‘Big Brother’ alum and Challenge star Paulie Calafiore is holding nothing back, as he talks about his time on ‘The Challenge’, why he and girlfriend Cara Maria continue to dominate, and addresses rumors that he wants squashed.
If there is one thing we can say about Paulie Calafiore, he’s a man that’s always ready to compete.
The Challenge vet talked with AfterBuzz TV’s Benny Adams about his time on the competition series, addressed rumors surrounding him, and discussed future projects he’s working on outside the show.
As many fans know, Paulie’s rise to fame did not start on The Challenge, but instead on Big Brother 18, where he competed against a number of houseguests for a chance to win a cash prize.
After Big Brother was over, his itch for reality TV had just begun; that’s when he received that special call to be on The Challenge, and the rest is history.
Paulie did not mess around on his rookie season, making big moves and taking out tough competitors. which earned him a spot in his first final.
His next 2 seasons he continued to dominate, even making it to another final in War Of The Worlds 2.
He says his strategy for doing so well is countless training, so his body can be ready for what The Challenge has to throw at him.
Not only did Paulie find success on the show, but he also found love with TheChallenge vet Cara Maria. Together, the two have proven to be a force to be reckoned with, coming into The Challenge with a game plan and ready to compete.
“Cara has her relationships, I’ve got my relationships, and when we go there together we’re like this is the game plan, we’re a team, let’s f**k some people up.” Said Califore. “When we go in there, we go in there as a unit, but a unit as a team. Let other people have that drama, we’re there for a mission, and the mission is to dominate on both ends, both make it to a final and f*****g win, and anything short of winning the entire thing is a failure to us.”
When it comes to why Paulie and Cara do so well versus some of the other cast mates, Paulie says they just don’t take the game as seriously.
“They want to go on vacation, they want to be on TV, and they don’t care about whether they make it to the end or not. Yes they say I deserve to win, I deserve to make a final, but what are you actually doing in the off-season when you get there to make a final? You’re going against people with the mentality of Cara and myself.” Said Paulie.
This past season of The Challenge Paulie was notably absent. Rumors began swirling on social media that the Big Brother alum failed his psych test, a test that everyone must pass in order to be on the show,
Paulie says that could not be further from the truth, and did not fail his psych test. He said certain cast members don’t want him on the show because he sends them home every season.
Back in May, Cara Maria addressed the rumors as to why Paulie was not on season 35 while on Instagram.
“Some cast members decided if you can’t beat him let’s ban him, so the cast members gathered together. Paulie was doing lip syncing videos to papa roach hyping himself up. These cast members would take these videos and say we don’t feel safe in a challenge house with Paulie.” Said Cara Maria.
Paulie also clarified that he is not in bad standing with Bunim-Murray Productions or Viacom, and is not banned from The Challenge.
Another rumor Calafiore wanted to address was a cameo video posted by fellow cast mate Zach Nicholas. In the video Zach said while filming a season of The Challenge, he held a knife to Paulie because he was getting too cocky.
According to Paulie what actually happened was less severe. He said Zach was expressing how frustrated he was while holding a knife, and Paulie simply told Zach to put the knife down.
Outside The Challenge Paulie is a busy man. Along with many other projects, he just announced that he will be in an upcoming film with fellow castmate Rogan O’ Connor called Divine Tragedy. Both he and Cara Maria are also producing and starring in an upcoming thriller film called Peek-A-Boo.
When it comes to TV, Paulie has been keeping up with the latest season of Big Brother. His younger brother, Cody Calafiore, is competing once again for the half million dollar cash prize, and Paulie is rooting for him to take it home.
It is not known whether Paulie will be on season 36 of The Challenge. MTV has not yet released the official cast of who will be participating, but Paulie says whenever he does come back, he’ll be ready to compete.
