Fans who still have burning questions after watching Netflix’s Battle Camp are in luck – Morgan Simianer is answering it all.
During a recent interview with Us Weekly, the Cheer alum, 27, exclusively opened up about filming the reality competition show — which featured stars from various Netflix shows of past and present living in a camp-like setting and competing for a $250,000 prize — and cleared up speculation about what was really going on behind the scenes. The first rumor at hand? Morgan had drama with Georgia Hassarati, who appeared on Too Hot to Handle season 3 and Perfect Match season 1.
“Nothing happened between Georgia and I. People keep commenting on our social media about it and stuff, which I think is funny. There was no beef between us,” Morgan told Us.
Some viewers were convinced that Georgia celebrated a little too much when Morgan was eliminated.
“We ended up voting for each other on my elimination night. But, at that point, we’re thinking it’s gonna become individual [and if we are] doing the exact same challenges, we are each other’s biggest competition,” Morgan explained. “So it seemed like we were trying to go for each other. But at the same time, we aren’t in any bad space, like, love her, she’s a sweetheart. We got along. Also the way that filming works is you are standing up there forever doing the exits and everything. … You’re processing and you’re zoned out. [But] I think it was the fact that it wasn’t her or Lorenzo [Nobilio] that was going home, no one on their team and that we didn’t have many players on our team left.”
While eliminations on Battle Camp were ultimately determined by a spin of a wheel, the amount of times your name appeared on the wheel was based on performance in challenges and voting by your castmates. Speaking of the wheel, some fans online were convinced that the cast could read the names before the dramatic reveal — something else Morgan debunked.
“You couldn’t see anything,” she said, adding that production kept the cast away from the wheel while it was being set up. “You’re standing out there, freezing, trying to figure out all these different things [about the names on the wheel]. … It was a very long process.”
Going into filming Battle Camp, Morgan and her costars weren’t aware of the wheel twist — or really any rules of the show.
“I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I, obviously, knew it was somewhat of a competition show, and that’s basically all that was explained,” she said. “I was watching Survivor and Netflix shows like The Mole and catching myself up on what challenges they were doing, so I could be more prepared. And then we get to Battle Camp, and it’s completely different. It’s 10 times harder.”
Morgan also didn’t have an ally as the only other Cheer star on the show, Gabi Butler, was eliminated before her arrival. “It would have been interesting if we would have been on together,” she said. “What made it so hard is everyone else in there had someone from their shows, Gio [Helou] and Polly [Brindle] from [Selling the OC] had each other, and then everyone that had been on The Circle, everyone knew each other. … It made it harder to make those connections.”
While some of the cast struggled with physical competitions, Morgan’s weakness was a punishment related to food, which included eating different types of bugs and a tarantula. “I am very picky. I eat kids menu items — grilled cheese, chips and basically anything with cheese, pizza, butter noodles,” she said. “I was literally on the side, saying, ‘If I bent over right now, I could literally throw up, but I don’t want to throw up.’ Every time I throw up, I cry. … Then they pulled the tarantula, and I was like, ‘No, no, I’ve got to go.’”
While the rules of the show were new to Morgan, she had been followed by Netflix cameras for two separate cheer seasons at Narravo college for the docuseries Cheer.
“It is still not fully processed in my brain, the thought of me being on Netflix and filming a docuseries, and all the crazy experiences that I’ve had,” Morgan said, adding that she was, at first, “very hesitant” to open up about her rough upbringing on the show. “I was so scared to tell my story, but I’m so thankful that I did because you don’t want anyone to feel alone in situations, and people just don’t talk about the hard things. If you think about social media, you post highlight reels of your life. You don’t post the hard things or the things that are difficult to talk about.. So just being able to be vulnerable and put it out there, I feel like it helped a lot of people.”
Fans also watched Morgan cheer with a broken rib and navigate several other injuries — so would she let her and husband Stone Burleson’s future children hit the mat?
“Cheer is getting more advanced by the day. I’m not kidding. Some of these kids that are 10 years old, are out doing all the skills that I did that were the highest goals you could do at the time,” she said, “The sport is always changing. Skills are getting harder and it’s insane. But, I mean, if my kids want to cheer, I will 1,000 percent let them. I’m gonna introduce them to every single sport, whether that’s hockey, basketball, track, cross country, gymnastics — literally any sport that my kids want to do. I’ll put them in whatever and let them do whatever they love and whatever they’re passionate about. … You don’t have to cheer because your mom cheered, but if they want to, yes.”
Battle Camp is streaming now on Netflix.
