'The Circle' Season 6 Spoilers! Stephanie "Steffi" Hill Says She Knew "Max" Was a Fake Profile

Stephanie "Steffi" Hill

Warning! The interview below contains spoilers for episodes 1 through 8 of Netflix's The Circle season 6, which aired in April. Please do not continue if you do not wish to be spoiled on who was blocked in those episodes.

Of the contestants on season 6 of The Circle, Stephanie "Steffi" Hill is arguably the most unapologetically herself. The professional astrologer let her free spirit show from the beginning, leading the contestants through yoga and giving their horoscopes through chat. Interestingly, though, when the players where told that there was an AI hiding among them, she became the popular choice for being the least human. Some felt the way she gave horoscopes felt too much like a bot. Others were confused with how she suddenly and aggressively came at "Paul" (AKA Caress Russell) in chats. Regardless of the reason, the popular consensus led Myles Reed to block her as the biggest AI suspect. And Steffi and her "emotional support skeleton" Herbert had quite a bone to pick with the AI engineer, calling him out in her goodbye message alongside an ominous prediction of who would win.

Read on to hear Steffi's thoughts on her time in the game. And check out Parade.com throughout The Circle season 6 with the various players and catfishes alike.

Related: The Circle Season 6: Everything You Need to Know

What's your history with The Circle? How did you end up getting on the show?
When The Circle came out, I had not heard of the show. And I got this slew of text messages from friends, family, even people who were from high school I hadn't talked to in 10 years, like, "Have you seen the show? Because you need to be on this show." I watched the show and was obsessed with it. And then in season two, I saw the two people catfishing as a psychic medium. And I had this thought. I was like, "This is really cool and entertaining. But what if they had a real psychic on the show?" And then every single time I would see the casting, I'd chicken out. I was like, "Oh, I don't really want to. I don't want to do that." And then finally I just felt it was in alignment. And then I auditioned and the rest is history. 

Well let's talk about how your game became history. When Myles came in, you said that you knew it would be you going. Was that a psychic hit, or were you picking up on other things that made you assume that?
I mean, everyone was coming after me. My back was against the wall. I felt a little defenseless and powerless. So yeah, I had a feeling. And also just in my gut, I just had a feeling like this is my last day in The Circle. And it was so disappointing, but also a little bit relieving. Because at that point, I was just in such a high-stakes high-pressure situation. You obviously saw lots of tears. [Laughs.] When he walked in, I was so sad and honestly angry to see him. But I was also like, "Hey, friend, it's a human. Let's talk."

On that note, let's talk about your goodbye message. How did you meeting Myles translate to you taking a shot at him on the way out for an AI engineer not being able to figure out who the AI is?
In that sense, it was lhigh emotions. I honestly did not envy him at all in that situation.  think he made it as logical as possible. But I just had this gut feeling that he actually knew I was real. And I think that's why I kind of kept pressing him, and he wasn't admitting it. And I'm like, "Myles, you got a feeling. You knew I was real." And he was like, "I didn't really know!" But I just had a feeling he didn't like me based on other things like my astrology and potentially my belief system. Which is okay, I'm not everyone's cup of tea. But I just had a feeling it was more personal than that. And so that's why I was lovingly calling him out. [Laughs.]

I do have to ask about the other part of your goodbye message, where you said that you had premonitions before the season of who would win, and then things get cut off. Is that actually true, or was that more so something production had you do to build drama?
I mean, what's so funny is before I even came on the show, one of my girlfriends, who's also a psychic, called me. And she's like, "I'm having this vision of this this white male who's younger. He has a round face, and he has like short brown hair, and he's gonna be everyone's favorite. You have to watch out for him." And that was Max! So I had this weird feeling something weird was going on with Max. But in auditions, day one I told the casting director I'm having a premonition that [a certain sign] is gonna win this season. And the winner is that sign!

I had a whole astrology strategy. That's even why I went after Paul. He was an Aries. And I studied all the previous season winners, and three out of five of the people who've won were Aries, and four out of five of them were fire signs. So that's how I was making my alliances. And that's kind of why I took that first shot, which wasn't really shown. But there was a lot of thought and strategy behind all of those moves. 

Let's get into that. Because you talk about the thinking behind taking that shot at Paul. And we're seeing things from the player perspective, which is that you were this yoga horoscope type that suddenly goes into the battle rap accusing him of being a "leave you on read bro" and that he may be a catfish. Talk to me about what led you to do that.
My intuition before even talking to Paul, just seeing his profile picture, I was reading everyone's aura colors. I never looked at any of their bios, because I didn't want any bias. And so when I came in the first day with that fresh, fresh sleep and wasn't in the game too long, I instantly said Olivia and Paul are catfish. And I had this feeling about it. I didn't know if I was right. But I had this feeling. And then I found out Paul was an Aries.

And I had said in auditions, all throughout production, and leading up, I said, "I don't even care who it is. Iif it's an Aries, they're my target. I want to take them down because they're usually really strong, competitive players, and they're really likable and sociable." And some of the things in the chat, I was like, "I'm just not really feeling it. It feels like a little bit of BS." And it wasn't personal at all. And I'm from Detroit. So when I heard rap battle, I was like, "I'm coming for blood." And I was under the impression everyone was doing that. So when I saw it was a poetry slam, essentially, I was just defeated. And I felt so sad. And I ended up just feeling guilty and remorseful about it  the rest of the game.

