- I'm Bear Grylls
and this is a WIRED Autocomplete Interview.
[lively upbeat music]
You ready?
[lively upbeat music]
Who is Bear Grylls' cameraman?
The answer is there are a few of them.
An incredible team, our crew, unsung heroes.
They're amazing, work incredibly hard,
carry all the heavy gear,
do everything I do but backwards whilst filming.
Many of those guys who were there at the beginning
still there now.
Brothers, we through so much together.
I love those guys, yeah.
Who did Bear Grylls climb Everest with?
We took a small team of four soldiers.
Two of us got to reach the top.
We had four fatalities of other climbers
who were with us up there at the time.
The guy I reached the top with was a best friend,
served beside me in the British Special Forces.
Another unsung hero in my life called Neil Laughton.
Still best friend to this day, I love that.
What was Bear Grylls childhood like?
Kind of fun, I grew up on a little island
off the south coast of the UK.
As I say, my dad taught me to climb at a young age.
I love those early adventures with him.
My dad's no longer alive now,
but I look back on those times
with like real gratitude, really.
You know, he taught me so much of the important stuff
which was follow your dreams,
look after your friends along the way,
have a resilient, never give up spirit,
improvise, adapt, overcome, that was from him.
Where is Bear Grylls' festival?
Yeah, we have a festival in the UK, it's called Gone Wild.
Super fun, family adventure festival.
Everything from ax throwing, to climbing, to survival stuff,
mud runs, to great music, great bands.
We've run it for a few years in the UK now
for Veteran Charities.
Gone Wild, look out for it coming to stay soon.
Okay.
How is Bear Grylls still alive?
By the grace of God and a great team.
Quite a lot of luck along the way as well,
but nowadays we really try and be smart.
You know, we're in the business of keeping people alive
especially with "Running Wild"
where we're taking real, iconic, big, old superstars away.
You gotta get it right.
In the wild you only get it wrong once.
There's always risk in the outdoors
and in the wild places and you're dealing with rookies
and big rivers and big mountains.
How to survive Bear Grylls?
Gotta have a plan.
I know it sounds obvious,
but so many people go into adventures
without a plan of when things go wrong.
What happens if they lose their cell phone
or their battery dies or, you know, they're outta water
or somebody gets injured.
Be prepare for the specific adventure.
Have the right gear,
the right training for when it goes wrong.
'Cause as they say,
"Adventure only really happens when things go wrong."
So how to survive Bear Grylls?
Talk quietly, dig deep when you need to, be resourceful,
and never give up.
How many languages does Bear Grylls know?
A few and none very well.
I actually study Spanish at university,
and four years of studying Spanish taught me
that my Spanish is really bad.
I'm not a natural linguist in any way.
I've had to learn sort of basic,
I call it survival linguistics.
Which way, you know, North.
And it's got me out of a few scrapes for sure.
How did Bear Grylls understand Modi's Hindi?
When I took the Prime Minister of India away,
you see him speaking Hindi and me replying in English
and then I'm kind of nodding away as he's speaking
but I've got simultaneous translation going on in my ear.
But it's always a little bit behind,
so it kind of looks a little bit weird,
like I'm nodding at weird places
and the whole thing is a little weird sink.
It was hard because it was raining
so the earpiece was really cracky,
so it was like [imitates static] static in the ear.
But we figured it out
and he speaks actually pretty good English.
My Hindi is not very good.
How long was Bear Grylls in the military?
I spent four years in the military from the age of 19 to 23.
I gotta spend three of my years there
with the British Special Forces
where I got so much to the survival training as well
and made friends that endure to this day.
Is Bear Grylls' "Running Wild" real?
It is a baby of mine that, you know, "Running Wild"
and I think the testament to it
is always the sort of stars we attract
and the people who want to come on the adventures.
Is it real?
It is real and I think that's a heart of all adventure.
Can Bear Grylls be trusted?
I hope so.
You know, I've made mistakes in my life for sure.
Done bad things in my life for sure,
but I hope I'm trustworthy, I tried to be trustworthy.
Will Ferrell Bear Grylls episode.
Will Ferrell was the first adventure show I did
with someone else.
It was the first one where we took big Hollywood star away.
We pushed him really hard, probably too hard.
Still to this day, if I see Will, he goes,
"Oh my god, that journey, that was a ballbuster."
You know, Will on that episode was incredible actually.
You know, we were right at tip end of the arctic,
tough conditions, he was in at the deep end in every way.
