Check out our interview with Jodie Sweetin below. Beyond the Edge airs Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. What has it been like to watch the episodes back and see your experience from a different angle? It’s funny. Every episode I watch, I’m like, “It doesn’t look as hard as it was!” You have no idea. People probably think I’m a baby. You have no idea how absolutely hard it was. (Laughs.) But watching it back is great. I didn’t get to see what races were like for the other people. We were involved with our team, and we knew what happened on our trails. But we didn’t get to see some of the other people’s journeys outside of talks about it. So it’s been really fun to get the whole picture on it now. What inspired you to go onto Beyond the Edge? Well, one, it was the times of COVID. So I was like, “Get me the hell out of his house!’ (Laughs.) But when they asked me to do it, my first response was yes. I was like, “That sounds like something I would never do on my own.” There are certain things that I want to do, like being out in the jungle for two weeks and really physically challenging myself and emotionally and mentally. Like I did Worst Cooks in America, and that was super fun. Because when am I ever going to get to cook in a professional kitchen and learn how to cook from two amazing chefs? I’ve been trying to say yes to things that are incredible opportunities. And Beyond the Edge was just something I would never plan or do or be able to do on my own. And so I was just like, “Yeah, let me add this to the list of things that I’ve done in my life.” Speaking of physically pushing yourself, you come in with this prior injury to your foot, which gets aggravated in the first adventure. How much did that affect the way you approached the experience? I mean, it was on my mind. But I didn’t let it stop me. I had to listen to my body and certain things. I did not want to break my ankle again or break my foot in another place, because I remember being out of it for months. It was really hard. So that was always in the back of my mind. And the thing is that you don’t see the real physical pain and exhaustion. I mean, you weren’t getting any sleep out there. You were sleeping on hard bamboo. I would wake up with bruises on my hips and shoulders from sleeping on it all night. So your muscles are sore, you’re exhausted, you’re getting no sleep. All of those things sort of add up, and you go, “Okay, if I really feel like I’m gonna hurt myself, if I really feel like my body is just starting to go, we’re not doing this anymore.” I don’t want to risk getting injured. But I wanted to push myself right up as close as I could to that point. You enter the show with a familiar face in Metta World Peace. How did your relationship develop over participating in this show together? It was so much fun. Before going on, Metta had texted me. And we talked about the fact that he was going to do it. And he was like, “I’ll do it if you’re gonna do it.” I was like, “Alright, cool. We got this; we got this.” It’s funny because he and I did that supernatural show [Celebrity Exorcism] together and really connected. I really enjoyed that. And we had a lot of good laughs and a lot of great conversations. He’s my friend. So it was really fun to have a face out there that I knew. But man, the people I met out there now hold a very dear place in my heart, and I love them very much. So what was your reaction when he ended up choosing to ring the bell and leave? I wanted him to stay. I think we all did. I know Coach Mike and Ray really told him, “You’re gonna regret leaving.” But I think the thing was that his heart wasn’t completely there. And if your heart wasn’t completely there, and you weren’t absolutely committed, it only made it that much more miserable. Metta just really wanted to go home. And he has family who he loves so much. And we all do. But I think he just needed to go home. So we all respected that. But we wish he would have been out there with us for the rest of the incredibly wild ride. Let’s talk about the rest of your cast. Who ended up surprising or impressing you the most out of everyone there? To be honest, I didn’t know a ton about my castmates before going into it. I mean, I knew who they were. Some names sounded more familiar than others. But I tried to go into it with a completely open heart and mind and just experience everyone as they were out in the jungle. And I had moments with each and every person out there that truly changed me. Some of them were on-camera, and some were things that happened off-camera. If I could highlight one experience, it’s conversations that I had with P. That’s Paulina, but I call her P because that’s who she really is. On the outside, she’s this model person. But there’s the wacky, silly, funny, brilliant woman behind all that. And she and I became very close. We were bunkmates and spent a lot of time griping with each other in the middle of the night about how cold or wet or painful things were. Not having all of the comforts and all of your usual distractions really allows you to open up to people in a way that I don’t