Alex Brizard came onto The Circle with decades of reality TV watching under his belt. So understandably, he had a plan of attack, coming in under the guise of “funemployed frat bro” Nathan to lower his threat level to not make him a candidate for blocking. Naturally, Alex’s strategy didn’t go completely to plan. But it was enough to make a few key allies in people like Josh “Bru” Brubaker, Rachel Evans and Yu Ling Wu. Seeing the finale was in sight, Alex made a big move when he threw Bru to the wolves with Frank Grimsley, hoping these new facts would spare “Nathan” in the process. And they were able to get him out of an instant blocking. But there was unfortunately one last step: A final blocking from secret influencer Frank. And unfortunately for Alex, his approach was too little, too late, as Frank made him the last person blocked in season 4. Read on to hear Alex’s thoughts on her time in the game. And check out Parade.com throughout The Circle season 4 with the various players and catfishes alike. What made you decide to enter The Circle? I’ve been watching reality TV since I was 6 years old. I started with Survivor, then got into Big Brother and The Challenge. It just slowly took over my whole life. So on January 1, 2020, I’m hungover with my younger brother after New Year’s. We’re on the couch. And we’re like, “Oh my God, Netflix has a reality show!” And we were hooked from that moment on. I have seen every U.S. season, every U.K. season, France, Brazil. I just became a huge fan. And like I said, I just love reality TV as a whole. So I’m excited to be a part of this great season. At what point in the process of applying did you come up with the idea to catfish as “Nathan,” a roommate of your brother’s? Well, originally it was my brother himself. I was like, “I know him. He’s good. He’s a bit more of a surfer ‘bro’ type. Long hair, really tall.” And someone in casting was just like, “What about someone who’s more like a beefy meathead type of guy?” And I was like, “I do know someone.” And I sent them the picture, and they were like, “This could be good.” I always knew I wanted to go in and really be underestimated and undersell my profile while doing stuff behind the scenes. So I thought a meathead plays right into my strategy. And that’s the type of person that other players would expect to see on this show. So I thought it was perfect! You mention being a huge fan of reality TV. And it’s clear you had done the most strategic preparation out of your entire cast for this. How much did that end up coming into play once things started to actually happen? That’s a really good question. Because there are good points and bad points. My strategy was always to come in be underestimated. We’ve seen time and time again, in season finales, the most popular or dominant players end up tanking in the final rating. So I said, “I’m going to go into the finale, and I’m going to be middle of the road as much as possible. I’m going to have some good allies. I’m gonna have some not so good allies. And I’ll hope that everyone strategically ranks me high.” So I’d say in that regard, I did really well in passing off as a dumb “bro” in playing the Nathan persona. But another key part of my game was always information gathering and making sure I had the most information. And I definitely did not have the most information! [Laughs.] I was always actually playing catch up. I was always learning about things after the fact, which was still good. But I was a step behind in information gathering. You seemed to orient your strategy around one-on-one chats over group chats, building individual bonds. What made you decide to pursue that? I quickly learned when I got into the game that I was kind of better at the one-on-one chats. With the group chats, having more eyes on every message I’m sending was a little more intimidating. It made it a bit harder to craft a better message. When I was in one-on-one chats, I could really be “myself.” I really found my gameplay and personality really coming out in smaller chats. So once I realized that, I was like, “I’m just gonna stick with that.” In my mind, I was like, “If I don’t give people a reason to worry, I’m not going to give them a reason to really compare notes.” Because time is so crucial. They’re going to want to talk about future plans, not things that have happened in the past. Let’s talk about some of your key relationships this season. Bru becomes one of your biggest supporters and ends up visiting you after he’s blocked. Talk to me about your dynamic. Our “#Brumance” was great! I love chatting with him. He was exactly what Nathan was looking for in The Circle. He was someone who I thought was going to have Nathan’s back. He ended up giving me information about stuff I missed from my time before coming into the game and the happenings of chats that I’m not in. So Bru was a very crucial part of my game. But because of the cutthroat nature of myself and the game, it was unfortunate that I had to do what I did to him. When he came and visited me, I jumped very high. I was very scared, because I knew that it was gonna be a hard conversation. I knew he had trusted me a decent amount. So I let him know, “Hey, I rated you last to self preserve myself. And I also told Frank everything you told me.” It was like a one-two punch. I would have loved to just be like, “Oh, it’s so great to meet you!” But I had to tell him. He’s such a nice guy, he deserves to know what really went down. Did you have any problems emotionally when you decided to throw Bru under the bus to Frank to protect yourself? It’s definitely hard. You just see icons, but you get to recognize these people. They’re friendly faces when they pop up. So while it is upsetting to do, you’ve got to remind yourself you’re there for the money. I’m there for me and my girlfriend. And as much as I like Bru, I like myself more. [Laughs.] And