'The Circle' Season 7 Spoilers! Madelyn Rusinyak Explains Her Emotional Finale Breakdown

Warning! The interview below contains spoilers for all of Netflix's The Circle Season 7, which aired in September and October. Please do not continue if you do not wish to be spoiled on who was blocked in those episodes.

This season of The Circle was billed as the most "brutal" yet. And a lot of that lays at the feet of Madelyn Rusinyak. The OnlyFans model took the reality TV credo "Nothing personal, it's just a game" to heart, crafting some of the most cutthroat moves in the show's history. Madelyn started the game simple enough, charming, bubbly, and Circle eloping with "Andy" (AKA Heather Richardson). But a change in profile with "Rachel" (AKA Deb Levy) also seemed to force a change in perspective. When she returned back from her Rachel rental, she decided having Andy in the game closed off her options too much. And so, stunningly, she orchestrated her own Circle matricide.

Little did we know, though, that she was just getting started. The day after Heather visited her, Madelyn came into the chat with a blatant lie, saying she had thrown Darian Holt under the bus. Despite Darian's adverse reaction, Madelyn doubled down, successfully turning Kevin Fernandez against his fellow "bro." Surprisingly, her big push didn't set her up as the next to go. Indeed, it actually boosted her position in the game, as she became the "super secret influencer" in the penultimate round. Despite the bigger threats in front of her, she chose to block Jadejha Edwards out of the finale. Unfortunately for Madelyn, it was those very threats who surged past her in the final ratings, leaving her to pick up bronze.

Read on to hear Madelyn's thoughts on her time in the game. And check out Parade.com throughout The Circle Season 7 with the various players and catfishes alike.

Related: The Circle Season 7: Everything You Need to Know

What's your history with The Circle? How did you end up getting on the show?
So honestly, I've watched two seasons. I had watched one season before I applied, and then I watched the season before mine.  I don't know. I think I was just on Netflix one day, and I was like, "I want to be on another show. I don't care, really what it is, but I want to be on something."

Well, no matter what show it was, you brought your full self into this, especially from a gaming perspective. Was that something you were intending to do before you came in, or did these big moves just come naturally?
Initially, when I first went in, I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna be very genuine. I'm not gonna be a villain." But I also went in thinking, "I don't want to be a background character." So it was never like, "Okay, I'm going to completely cross villain off of my list." If I need to be one, I will. I'd rather be that than be forgotten. And it was going well for me, playing genuine and playing myself. Until the Disruptor thing happened, and I had to switch profiles with Rachel, and then being genuine and being myself really went out the window for me.

Yeah, it does seem, like once you do that profile swap with Rachel, that you start making moves, like rallying the numbers to target Andy. Was the timing coincidental, or did it really trigger this shift in mindset for you?
It was honestly that day. You guys see me start making that decision. I've made that decision and started thinking about that 30 minutes before. Everybody keeps calling me a very strategic player, but I don't know if I really am. I think that maybe I was lucky and I would make these decision and I'd be like, "Okay, I'm gonna do this. Actually, now I'll do this." And I didn't really have a plan going into any of it.

Interesting. So, whether pre-planned or not, you pull off this big move by getting your "Circle husband" booted in Andy. And you clearly struggled emotionally when Heather visited you, though you don't admit to her that you were the one behind your boot. Walk me through that experience.
After Heather left my room, I was like, "I've gotta do everything that I can to not have anybody else come visit me. Because I was so upset. The way I was able to get through the game and do the things that I felt were needed for my gameplay, I guess I had to look at these people as characters. I could not think about the fact that, "Okay, this might actually be Darian. This might actually be Andy." I could not think that way. So after Andy left my apartment, you guys saw me break down because I was like, "Oh my God. These are real people. I don't know if I can do it." It was a full-on, probably two-hour crying session that I had. I had to go visit the psych; I don't know if I can say that, but I did. It was rough. And then I woke up the next day and I was like, "Okay, I don't want anyone else to come visit me, because then I won't be able to do what I need to do."

So you follow that up with what has to be one of the most brazen lies I've seen in The Circle. You come into the chat the next morning and completely fabricate that Heather threw Darian under the bus to you. And, while this prompts outrage from him, it leads to his shocking blocking. Talk me through your approach to that, especially given that this was something you could easily get caught doing.
Yeah, so short answer, my logic going into that Circle chat after we watched Heather's goodbye video, was nothing. [Laughs.] I literally stood there, and I remember thinking out loud, "Okay, so I could respond and be like, 'No, she didn't really give me any tea.' Or I could just make something up. I think I'll just make something up." [Laughs.] There was no strategy; there was none. I just was like, "Might as well!" I was kind of bored. I was like, "We should really spice some things up." But I didn't expect for people to be so smart and be like, "It kind of sounds like she's just making stuff up." I didn't expect that. I really expected to drop that one liner in there and then have people start fighting so that nobody would point fingers at me and start telling people, "Well, you told me to block Andy. You told me to you didn't trust Andy." So I was really just trying to push it, push it, push it away from me, but it didn't work. So then I should have thought about it a little a little harder, but I didn't. I just was like, "Let's go for it."