think we often do in normal life, certainly not these days with phones. I just gained so much respect for people who I didn’t maybe know their whole story. I didn’t know where they came from. We all just shared who we were. Every day, I had a moment with someone out there that changed me. And I am so grateful for that. There’s a moment during one of the adventures where you have to make a swim by yourself out into the lagoon. You end up panicking in the water before your team can get to you to help. Talk me through that experience, especially since you had to keep doing the challenge afterward. The water challenge was one of the only things out there that only one of us had to do. I mean, Craig had his canoe, but he knew how to canoe, and that was relatively simple. I am not a distance swimmer. And I also I am a bit clumsy and accident-prone. So I think that’s part of it. I just manage to go really hard and get in the way of myself, trip or fall or do something. But in that swim, we had just run over a mile through the jungle, and running through the jungle is not like running on a sidewalk. Just a few weeks prior, they came out there and cleared some of those trails with machetes. So we were running through places in the jungle that weren’t trails maybe a month earlier. So you’re jumping over logs and watching out for sticks that are going to fly in your eye and roots on the ground and all kinds of things. I’m really competitive; once I would start, I wouldn’t stop. And when I got into that swim, I was like, “Okay, this sucks, but I can do it.” But the buoy kept moving further and further and further. And I just kept going harder and harder until I was out there, and I let out that scream. I was mentally trying to swim, to get my body and my legs going, and it wouldn’t work. You’ve completely exhausted your body to the point of “Oh my god, I can’t actually do this. I can’t keep myself afloat.” It’s just a terrifying experience. Your body is wrecked, like absolutely wrecked. It was quite possibly the hardest physical thing I’ve ever had to do. And then there’s the mental challenge of overcoming that and being like, “I am not giving up. No matter how long it takes, no matter what I do, I will float on my back if I have to.” It changed me. I went, “No matter what the physical pain is, there’s a little bit less that I need to overcome.” We’ve seen you toy with the idea of leaving the game a couple of times so far. Were there any inciting incidents that led to those moments? It was a lot of things every day. We all went through stuff and said, “Oh my god, it’s just too much. I can’t do this. I’m done.” Everyone has those moments. You wonder, “What the hell am I doing? What if something happens to me like this is really dangerous? What if I hurt myself and have to go home, or something happens to me permanently?” I don’t know that it was ever one specific thing. But there were moments of being really homesick. Thinking, “I want my family. I want to be safe. I want not to be scared. I don’t want to step down out of my hut, and there’s going to be a snake there.” But also, you made such a commitment. For me, playing for Girls Inc, I was so determined to live up to the ideals of what that charity is about: Creating strong, determined, smart leaders in young women. That really kept me going a lot, along with my girls. I am out here to raise money and raise awareness about this. And so I have to show up and be that. That really kept me going for a lot. At the end of this last episode, you were in last place regarding money raised for your charity. The host Mauro Ranallo even said you might mathematically be out of the running to finish in one of those top two spots. How difficult is it to hear that, considering what you mentioned about how competitive you are? As you said, I am very competitive. And I was out there for something that I truly believe in. So part of me got really frustrated and wondered why. I love puzzles, but apparently, I suck at them under pressure! (Laughs.) And we were all out there just working so hard together. But there was never a point where I actually thought I would tap out. I just thought, “Okay, it’s an option. If I wanted to, I could ring the bell. I’m not going to, but good.” It was just such a powerful experience. I’m so proud of everything we did out there and the money we raised. There were so many good things that happened from it. I’m really grateful for it. Finally, can you tell us more about the charity you were raising money for, Girls Inc.? You can follow the nationwide chapter on social media @GirlsInc. There are also chapters in tons of cities around the country. They have been around for quite some time–since the early 1900s, I believe–and empower strong leadership in young women. They also work a lot with women in typically underfunded and underserved communities. So they are really helping to create confidence and leadership skills and powerful smart young women who believe in themselves, believe in their potential, and know that anything is possible. Next, read our interview with Beyond the Edge contestant Mike Singletary.
