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Amazing Race All-Stars Media/Library/News * maybe spoilers*

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michael:
 :rotf: LOL I don't care, as long as they are happy with those people, cleary I'm better, I'm younger and have more life in me!

puddin:
 :yess: :jumpy: WTG Eric!!


“For the People That Don't Like Us, I'm Glad We Ruined Your Season” – An Interview with The Amazing Race: All-Stars’ Winners, Eric & Danielle
by Teeuwynn Woodruff -- 05/08/2007

 
Eric & Danielle were the only team on All-Stars who never actually raced together before – yet they won it all! What do Eric & Danielle say about what it was like to race together? Are they still a couple? How do they feel about racing with each other instead of their original partners? And what does Eric have to say about all those nasty things he said about some of his fellow racers?

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Eric & Danielle, and thank you for talking to RealityNewsOnline today!

Eric & Danielle: Hello!

Eric: Thank you for talking to us.

RNO: First of all, congratulations on your big win!

Danielle: Thank you!

RNO: Did you guys expect to win?

Eric: No!

Danielle: No. Definitely not. The only time I think we had any inkling that we were going to win was just probably the last leg, when we were in San Francisco, we had a chance. Any other leg before that, we kept getting shot down. There was no way we thought we were even going to make it to the final three.

Eric: Going into the race, I really felt like we had a good chance against the other teams. I felt like we had a good shot. And then, after we started racing, we did pretty well the first couple of legs. But, after we got yanked off the plane [in South Africa], it was downhill and it was just survival.

RNO: But you made it through! What are your plans for the money?

Eric: Danielle's going to give me her share because she loves me so much.

Danielle: Yeah. I love him so much.

RNO: That sounds like a pretty good deal for you, Eric.

Eric: No. Danielle's just going to invest. Go ahead, you can talk.

Danielle: Yeah, I'm going to invest my money. I'll of course spend a little on myself, but I'm not going to go crazy with it. I definitely want to set it up for myself, for later on, when I want to buy a house. I want to do things the right way.

Eric: I'm going to pay my taxes.

RNO: Richard Hatch would be proud.

Eric: Exactly. I'm going to take it right out and put it in the bank and get some interest on it while waiting for tax time. I'm going to buy a house in South Florida and take care of some family. Just enjoy life and save some money up so I can be a little more sound. I don't want to blow through it. I want to, you know, just keep it as I need it.

RNO: Speaking of love, what is the status of your relationship these days?

Eric: Speaking of love...

Danielle: Nonexistent! We're not together any more.

Eric: We are no longer dating. Still cool, though. We still talk. Everything's fine, it's just we felt like we were going down anyways, before we started racing. The race just pushed it along a little quicker. It was a long-distance relationship. She's in New York, I'm in Florida. Neither of us was going to move. I lived in New York part of the Summer and I didn't really like it.

RNO: You felt that running the race helped you come to that decision?

Eric: Yeah, I did. I mean... we were trying to see what we wanted to do. We wanted to look into it and on the race we got along pretty well, but there was a lot of stuff that both of us didn't like about each other. That just kind of helped speed it up a bit. It's better this way.

RNO: Do you think your relationship was fairly portrayed on screen?

Danielle: No, definitely not. They show a lot of bickering and fighting and crying and mad faces. That's really not even us. It kind of sucks because we actually do joke around a lot and laugh a lot. So the fact that they didn't show any of that is annoying because now everyone thinks we're this horrible, bickering couple. Everyone thinks Eric's a jerk. I have to explain that he's not. Everybody at my job, everyone says, “Oh, that guy's a jerk!” But he's really not. He really isn't. I'm not as big of a baby as they made me look either.

Eric: No, you're only --

Danielle: And I'm not as annoying as they made me look either. I'm really not. I mean we had a few bickering fights that were stupid and that was it.

Eric: We actually got along pretty well. We had a lot of fun when we were doing stuff – stressful times. We were also in a very stressful situation, being behind everybody.

Danielle: We're both very competitive. We're not there to fool around and to not win this. We didn't want to go to sequester, we wanted to finish it. The fact that we just kept getting pushed down was making us angry. Who do you take it out on? Of course, your teammate because, like when you're married, you take it out on your wife or your husband. It's just natural. That's what we did. We took our frustrations out on each other.

RNO: You're the only All-Stars team that wasn't a team on a prior race. How did you guys come to be on All-Stars?