Well then what was your reaction when Rachel takes a page out of your book? After Garret's blocking, she says that he threw you under the bus to her. It's another point in quite a complicated relationship, going back to the profile swap.
I was so hurt by Rachel. And then I had to remind myself, "I did way worse stuff, so I can't really be that hurt." I feel like I was only super hurt by Rachel, because we had been villains together. And so it was like she turned on me, and I was like, "Oh no, I thought we were on the same page!" But the anger and whatever never lasted longer than an hour. Because I would just remind myself, "This could be a 55 year old man that I'm talking to. This could not be Rachel. These are players in a game." And I just had to keep reminding myself that.

So you become the super secret influencer going into the finale, and choose to block Jadejha. What made you decide to pick her?
This one is kind of a doozy. My first initial thought was, "I'm going to block Gianna." Because she was obviously very powerful. She'd been the influencer most of the time. And then I was like, the reason why I was voted secret influencer was because nobody really thought of me as a threat in that moment. Because I had had so much heat on me, nobody was like, "Okay she's somebody we need to worry about," so a lot of people voted me high. And so I kind of thought that's how it would be going into the finale. Gianna was so high up that I was like, "Okay, going into the final ratings, if she does stay, everybody has seen how high she is. There's no way that people are going to keep rating her high. They know that she's a risk." And I was afraid that in the final ratings, if Jadejha was there, they'd be like, "Okay, she hasn't been a threat, right? So we're all going to rate her high."

What was your reaction to finishing in third place in the finale?
I was honestly surprised that I made it that far. Because, like I said, I didn't have a plan. I made all these rash decisions, and I was expecting every blocking starting after Darian's. I was like, "Okay, I should start packing my bags. This is gonna be me." So I was honestly just shocked to be there. I was like, "I don't know how I made it this far." And at the finale, people were like, "Oh, you're very smart. You played a good game." And I'm like, "I don't really know if I did. I think I just did dumb stuff." But then I got lucky, and it worked out in my favor.

So we see you rate Kevin first and Rachel fourth in the final ratings. Do you remember where you rated Gianna and Tierra?
I don't know if I remember. I feel like I'm watching all this stuff back. I'm like, "I forgot that I did that." I know that, the morning of the ratings, I went into it more of like, "Okay, if I don't win, who would I want to win?" Rather than being strategic with it. I can't say what I want to say. But let's just say that, like every decision and like everything, I talked through it. So take that how you will.

Once the cast is reunited, we see you break down as you come to terms with everything you did this season. As you mentioned before, it seemed like those walls came down for the first time since that Andy blocking. Talk to me about how that came to be.
So throughout the entire time I was there, I compartmentalized, and I was like," Okay, I'm in a game. I'm playing. These are characters." And I didn't really think about the people that I missed at home. I was surviving. I was in fight or flight mode. I had no idea I was going to be there in the next day, or what would happen, when the next alert would come, whatever. So I was literally on fight or flight mode the entire time I was in there. And, again, I thought of all these people as players. I didn't know who they really were. I didn't know their backstory So meeting Heather in real life, I was like, "F–k. That's an actual person, and I just ruined their chances of winning $100,000."

So I guess, that morning, waking up for the finale, I was compartmentalizing pretty well than when I was starting to get ready. Then I was thinking about what was coming, and that's when I couldn't really compartmentalize anymore. I was like, "I'm about to meet all these people that I basically took their chance away of winning $100,000." And I was really nervous. And also nervous in an aspect of like, "Okay, I'm about to have to face my own emotions that I've been compartmentalizing this entire time and going to have to face the people that I actually did this to. And in the finale, everybody was like, "Oh, it's just a game, it's just a game, whatever." And I knew there were some actual hard feelings. And there was some real animosity there.

And I think another thing is I really didn't want to come off fake. And I feel like a lot of comments I've been seeing is," Okay, well, we really liked you after Heather left your room. But then the next day, when you turned around and did a 180 and you weren't human anymore, that's when we started to dislike you." And it made it seem like my actual human reaction to Heather, like me crying, was fake. Because then I turned around and did it the next day again, started lying. And I didn't want to come off that way, because I actually did feel bad. I still do. I'm watching it back. I'm like, "Okay, I'm funny; I'm entertaining. But I feel bad." Because now I know Darien, and now I know all these people.

And I do actually feel bad from a human aspect. But throughout the game, I couldn't play from a human aspect. Because if we were all playing from a human aspect, then we all should just split the money. It's a game, and I had to treat it like a game, and I felt bad. And it's hard to see, I guess, watching it back, like, "Okay, this girl actually feels bad about what she's doing," because I was compartmentalizing so hard. And so at the reunion, I cry and I feel bad when I'm telling this story and all I did. At one point, Jadejha is like, "Stop with the fake tears." I'm like, "These are not fake tears! I just compartmentalize them. And now I'm having to face them and they're coming out."

So how are you doing now that this is all being played back?
I would say, aside from all the hate I've been getting, it's all been good. We're all still friends. We talk in a group chat. And I think I'm funny, watching it. I'm like, "You're an idiot, and this show would be kind of boring without you." But then also I'm like, "F–k, you're a bitch."

Next, check out our interview with The Circle Season 7 runner-up Kevin Fernandez.