what i love, social services with foster children, i get to tell the masses about it. - i'm able to give back to my community, and try to promote some healthy healing and anything i can do to help. it was fun, it's been an amazing experience thus far. wouldn't change it for the world.

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