Paramount+
"I did not come all the way here to do the Squid Games. I wanted to party," exclaims Vanessa "Vanjie" Mateo.
There were quite a few surprises awaiting the cast of "All Star Shore" when they touched down in the Canary Islands to film the new Paramount+ reality show.
The new competition series pits stars from "Jersey Shore," "RuPaul's Drag Race," "Love Island," "Geordie Shore," "Love Is Blind," "Bachelor In Paradise," "Acapulco Shore" and "Rio Shore" against each other as they battle it out "for a cash prize and global bragging rights."
Ahead of next week's premiere, TooFab caught up with Angelina Pivarnick, Blake Horstmann, Vanessa "Vanjie" Mateo, Giannina Gibelli and Trina Njoroge -- who spilled on the hot hookups, late night parties and early wakeup calls that greeted them when they arrived.
In the season premiere, Vanjie exclaims that "it's gonna get horny in here" on the very first night ... and it sure sounds like she was right.
"Listen, if you put a bird in a cage, after a few days, the bird is going to learn how to talk," Mateo told TooFab. "You put all these fine people in a house on this tropical island all the way by Africa, you know people are gonna be starting the meow and the cats will start clawing."
"You're [already] horny, but then when the drinks kick in too, it's like, well f--- it," she added.
"I knew that s--- was gonna happen," said Pivarnick. "When the drinks were flowing, especially in that house, all of us together, it was a party. That's all I'm saying."
GG said she was "so surprised" by the hookups, adding that, "I didn't know there was going to be that much horniness." She's now dating Horstmann IRL following the show and said that going into it after being in lockdown definitely played into the on-camera PDA.
"It was like, wow, I can actually talk and touch these people ... and touch a little too much I think," she joked. "Definitely got out of the bubble!"
Horstmann, meanwhile, said that the competition aspect of the show was also a major factor.
"The adrenaline rush and you're in a good mood when you win, that also plays in," he said. "Then you mix the tequila in. The environment was really interesting and primed for a lot of relationships and hookups and things like that."
And speaking of those challenges, they were a lot harder than the cast expected.
"The challenges sucked," said Pivarnick. "I s--- my pants every time. Every time I had to go on that beach I was literally shaking, what's going to be next, you know?"
She and Trina said they really took their time getting ready, to delay filming the competitions as much as possible. "It was terrible!" exclaimed Njoroge. Horstmann, however, praised Angelina for going "balls to the wall" during the comps, despite not really wanting to participate in them.
"I was like, I did not come all the way here to do the Squid Games. I wanted to party. I was a little taken aback by that too," said Vanjie. "I was like, what are we about to be doing? No, we've been drinking until 4:00 in the morning! Why are you waking me up?!"
"We had to wake up at 7AM, that was our call time. We would go to bed at 4:00 in the morning and be up at 7. It was not easy," added Angelina -- while Trina said they would all ask for mimosas every morning "to get rid of the hangover."
"The only way to do this when you're drinking that much and doing these challenges, you had to keep drinking," said Pivarnick. Added Trina: "I think I was drunk throughout the show!"
See them throw back those drinks, compete and get a little frisky when "All Star Shore" premieres June 29 on Paramount+.