so while it was a really shady move, I always knew I was gonna do it. Frank was trending way more popular than Bru was and I was like, “Bru is not going to be able to protect me.” And that’s what my game was all about at the moment. You ended up flirting with Yu Ling throughout the season. Did that surprise you? Yeah, I was definitely surprised. It was something that I wanted to be available for Nathan. I just never thought it was actually going to go in that direction. Just being so focused on the game, I really couldn’t have imagined beforehand that I would have conversations where I don’t speak anything about what’s going on. But Yu Ling and I would like often do that. She is just so funny, and her messages just pop off the screen. Sometimes, on a long day of just reading texts back and forth all day, it catches you off guard. You’re just kind of reading it, and then it registers what she just said. And you’re like, “Oh, that’s funny!” Her personality just really came through on every message. She was just really fun to play with. And every conversation is something exciting. You had a really interesting dynamic with Rachel. You came in together, but you threw her under the bus when you suspected her of being the Spice Girls profile. But after that, she became one of your closest allies. Talk to me about all that. That’s a really fun one. Because when we get told that the Spice Girls are there, my mind instantly went to, “Well, it’s probably a new player. And I know it’s not me. So that leaves Rachel.” I didn’t know Jared was a late player; I actually thought he was one of the original eight. And so in my mind, I thought that whole vote was going to be like a landslide of either Rachel or Nathan. And so, once again, it’s just going into survival mode. I was like, “I’ll throw Rachel under the bus. It’s her or me.” Then I went back, and I was like, “Dang, this is someone I could have had a great relationship with.” And I’m so glad I did. They showed a little bit of us talking about being “#MovingBuddies.” And what they didn’t show was I do apologize and explain my whole rationale for voting her. And that worked. I almost get instantly rewarded from it with her saving me in the data breach. That one really solid conversation did it. I’m just forever grateful to Rachel because she put a lot of faith in me even though I was a catfish. You were the victim of a surprise double blocking at the hands of “super influencer” Frank. Were you surprised that you ended up going? As soon as I realized what’s going down, in my mind, I’m just doing the math. I was ready for a double blocking. And the way I’ve always seen a double blocking is each influencer blocks one person. So in my mind, I was like, “I got Rachel and Yu Ling, hopefully. And I’m hoping now I got Frank on the trail of Bru. I think I squeaked my way out of here.” But when they threw the curveball of “it’s an instant blocking for last place,” and then a super secret influencer, I saw the writing on the wall. I said, “I’ve got a really high chance of leaving here.” How tough was it to get blocked, knowing you just missed out on making the finale? It’s really tough. Because when you start piecing it together, you realize, “I was just right there. All that we worked for is one blocking away.” But then when you start to reconcile that the blocking is probably going to happen, I start to go over all the things that I did, and all the things I was proud of. There was a very big sense of being at peace. I left it all out on the field. If I go, I did everything I could to win this game. And I got outplayed. I’m never afraid to admit if I get outplayed. And that’s what happened. This season, it seemed like people were fine to keep the catfish in as long as they had trust in them, which is a deviation from the first couple of seasons. As someone who played a catfish themselves, did you get that sense? I did. I think we started to see the shift. Bru made a very hard and public decision to save a known catfish over a different one of his allies. Once the audience sees it, and the next season goes out to play, these things evolve and they take on a life of their own. If any future players are reading, my goal was always to have a “catfish takeover,” where we have more catfish here than real people. [Laughs.] But that’s so intimidating to initiate. And that’s the other part. Even as a catfish, you would love to be like, “Oh my god, we’re both catfish.” But it’s how do you initiate that without taking such a leap of faith in that other person? So I definitely went out there with the intention of being like, “Hey, if the moment’s right, we’re both catfish Let’s do this together.” But it’s too big of a leap at this time. But never say never! I definitely think we can see that in the future. You started this interview by talking about how big of a fan you were of reality television. What has it been like for you to get to watch yourself go from fan to contestant? It’s really surreal, in all honesty. I’ve just been thinking about this, since I was a very young child watching Survivor: All-Stars. I was like, “I could go do that. That’d be so fun.” It’s wild that all these years later, it’s coming to fruition. It’s very fulfilling for myself, but also the group that I have found online of reality TV watchers and people who are just as passionate about this. The support from all of them has been…I’m getting emotional just thinking about it. It’s been very touching. They know what this means to me, because this is something they think about on the daily. They have the obsession level of someone who’s tweeting about every show at midnight through 3 a.m. So the support from my community online, and my friends, my family has just been unreal, and it’s really heartwarming, Next, check out our interview with Rachel Evans, the fourth-place finisher on The Circle season 4.
