‘Hunted’ Filled Byron And Tanase With ‘Paranoia And Fear’
It got pretty emotional on the latest episode of Hunted Australia, when siblings Byron and Tanase Adu got caught hiding in a closet. Even though the savvy pair drove an hour away to make a phone call, using an “encrypted” app, the hunters pinged their location and tracked them to their friend Nari’s house with the help of CCTV.
After the events of the previous episode caused outrage, when Callum and Ben were caught by one of the hunters’ brothers, fans were confused about how easily the hunters obtained info about Byron and Tanase. The hunters’ smoking gun came when Byron and Tanase were caught on CCTV passing a 7-Eleven, which some fans have described as “dodgy” on the Hunted Australia Facebook fan group.
Punkee spoke to Byron and Tanase Adu about if parts of the show is “faked”, how “intimidating” the hunters are, and why they became so emotional once they were discovered…
On if Hunted Australia is “faked” for the cameras:
Byron: “I laugh at people’s theories saying the show is faked. I’ve heard people saying we’re actors, but if you’ve seen me act, I can’t act, that’s not possible. This is genuine. Before going on the run, we thought it’d be fun and pretty chill, but from the moment you start, it’s intense and the paranoia is real. You can’t make up the things that happened and how things unfolded.”
Tanase: “It’s still TV so it’s not going to be exactly how it played out, they have to chop up bits and pieces because they film so much. But nothing about it was fake. Everything that happened, actually happened. The fear and paranoia is genuine, and yes, the tears were real. Even after we left the show, whenever I saw a camera I was scared, you still feel that paranoia afterwards.”
On the phone call that got “pinged” by the hunters:
Byron: “We knew that they could potentially ping the location, but what we didn’t realise is how close they were to us at that time. Also, we got the biggest shock when we were caught on CCTV from a random service station. That was scary.”
Tanase: “It felt like we were really careful in terms of making phone calls using WhatsApp because it’s encrypted, but then being caught driving by with the licence plate, that killed us. It’s not what we thought we would have been caught on. We thought we’d covered our tracks well.”
On why their friend invited the hunters inside:
Byron: “Nari was messaging yesterday last night after the show and she still feels bad about letting the hunters inside. She’s like, ‘I shouldn’t have let them in straight away, you could have had some time to run out the back or something’. But when they’re there, it’s very intimidating. The way they knocked on the door even was loud and aggressive.”
Tanase: “It feels like you’re being stormed by the police or something. She did feel bad afterwards, but she was just a bit shocked when it all unfolded.”
On why Byron and Tanase got so emotional during their capture:
Tanase: “It was very scary. We were just about to leave to get some camping gear, and we couldn’t believe it was really them. It was just a wave of emotion.”
Byron: “I was shocked. We weren’t in the same room at that point, but Tanase saw and heard them first, and told me. We couldn’t believe it, we were trapped at the back of the house. Hence why we ran into the closet.”
Tanase: “The emotions that come up were fear, shock, disappointment, and sadness. At first, we felt a bit embarrassed about how emotional we were afterwards, and how we’d look on TV, but it was real, and that was exactly what we felt at that moment in time.”
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Image credits: Channel 10, Hunted