He never gave up, kept smiling most of the time.
And I think if we'd kept "Running Wild" at that intensity,
we'd never have had a season two.
So we learned, keep them short, keep them fast,
keep them a million miles an hour but made them achievable.
You know, we're not there to break anyone,
we're there to build people.
And that's definitely become the DNA of the show
over the years.
What has Bear Grylls achieved?
What have I achieved?
Good family, three great boys.
Still married to the girl I met when I was 22.
Good friends, still smiling, still going,
still doing what I love.
I never take that for granted.
What island is Bear Grylls filmed on?
We live on a little island off the Welsh coast in the UK
and we've owned it for years now,
our boys have been brought up there,
off grid about two miles offshore, one little house,
wild place.
To get on and off the island,
we have a little rigid inflatable boat,
offshore craft that we just bomb back and forth
to the mainland in.
Getting supplies is always a bit of a mission
but also kind of fun.
What does Bear Grylls eat at home?
Sorry to disappoint, it's not all tarantula, scorpion,
snakes, and rat brain.
A lot of red meat, a lot of liver, a lot of eggs,
a lot of fruit, a lot of honey.
Try and stay away from the junk stuff as much as we can,
the processed food.
Eat like our ancestors,
throw in a little bit of wilderness food every now and again
just to keep everyone on their toes.
What has Bear Grylls eaten?
Had a good breakfast.
Lot of Greek yogurt and honey, some fruit, coffee,
bit of juice, ready to go.
What accent does Bear Grylls have?
I don't know, I get British, I guess.
Sometimes people go, "Are you Australian?"
Obviously that takes a great compliment
because we love Australia,
even though we do beat them often in the rugby.
So yeah.
Where did Bear Grylls get his name?
And I was christened Edward.
My sister then said that was such a boring name.
She called me Teddy, Teddy Bear.
I dunno, as a kid I didn't really like it,
I always wanted a normal name.
But actually I look back now
and it could have been way worse.
Where has Bear Grylls traveled to?
An occupational hazard of my job is that we do travel a lot,
done a lot in Wyoming for "Running Wild",
Scotland for a couple of trips, some jungles, Costa Rica,
Central America, some mountains in the Alps in Europe,
Holm in Wales, little island in the UK.
Good places.
When did Bear Grylls meet President Zelensky?
Yeah, a few months ago, I got to travel to Ukraine
to spend time with him, walk around the city a little bit,
hear a little bit about his background,
his life growing up for a show called "War Zone."
Real privilege for me to do.
That was a special one.
When did Bear Grylls start his career?
I dunno, I never really kind of think of it as a career.
I suppose the answer is I started a life of adventure
when I was a kid with my dad, former marine, climber.
Taught me a lot of this stuff when I was a young boy.
But in terms of TV stuff, I suppose started at age about 26.
Somebody approached me from Discovery Channel and said,
"Could we do a show where we drop you in difficult places?
You show us how to get out of there."
A privilege.
So that's that one.
Bear Grylls bee sting.
I was stung by a bunch of African bees once,
trying to get some honey out of a nest.
And I think the lesson is,
in the wilds it's not always the big things
that are gonna get you, it's often the little stuff.
Mosquitoes, some angry bees.
My face ballooned up.
My family said, "Actually, Bear, that's an improvement."
Bear Grylls jellyfish sting.
I think this is probably about a "Running Wild" episode
with Mel B from the Spice Girls
and I got stung by jellyfish
and she ended up peeing on my hand.
I think actually, I've learned over the years,
the advice actually is tenuous.
I'm not sure pee actually does very much
apart from sterilize it a little bit
and she was adamant it was gonna work.
Bear Grylls healthy?
Feel pretty good, feel fit and strong.
We have a great outdoor fitness company.
It's veteran run called Be Military Fit.
So I train with that community most days.
Just short and sharp, half an hour.
I consider it as part of my job,
I've gotta try and be strong and as healthy as I can.
Work in progress always.
Why is Bear Grylls, oh dear, here we go.
Oh, that's nice, inspirational.
Learnt in life, you can only try and live from this,
and try and follow this, and try and speak from this.
Share the struggles, share the doubts, the failures
as much as the successes and the wins in life,
know the value of great friends,
try and keep the rest of it simple.
[upbeat music]
That is all the boards.
Thank you for lovely questions.
And for all of you guys watching, keep going,
respect for all your adventures.
Courage, kindness, never give up.
We got it, team.
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