00:00We are here with Special Forces finalist Brianna LaPaglia.
00:03I am so excited to have you here.
00:05I'm so excited to talk to you about this finale.
00:07I have to ask, I want to start here.
00:09What made you decide to give up in the last 10 minutes of the course?
00:12And looking back, do you wish you had stuck out those last few minutes?
00:15I can't even sleep at night thinking about it.
00:18I am so bummed out about it, but I'm really proud of how far I made it.
00:21In my head, I take it as a win.
00:24Like, I made it pretty much to the end.
00:2610 minutes, I mean, I could hear when I was doing my exit interview on the other side of the gate,
00:31I could hear it end.
00:32And I was like, are you serious?
00:34I was so close.
00:36But, yeah, that sucked.
00:38Watching back, they were in that room, and I feel like you got the biggest reaction out of them
00:43when you said you were done or you, you know, said that you were part of the military.
00:47They were just like, no.
00:49I'm not going to tell me.
00:50You feel free.
00:52Uh, yes.
00:53No, no, don't.
00:55I lied.
00:56I'm, I'm, I'm here with special forces.
01:01Oh.
01:03What was it like to see that?
01:04I know.
01:05I feel like I let them down because through that show, you really do create a bond with them,
01:09and you want to, like, make them proud, and you want to have them be, like, so proud of you and get to the end.
01:14But, um, I don't know.
01:16I think at the end of the day, they were, they were happy with my performance.
01:20Well, the moment you said you turned down a $12 million NDA, I knew you were making it to the end.
01:24I was like, she can do that.
01:26She can do anything.
01:2612.9.
01:2712.9.
01:28You know, what was harder, turning down that kind of money or some of these challenges on special forces?
01:33The special forces was the hardest thing I've ever put myself through.
01:37It was insane.
01:38Every day got harder.
01:39The mental feats were incredible.
01:42And I just, I genuinely don't think you could get that experience other than, like, actually joining the military and going through, you know, actual combat.
01:50Like, this is the closest we were going to get to ever doing that.
01:53When you first got onto the show, was there anyone you were surprised to see there with you?
01:57And if so, who?
01:58Yeah, I was surprised to see Mark Estes.
02:01I just, I was so excited to see him because it was like a familiar face.
02:04And when I saw Shawn Johnson, I was so excited because she was my hero growing up.
02:09I think she was like everyone's hero growing up.
02:12That's my age.
02:12So I was starstruck.
02:14And I couldn't believe that I ended up getting to be friends with her.
02:17That's so cool.
02:18What was, like, the most surprising part about them that you learned through this process?
02:21Um, I think, I mean, Shawn Johnson is the strongest person I have ever met, the most, like, down-to-earth woman in the face of the scariest situations that you'll ever be faced with, stone cold.
02:36And she just doesn't, she doesn't waver.
02:38It was so cool to see.
02:40She's like, definitely the inspiration that we looked up to is real.
02:43And even Gia, she's younger than me.
02:45And I was so impressed by her.
02:47She helped me through it so much.
02:48I mean, everyone individually on the show, I could say a million great things about.
02:53You were really a shell of yourself by the end of it.
02:55I know production sets everyone up with therapists and, like, these outlets to help you once you get back into real life.
03:01Did you have to utilize any of them?
03:03And did you have a hard time reacclimating to your normal life?
03:05Yeah, it was.
03:06So right when you leave, you're given, like, a psychiatrist.
03:09You're given all of these steps and, like, a safe word for when you get out.
03:12Because, like, interacting normally after was not easy.
03:16It was really a hard, like, first, I would say 36 hours.
03:20It was hard to get back into reality because you're so stuck in that mental warfare.
03:25And also we were just getting interrogated for what seemed like 10 years.
03:29So I couldn't go in my elevator in my building after because of the tunnel challenge.
03:34I had literal extreme claustrophobia.
03:36I was so scared it was going to shut down.
03:38And I was like, I cannot be stuck in a closed space ever again.
03:41I didn't call the psychiatrist, but there were a few times where I probably could have.
03:46Almost saw you give up with the chains, that whole thing.
03:49What made you decide to stay in the game?
03:51That was hard to watch back.
03:53I think it was just so close towards the end.
03:57And I was so proud of everything that I put myself through and all of the battles and the obstacles that I overcame.
04:03Like, facing my fears in the tunnel, facing my fears underwater, or just, like, working out harder than I've ever worked out in my whole entire life.
04:10I didn't want to give up when I was that close to the end, which is kind of ironic in the way that I ended.
04:16But I was proud of where I ended the show.
04:20And if I ended on that mountain, I would have been so much more upset with myself.
04:24The Diaz, they are interesting, guys.
04:25I'm wondering, did you have a favorite?
04:27And then did you have one that you were kind of like, I don't want to upset him.
04:30I'm kind of going to avoid him if I can.
04:32Yeah, for sure.
04:33I think you have individual relationships with everyone, and they do kind of separate and take care of different people.
04:39But I think Billy really, I mean, we saw that on the Chains episode.
04:44He really got me up that mountain.
04:46Q got me up in the beginning, and he got me through the chains without Billy.
04:50My armband would have been off.
04:51So I was really thankful for him.
04:54And he felt like, I think they all kind of feel like a father figure to you throughout the show.
04:59And they're all so different, but so amazing.
05:03Yeah, and it's always cool to see, like, their humanity in the end of it.
05:06Yes.
05:07Where they, like, let the guard down.
05:09They're smiling.
05:10They're happy for you.
05:11That must have felt nice, too.
05:12Yeah, I mean, well, after the show, they all reach out to you, and they DM you, and they congratulate you.
05:17And you're like, wait, what is this?
05:19You're supposed to, like, this is such a weird relationship.
05:21Because it's, like, a bipolar thing.
05:23And you're like, oh, they are human.
05:25And they really were being hard on us to get the best versions of ourselves out of the show.
05:29Yeah.
05:29We just had Cody in here.
05:31I know he was talking.
05:32I was asking him about, you know, his reactions to some of the things that were said about him behind his back.
05:36Yeah.
05:37Or once he saw it play back on the show.
05:39What were your thoughts on Cody?
05:40I know he was just telling me that at one point you told him that he stunk because he wasn't wearing deodorant.
05:45Someone had to do it.
05:46But it was out of love.
05:48Like, I spent on the show, I would say, the most time with Cody.
05:50We were in, we were paired up almost every single challenge together, every single car ride.
05:54I'm practically with Cody.
05:55We ended up bunking next to each other because Mark had left.
05:58He was in between us.
05:59I spent a lot of time getting to know Cody, and I didn't know who he was before the show.
06:03We were very different personalities.
06:05And I think someone like him just needs someone like me to kind of rein him in.
06:11And, I mean, everyone was thinking it.
06:13It's just, like, who's going to step up and say it?
06:15I would.
06:16And it was always out of a place of, like, love.
06:19I want us all to succeed.
06:20And I think he succeeded in the best way he could.
06:24And he did amazing on the show.
06:25He was such a strong force.
06:28It's just, like, sometimes I think he forgot there were team aspects of it.
06:31And I just needed to remind him a few times and remind him about the deodorant.
06:35Yeah.
06:36Very important.
06:37I mean, it was bad, man.
06:39It was, like, we were in the car and he had his arm up.
06:41And I was, like, guys, Cody, you need, why don't you have deodorant?
06:45You have a bag full of, like, vitamins, but you didn't bring deodorant?
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