Exclusive: 'The Amazing Race' team Ernest Phillip and Jin Lao talk (Part 2)
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 10/16/2015
The Amazing Race eliminated Ernest Phillip and Jin Lao during Friday night's broadcast of the CBS reality competition's 27th season.
The "Breakdancing Brothers" became the third team eliminated from the around-the-world competition after they arrived at the Race's third Pit Stop at the Museo Gauchesco in Argentina in last place.
Ernest and Jin started the third leg way behind the rest of the pack, but they really lost their chance of continuing on in the Race thanks to some bad luck and a bus schedule.
In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Monday, Ernest and Jin talked about their The Amazing Race experience. Below is the concluding portion.
Reality TV World: Tanner Kloven and Josh Ahern obviously viewed Justin Scheman and Diana Bishop as annoying but also as a big threat. Would you have been game to U-Turn them as well? Josh and Tanner are going to give their Express Pass to whichever team completes the job. What are your thoughts on Justin and Diana?
Ernest Phillip: I'm going to let my brother Jin talk about that first, because I'm pretty sure we both have different opinions on that. So, go ahead my swag brother. You talk first.
Jin Lao: So, we didn't get a chance to actually -- what do you call it? "Not like" the Green Team. A lot of the other teams out there don't like the Green Team, but yeah, we haven't really encountered a situation where we just happened to dislike them.
So I would say if Tanner and Josh did come up to us and try to ask us or come up with some gameplan to U-Turn them, we probably wouldn't have, you know, worked with them, (laughs) unless it would come to our advantage. I'm pretty sure they weren't going to give us the Express Pass though.
Reality TV World: Oh really? So you don't think Josh and Tanner would've honored that deal?
Jin Lao: No, I don't think they would give it to us. Because I feel like there are, I don't know, easier teams -- basically not such a strong team.
Ernest Phillip: I actually agree with my brother. We never really got a chance to talk to the Green Team or hang with them because they were so far ahead. I, myself, honestly feel like if Tanner and Josh did come over and say, "Hey what's up guys? Let's do this."
I agree with my brother again. We would not have agreed. We'd probably bet against them at that point. Me, myself, I don't know why, but I felt that our biggest threat was Texas [Josh and Tanner], and I wanted a footrace with them so bad! I don't know why. I just wanted, like, this one big footrace to one of the Pit Stops with them. But that never happened.
But [Justin and Diana] I actually wanted to align with and get to know more. Just off that first leg, just watching them, I was like, "Okay, they're here and they're not playing games." It made me want to work with them more, so I wish that we would've gotten that chance. But again, they were too far ahead for us to even talk to.
Reality TV World: Were you aware of Tanner's injury though? You'd think that would make you view them less as a threat.
Ernest Phillip: I don't remember us being aware or even hearing about it. I think, again, they were probably a little farther than us too. Right, bro? I don't remember hearing about it until I saw it on the show.
Jin Lao: We noticed, I'd say, that Tanner pulled his hamstring after the second Pit Stop. Remember, he was limping? After we finished? We kind of knew something was wrong right there with his leg.
Reality TV World: Your team's storyline this season was about your financial struggles at home and how winning the money would mean everything to you because then you could get yourselves off the ground. What's your plan now? Has that situation improved at all for the both of you since filming the show?
Jin Lao: I can't necessarily say anything improved, because we didn't get any, like, special jobs or anything off of it. We're still hustling trying to, you know, make money. We're working at any job that's hiring -- just a couple of dollars here or there. So, Ernest, would you agree?
Ernest Phillip: Yeah, I mean, now with the show being over, it's not that we're going -- for us, it's not like we're going to give up now and not keep pushing. We're going to continue to keep pushing. Like my brother said, we're going to continue to look for jobs and try to make some money.
I, myself, again, I just love the whole competition thing and being able to be challenged. That's another reason why we were on the Race. We're not just going to get handed a million dollars. We had to be challenged. We had to pass certain tests. So, right now, I'm going to try to just get back out there and keep finding things that are going to challenge me.
Reality TV World: You only got to race a few legs, but based on that experience, is there anything you could do to better prepare if you were to ever race again? Did you learn anything that would be helpful for future Racers as well?
Jin Lao: Yeah, learn how to catch a bus! (Laughs)
Ernest Phillip: I would say that something helpful, again, learning different languages would definitely be helpful, and I don't know. Me and my brother probably have different opinions on this, but I still -- like when it came to this race -- the only challenge I feel like we were facing was the language barrier at times. When it came down to this bus thing, we had no control over that.
That was the rule, you know, to get on the bus. If that wasn't the rule, I'm pretty sure because me and my brother hustled and we grind and nothing stops us, we would've found another way to get to where we had to go, and it would've been a different outcome.
Reality TV World: Were you two big fans of the show before being cast, and if so, how did competing on The Amazing Race differ from your expectations going into it? Did anything surprise you?
Ernest Phillip: I have been watching The Amazing Race. I don't remember everything from every season, but I have watched all 27 seasons. It's something I have always looked at and said, "Oh, that looks easy. If I were there, I would do this. If I were there, I would say this."
So it was finally time for me to have a chance to be on the show, and I was like, "You know what? I'm going to audition." So I hit my brother up and I was like, "We're going to be on The Amazing Race."
And he's like, "Yeah, okay. You're talking about that crazy show you're always watching? We're not going to be on that." And then when it finally came down to it, we got a phone call about the Race and he flipped his top.
So we started training together and it definitely was different from watching it, you know? I realize now I'm not going to talk trash, like, "Oh, I can do this. I can do that." Because when I got to the show, I realized it was definitely not as easy as it looked on TV.
Jin Lao: Everybody watching from home, like, you only see a little of running. We were literally running miles and miles. I don't know. It was crazy.
Reality TV World: Was this your first time applying for the show since, Ernest, you've been such a big fan for a long time?
Ernest Phillip: That was our first time applying for the show, and luckily, our first time, we ended up making it.
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