Eric: What happened was, we actually started dating after the show, and then on a trip to California we saw some production people and inquired about The Amazing Race and if they'd use us as a couple. They said they didn't know if we're having anything happening with All-Stars. We forgot about it, actually. Then they called us a couple of months later and they said they were doing All-Stars and wanted us as a team. I don't know if we planted the seed or not, but it was kind of the right time for everything to be happening.

RNO: That must have been exciting. Were you surprised?

Eric: Yeah, we were really surprised. We actually even discussed if we wanted to do it. That sounds, I guess, probably weird to the fans, but most of the racers... It's so much to do. It's a huge sacrifice you make. You can't talk to anyone for a month. It's extremely stressful. It's a lot of fun, but there's a lot to it you don't see. You see the exciting stuff on TV, the climbing and jumping off and all the cool places you go. But you don't see the 18-hour flights and all the fighting, day-long stays at airports...

RNO: It looks like it's a very grinding, tiring experience.

Eric: I think this one, if you ask all the racers, this was probably more stressful than their first.

RNO: What made it more stressful?

Eric: The travel aspect. The shortage of flights... My first race, even if you missed the first flight, you'd get on the second flight. On this race, you'd miss the first flight, the second flight, the third flight, and catch the fourth flight. You're so spread out and you might not even catch the fourth flight!

Danielle: Like us – when we caught the fourth we were yanked off of it!

RNO: You were stuck in the airport [in Africa] for days.

Eric: The better part of our trip was spent in airports.

Danielle: I hate airports now.

Eric: I'm sticking to Greyhound.

RNO: How did you prepare for All-Stars?

Eric: Well, we didn't really have a strategy. I told Danielle to learn how to drive a stick shift and learn how to read a map and get on a treadmill. Guess which one of those she did? None.

RNO: Is that true, Danielle?

Danielle: No, I did work out, I work out all the time anyway.

Eric: Did you run on a treadmill all the time?

Danielle: No, I did not run. I'm not a runner.

Eric: Danielle worked out making her body look good, but not on any cardio. Danielle got her hair done, got a manicure – which is really necessary while on the race, nice fingernails. It really helps when you're climbing rock walls and picking up flounder, having your nails looking their best.

I mean, as far as just for me, I already knew what to do because I had done it once and gotten far. I didn't have to do any studying. I mean, I looked at flags...

RNO: After your previous experience losing to the Hippies?

Eric: I tried to find out things about certain countries, look at capitols of countries, and things that it may help to know. I'm already active and work out a lot. I play a lot of volleyball, so my cardio's good. Nothing else.

RNO: Danielle, what was most different about running this race with Eric, instead of your original partner, Dani?

Danielle: Probably the main difference is that he treated me like he was a drill sergeant or something. He was like, out-of-control nuts. Dani just, you know, laughed the whole race, which is probably why we got out the fifth episode and won this one.

Eric laughs.

Danielle: It was just a lot more difficult and I did a lot more bickering with him. It was just a lot less stressful last year. That was the main difference. I mean, me and Danielle didn't take it seriously at all. I realize that now after this season where I made it to the end, all the things you have to do to book flights and stuff. Me and Danielle didn't do half of that. So, it's amazing how we made it to the fifth episode. I don't even know who was in charge of those things, because I don't feel like either one of us was in charge of anything in those airports. I see what everyone does now and it's, like, amazing to me.

RNO: What's Dani doing now?

Danielle: She's engaged, actually. She's working in the city, like a nine-to-five job.

RNO: When you were on the plane from Tokyo to Hawaii, where did you think Charla & Mirna were when they didn't show up for the flight?

Eric: We had no idea!

Danielle: And we still don't.

Eric: I know they found something somehow, but they get the most amazing breaks with flights, and they're really smart. I don't know if they researched something I can't find, or if they have a travel agent on hold...

Danielle: We looked on the internet --

Eric: Yeah, we looked on the internet. We looked at the same internet, looked at the same stuff as everybody, talked to everybody. Nobody told us about that flight. I guess they just got lucky and looked at one of the boards and it showed that there was a flight coming in.

RNO: How did you manage to do so much better than the other teams on the final challenge at the mint? You were the only ones to complete it.

Eric: Danielle talks a lot.

Danielle: I talk a lot and I gossip a lot. All of those questions just came very easily to us. I would have gotten it on the first try if I was thinking more toward the end of the race. I was thinking of the beginning of the race, so I went through the list, because our first enemies who we thought were untrustworthy, were the Guidos. So, I was thinking Guidos right away. Then I thought about the girls – we can't trust the girls. And then I thought, “I know who he doesn't like now – it's Danny & Ozzy,” because of Yielding us. That's how I was thinking. If I was thinking just right that minute, I would have gotten it on the first try.