So then how does that connect to another game you play, where you respond to one of Paul's photos, "I was fully ready to do a #PeaceOffering today but I don’t have time for fake people. #Next." Was that out of frustration about the situation?
There's stuff that I can't get that wasn't really shown. I was a little bit off context. But I mean, everyone was coming at me in that game, every single person. You didn't have a chance to see every other player's response. So, when I said I was ready for a peace offering it was because like, I really came in ready to potentially make amends. But then I have this thought of like, "They're gonna think I'm flaky. I went after him. I need to double down on this decision." Because if all of a sudden I'm like, "Oh, I'm sorry, Paul," they're gonna be like, "She's so fake. Why is she doing that? What's going on?" So at that moment in the game, I was like, "You know what? Paul and I aren't going to make any connection. I already know that he's coming after me. Let's just play into this drama and see how it unfolds." So that's why I was just kind of like defeated in that moment and went for it, just so people would think I was consistent.

What was your reaction to the AI twist, especially after hearing that people were targeting you because they felt your horoscopes didn't sound human?
There was a lot of confirmation bias. I think right off the bat, when I mentioned astrology, that's something I'm really used to, unfortunately. There's a lot of judgment that comes at me, and I'm used to people not really fully grasping it. Astrology isn't everyone's cup of tea. So I totally get that. But I just found it funny that people were like, "It was too generic," and other people were like, "It was too specific." And obviously, I didn't have my materials. I wasn't able to give full horoscope readings in that moment. So I kind of was scrambling. But it was all because of strategy. I wanted to get every single person's horoscope in the game, because that's how I was making alliances and bonds.

To that point, you had mentioned that Olivia and Lauren were two of your closest allies. Was that through vibes, or their signs? Because they were the only two to seem to go to bat for you as not being the AI.
Yeah. And that honestly brought a lot of peace to my heart. Because in those moments in the game, I just felt so ganged up against. I was up against the wall. I just didn't know how people were reacting to me. And those were really the only two people I had a chance to even connect with. It was amazing. And Lauren instantly, I just felt her aura, everything about her. I just felt so connected to her. And Olivia, I wasn't really going to originally align with her. And then I had a conversation with her. I knew she was a catfish, but I'm like, "It's the soul behind the catfish." So I wanted to just connect with her as much as possible. And she ended up being such a true friend throughout that whole thing. And he still is such a good friend to me.

You mention feeling defeated before. And you became clearly emotional after nearly everyone publicly says they think you're the AI, saying people in your real life know how kind you are. Talk to me about what you were going through in that moment.
A lot of the women were coming after me, too. And I think when I saw this bromance happening, I had a hope in my heart that I could maybe align with some of the women in the game. And they didn't really get a chance to know me. I mean, also just being in hyper isolation and the high stakes of the game, I was super emotional regardless. But I think everyone ganging up on me, the tears were flowing. I could not stop it. And I felt embarrassed about it. But I was like, "This is real. And I need to just be authentic to how I'm feeling."

Do you think, if the AI twist hadn't existed, you would have still been in trouble? You do start the season in third place in the ratings. But notably, the battle rap game was done before the twist was revealed. And you mentioned before that you and Myles were not exactly vibing.
I mean, honestly, I've watched seasons past of The Circle, I love it so much. And even other versions like the French season. Strategically, I always really respected people who made bold moves without being an anonymous gamer. So I thought it would be respected. And I did not anticipate how badly that would go. So being third in the rankings was such an exciting moment for me. Because you don't want to be right at the top. You don't want to be right in the middle. And then that quickly defiled as the game went on. People just instantly turned. And I get it. I mean, I understand why.

What was your reaction when you finally found out that Max was the AI?
I was onto Max! I was on to him from the beginning. Again, a lot of that wasn't shown. But I was like, "Something's up with Max." And even when Miles came, I was like, "You need to keep an eye on Max. There's something about him that doesn't feel right. He's either a catfish or he's shady. He's playing the game really well. You need to keep an eye on him." Which is so funny when people come to block you, and you're like, "Wait, let's be on the team here. Even though you blocked me, I need to help you," which is such a weird human connection thing. And he was like, "Yeah, give me all your insight." Even just watching back and seeing how savage Max was for campaigning against me, I felt like, "Damn, that's unfair!" He had an advantage in the game. He knew who everyone was. And so that was really kind of hard to watch. Because I felt like I didn't have a lot of chances to defend myself like maybe some of the other AI suspects did. And watching him go after me, I was like, "He's smart!"

It's interesting because people usually leave The Circle with some sort of life lesson about social media, socialization, etc. But considering the unique way you went out, was there anything you took out of that into the real world?
I want to rock and go with people who do support me. Because I understand what I do is not typically accepted widely. So I want to just try to focus on the positive and things like that. But it does get hard when people are ripping me to shreds on the internet and not fully understanding what went down in the game. I mean, my gifts haven't evolved into the metaverse yet. I don't think I was able to channel fully Artificial Intelligence. But I stick with what I know, which is just human people.

I know you also said you were channeling your dead aunt while playing. How did that work out? Was she onto Max as well?
You know what? I was getting visions and dreams about Max pretty much since the beginning. When they announced there was an AI, I woke up with several dreams. But I started to question myself a lot in the game. And with the high stakes and lack of sleep and things, I just wasn't as attuned to my gifts as I wanted to be. But the spirit kept on showing his face every single day. And the second after I was blocked, I woke up the next morning after a full night's sleep. And I was like, "It was Max!" Everything just came up once. And so it was really hard for me to discern those moments of intuition in the game. 

Next, The Circle executive producers break down the new AI twist.