‘Naked and Afraid’: Behind-the-Scenes Secrets Cast Members Have Revealed About the Show
Naked and Afraid isn’t quite like any other reality show. The Discovery Channel series drops two strangers in a remote location and then challenges them to survive for 21 days – without clothes, water, or food. Each person also gets to bring one survival item. But beyond that, they’re on their own (though a camera crew is close at hand to document their experience).
The show’s participants literally bare all. But audiences don’t see everything that happens. From what it’s like to strip down for the first time to the truth about how involved the show’s producers are in shaping storylines, here are some secrets Naked and Afraid cast members have revealed about being on the show.
‘Naked and Afraid’ cast members don’t get a lot of details about the filming location
Naked and Afraid participants have been challenged to survive in virtually every environment on earth, from bug-infested jungles to brutally hot deserts. Each location has its own challenges and risks, but contestants don’t get a lot of time to study up on where they’ll be going before production begins.
“You’re very much left in the dark,” Naked and Afraid vet Anthony Coppage told Mountain XPress. Producers didn’t tell him he’d be going to South Africa, where he filmed his season 15 episode, until about a week before departure.
“A lot of people feel like they can study up for something like this [show], and you really can’t,” he added. However, participants don’t go in totally blind. Coppage said he received a briefing prior to filming that included information on poisonous plants, so they knew what was not safe to eat. In an essay for Outside, Blair Braverman also revealed that she’d received a private, hour-long lecture from a naturalist on the local environment, which included advice on avoiding venomous snakes and scorpions.
Getting naked is awkward
Everyone who signs up for Naked and Afraid knows they’ll eventually have to strip down to their birthday suit in front of a bunch of people they’ve just met. But that doesn’t make the moment any less awkward for some. Though the show blurs cast members’ genitals and breasts, it can be intimidating to know that TV viewers will be able to “see the stuff that you try to hide under your clothes,” Stacey Osorio told People.
“I know this sounds ridiculous, but I’m a pretty shy person,” Alyssa Ballestero added. “I don’t just take off my clothes for any reason. It was awkward, and the crew was like, “Oh, don’t worry. We’ve seen it all before.’ and I’m thinking, ‘Yeah, but you haven’t seen me before!'”
The men want to know if they ‘measure up’
Traditional Naked and Afraid episodes feature a male and female survivalist. But the various N&A spinoffs, such as Naked and Afraid: XL often involve larger groups of multiple men and women. Guys who’ve participated in those shows confess that once the clothes came off, they couldn’t help but compare a certain part of their anatomy to that of the other male cast members.
“I like to think that I’ve been blessed in that aspect,” Steven Lee Hall Jr. told People. “But of course, you check each other out when you meet. That’s just natural, to see where you measure up.”
Once filming begins, some men try to cover up more than others.
“I was always very amused because the guys who were a little bit more shy would take their burlap sack and move it to the front in the loincloth position, and then there were guys like me who slung it around our shoulders like a cape,” Jake Nodar said.
Hookups don’t happen
Given that everyone is strolling around without clothes, viewers might wonder if Naked and Afraid cast members ever give into their urges and hook up off-camera. But past participants say that doesn’t happen. Everyone is too tired, hungry, and dirty to think about sex, Hall said.
“Yeah, that’s not what this is all about,” Nodar told People. “Naked and Afraid hasn’t helped my dating life at all!”
“Within the Naked and Afraid survivalist group, there are rumors about it. I can’t confirm or deny that it does or it doesn’t happen…. In my experience, it didn’t,” Naked and Afraid XL cast member Tawny Lynn told Marie Claire.
Participants receive prescription meds and feminine hygiene products
Naked and Afraid is all about surviving without the comforts of modern life. But some participants do get access to prescription medications, according to Reality Blurred. Honora Bowen, who first appeared on the show in 2015, has said that her partner, Matt Strutzel was taking Adderall. In a blog post, Bowen also said that she was given an anti-malaria drug during filming and that doctors prescribed her an antibiotic when she got a bladder infection.
Producers also provide women who get their period with feminine hygiene products.
“Everyone wants to know what we do when we’re on our period! The show does allow us to have tampons,” Osorio said. “It’s not only a sanitary hazard, but it’s a safety hazard because you don’t want to attract predators.”
Producers manipulate footage, one cast member claimed
How real is Naked and Afraid? Pretty real, according to Braverman, who gave a candid account of her her experience on the show in an essay for Outside. Aside from the first day, when she was required to “follow the script” as she met her partner and located a water source, producers didn’t intervene during her challenge in South Africa.
However, one Naked and Afraid cast member has claimed that what viewers saw on TV wasn’t a true reflection of her experience. In a lengthy blog post, Bowen – one of the most controversial participants in the show’s history – compared doing Naked and Afraid to a “Nazi experiment.” She also accused producers of “creating a fake storyline based around drama” and depicting events out of order or in a way that downplayed her skills.
“Discovery is evil … They push people past their breaking points and then gaslight everyone and manipulate footage to suit their narratives. It is evil,” she wrote.
Source: Reality Blurred.
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