RNO: So it sounds like you’re saying that Danielle's propensity for talking about people is actually what got you guys the million dollars at the end.

Danielle: Yep! It is!

RNO: Eric, do you really feel other teams are being wrong or immoral by Yielding you?

Eric: No, not at all. I'm glad you asked. I actually wasn't upset with the Blondes doing the Yield. It's part of the game. I joke around and call them names, but that's not serious. That's more just being silly. I don't know why they Yielded us because I didn't think there was that big a reason to, but you never know what's going through someone else's head. As far as Danny & Oswald, the reason I was so upset was because they made a pact with us, off camera, and Charla & Mirna, that we would not Yield each other. It was their idea and we shook hands on it. We valued them as friends up until that point. We got along with them really well. As much as you can have a friend on the race, we felt they were our friends.

RNO: So, what did you feel when you saw on TV that Dustin & Kandice asked them to Yield you?

Eric: I still fault Danny & Oswald because it was their choice. They sold their Yield. It was their choice to sell it. They could have... if I was them, I don't know, even though it's just as sneaky, I would have taken Dustin & Kandice's money and Yielded them anyway. They could have – Charla & Mirna asked if they wanted money and they would have given it to them. They could have said, “Okay, blondes, the deal's off.” They could have begged for money – which you can do. It is allowed. It's not the most fun thing to do, but I'd much rather beg than break my word to one of my friends. To sell my friendship for $45... I'd rather beg.

RNO: Have you forgiven them?

Eric: You know what, I thought I had. I talked to them and I said, “You know what? I want to understand. Listen, I don't want to be mad at you guys about this whatever.” Then, I thought everything was cool, but then in interviews they're still talking a lot of trash about us – me personally. I just think it shows a lot about their character. I think they're very bitter.

They think that we did something wrong to them, when I feel like they did something wrong to us. If they wanted to apologize, they should have done so. I don't like the way they've acted since. I think it's just – they talk about how they want to make sure they keep their moral fiber intact and not do this or that, but I think they just, you know, are hypocrites who went against everything they said.

RNO: What was different about having Danielle as a partner instead of Jeremy?

Eric: Honestly, it was completely different. I mean, doing the race with one of your best friends is so stress-free. Especially when he's competitive like I am, and a good athlete. Jeremy and I had a great time. It was just fun. With the race now, I had to deal with, you know, girl problems and, you know, sensitivity issues. If I yelled at Jeremy to pick up a fish, he wouldn't cry and be mad at me. It's just a different dynamic. She did a great job. I have to watch what I say to her, be careful about her feelings, you know. It's having a relationship for everyone to see, but you have to really monitor what you do.

RNO: And What was with Jeremy in that phone call at the end of the race?

Eric: Jeremy – he's nuts. I don't even know what he was doing. I saw that and... First of all, he just woke up from a nap. He's wearing this amazing “Life is Fun” tee shirt he got at Goodwill. He just confuses me. I'm not sure what he was doing, but I have to actually watch the show again because I couldn't hear everything he was saying. I don't even remember exactly what he said. Jeremy – that's just how he is and we all have fun. I'm not sure what exactly he was doing.

RNO: So, Eric, who's a better race partner – Danielle or Jeremy?

Eric: Um....

Danielle: He's afraid to answer!

Eric: I'm sorry Danielle, but Jeremy's the best partner. Even though we won!

Danielle: We've had arguments about that comment.

Eric: Even though we won, I would have rather done the race with Jeremy.

RNO: Danielle, if you ran the race again, would you rather run it with Eric or Dani?

Danielle: I don't want to race it with anyone. I never want to do it again!

RNO: Eric, do you feel like you gave Danielle too hard a time?

Eric: I look back and I see some things I said that were maybe a little harsh, but at the same time, we were competing. She needed to be pushed. I don't think I was trying to be mean to her, but I know – and Danielle will tell you too – that we wouldn't be here, we wouldn't have won, if I didn't push her. She's a girl. She's a girly-girl. She's looking at her nails right now! I'm not even kidding, she's playing with her manicure. It is what it is and she needed to be pushed. I knew what it takes to win The Amazing Race because I got so close. Obviously, I did something right because I got second the first time and first the next. Obviously, I can't be that crazy.

RNO: Danielle, do you agree with what Eric said?

