Yes, Chloe Veitch Cuts Pizza With Scissors. She Also Has Answers To Your Burning The Circle Questions
Chloe Veitch has mastered Instagram. The 22-year-old’s high-level thirst trappery is what scored her a ticket to Mexico for last year’s surprisingly emotional Netflix romp Too Hot To Handle (and rocketed her to 1.4 million followers). Fast-forward to this week, and Veitch is now showing off her talents with The Circle, the “app” at the centre of Netflix’s social experiment/reality show of the same name, which returned for its second season on Wednesday, April 14. Yet, there is one social media challenge Veitch isn’t too keen to tackle.
“You know what? I don’t go on Twitter. I don’t use Twitter,” Veitch told Refinery29 over the phone the morning after The Circle’s premiere. “I think it’s because I know the loads of hate that come from Twitter.”
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When it comes to Veitch, however, the oft-gloomy app is usually in a joking mood. “*Chloe has entered The Circle,*” wrote one person this week, adding the meme of Leonardo DiCaprio frantically pointing as his Once Upon a Time in Hollywood character Rick Dalton. “Hang on did they put Chloe from Too Hot To Handle on The Circle,” asked another Twitter user in blaring capital letters. “Let this girl fuck.”
One person, however, likely doesn’t want to see such a development on international streaming television, considering how uncomfortable she is with Veitch merely using the Lord’s name in vain. “When I was watching The Circle yesterday, my nan rang me,” Veitch recalled, starting to laugh. “She’s quite religious and she was like, ‘Chloe! The amount of times you say Oh my God. It’s disgusting.’”
Despite Nan Veitch’s all-in-good-fun reservations, her granddaughter is still radiating her signature positive attitude about The Circle — and answering every question you probably have about the claustrophobic series, from the obvious to the hyperspecific. Yes, that means her pizza-and-scissors trick is up for discussion.
Refinery29: How often did you actually use The Circle? It didn’t seem to take up your whole day.
Chloe Veitch: “We just wait for an alert. We kept ourselves entertained. And then whenever someone wanted to talk to you, it was ‘Alert!’ Whenever there was an alert, or game, we would be notified. It’s just sitting around, waiting for the games to start really.
“But because it’s quite a strategic game, when you’re sitting there, it’s not like you’re that bored. You’re actually sitting there thinking, ‘Right! This drama’s happening… What do I do? How do I stay out of the drama?’”
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Why did you want to do the show in the first place? Especially since you seem like a very social person.
“Too Hot to Handle was such a life-changing experience for me, and I’ve had such amazing feedback from the show. When Netflix got in contact with me, I just thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to go on The Circle!’”
Was there a daily filming pause so people could do private things, whatever they are?
“You just give the producers a heads up! You just say, ‘Oh, I’m just going to go use the toilet.’ Or, ‘I’m just going to pop in the shower.’”
Were you all told to use the hashtags? There are so many hashtags this season.
“I think a hashtag is like saying 1,000 words. So, any good hashtag has a powerful punch behind it. I feel like someone started using the hashtags, and everyone else would jump on the bandwagon to feel comfortable.”
What was the cooking situation like? Did you ask for groceries? Were there daily meal kits dropped off?
“We had a shopping list of stuff that we wanted. We could tell the producers and they would go out and grab all the groceries. They would leave the food outside the door because of, obviously, COVID and quarantining. But, I couldn’t cook. So, I didn’t know what to ask for. Because I don’t know how shopping works. I don’t really know how ingredients work. I’m not going to start asking for pesto. I had to ask my producer to help me.”
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You were like, “What would you buy?”
“Yes, exactly! Like, Okay, I fancy a lasagna. But how do I get a lasagna made? Like what ingredients do I need?”
Did you come out of the season with any new skills in the kitchen?
“No! But what I did find out is that you don’t have to use a pizza cutter [for pizza] — you can use scissors. Hand scissors are the best when it comes to cutting pizza. Because you can snip it right up into little triangles.”
Every exterior shot of the apartment building shows off these pretty balconies attached to the suites. Can you actually use them?
“To be honest, no! I don’t think so. But we did film in England, so it’s freezing. And I wouldn’t want to go out there.”
Do you want to do any other Netflix reality shows? Selling Sunset feels like the natural next step for you.
“I’ve never seen Selling Sunset. Never! I don’t know if it’s a big thing where I’m from and the small town that I live in. I don’t really watch a lot of TV. But, I would love to go on, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it: I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. And I would love to have my own show one day. Just keep on manifesting it.”
By the way, I read that you worked at a chip shop before Netflix fame. Have you watched the Derry Girls episode about a chippy?
“Oh my gosh you know what? I should know this because my best friend [Nicole O'Brien from Too Hot to Handle] is Irish. But no, I haven’t.”
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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