Danielle: I definitely need to be pushed a little bit. There are just ways of going about it. He knows. I already told him on the race... The only reason he got me so angry was because I knew that he was going to watch it and be mad at himself for not enjoying it more. I know Eric, how his personality really is, like so intense about it that he wasn't even enjoying himself. So, he was taking a lot of his intensity out on me. It was just – he was ruining my fun of the race. That’s all that came out at the end of the day, that I was angry about. He even admitted it himself, watching it, that he wishes I would have enjoyed it a little bit more. It's okay that he pushed me, whatever. But there's a way of going about things and he had no... class, when it came to pushing me a certain way.

Eric: What? Are you rambling now?

Danielle: I'm falling asleep! I sound like you! You speak in a monotone voice, you know that?

RNO: What was the hardest moment on the race for you guys?

Eric: Probably getting yanked off the airplane.

Danielle: Yeah. That was probably the worst.

Eric: I mean, I was begging people, I was trying to offer them money. I was like – $50, $100! And this is, you know, in Africa. I mean everyone flying on planes aren't generally poor, but $100 U.S. in South Africa is a pretty decent amount of money.

RNO: Did you think that might be the end of the race for you, when you got taken off of the plane?

Eric: Yeah, we really did.

Danielle: We really did think that.

Eric: And there was actually an old guy, when I was trying to see if anyone would take the money, who was just like, “get off the plane!” I really wanted to just grab him and choke him to death. We only needed one person to get off of the plane. I was hoping that he would have a heart attack. But he didn't.

RNO: Eric, I've heard you've called some other teams up and apologized to them, in advance, for various things you said about them on the race. Is that true:

Eric: I talked to Joe & Bill. I apologized in advance, but after I heard some of the stuff – I wanted just to make sure that... I called them Queens, but I wanted them to know that I wasn't being derogatory toward them based on their sexuality. What I said was based on their personalities and interactions with me, not on anything else.

I guess the only person I really felt bad about was Ian. I said he was loud. I have nothing but respect for Teri & Ian. They're class act people all the way. I really felt bad because you just talk sometimes and you forget that cameras are there. I was just feeling that Ian was loud – which he was being that day – but I didn't want people to think that's what I felt about him. When it comes down to it, it's a race. It's not really indicative of everyone's personalities. I didn't want people to think that's how I felt about them.

Some people hold grudges. Like Joe & Bill still hold a grudge, I think. Danny & Oswald hold a grudge against me. If they choose to, that's fine. But if somebody calls me an a-hole, you know what? If I was being one, then I was. I can take it. Call me whatever you want, I'm not going to hate you for it. It is what it is. I wanted to make sure that people know that, even though I may have said something, it's not necessarily what I think now.

RNO: Do you stay in touch with any teams from either your first season or All-Stars?

Eric: Yes, actually. I talk to Uchenna & Joyce a lot. I talk to Kandice. So does Danielle. We talk on the internet to a lot of people. Teri & Ian live pretty close to me and I'm going to go fishing with them. From my last season, I'm going to Joseph & Monica's wedding in the end of July. I talk to BJ & Tyler. I've talked to Dave & Lori in Kansas. We talk to a lot of teams – most of them.

RNO: Anything else you'd like to tell us about your experiences on The Amazing Race?

Danielle: It was grueling and hard, but I'm glad I did it – and even more happy that I won. It's definitely a lot worse and a lot harder than people think it is because they only see a little bit of it. It's a really, really hard thing to do.

Eric: I just want to say that, for our fans, we really appreciate the people who like us and don't talk trash. And for the people that don't like us, really I'm glad we ruined your season. You want to say bad things, nothing makes me happier than ruining the haters' season.

RNO: Well, thank you for talking to me. You two ran a really good race.

Eric & Danielle: Thank you.

RNO

michael:
LMAO, honestly I love danielle after her "they're gay and they act like women" comment. I mean, I know what she means by that and I found it hilarious. I'm glad that's the attitude Eric chose to have. I read that interview (and posted the link above ^^^ ) and kept laughing at the sense of humour these two have.

Like he said: he seems to get along fine with the BQs, him and Danielle even keep in touch with Kandice, but D/O (still love them) are just bitter towards them for the whole thing IMO.

puddin:
Oh sorry about that Michael  :lol:, I should have known better.

michael:
It's ok puddin, you're gay and act like a woman.  :happy:
i joke i joke

I love Danielle. I hope Eric was talking about the retards who sent him messages to his myspace.

it's boiling in toronto today i'm not going to be able to sleep (:;)

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