THE Circle fans have been left dumbfounded after realising one of the ‘contestants’ is already famous on TikTok – kind of.
Paul Russell shot to fame last year thanks to the social media site, with his track, Lil Boo Thang, becoming used millions of times by users.
The song, which samples The Emotions’ iconic hit Best Of My Love, has become a summer anthem with fans using it on TikTok for everything from showing off their other halves to showing off their outfit choices.
But even though her brother was in the public eye, that didn’t stop his sister, Caress, using his likeness and playing as him on Netflix’s reality show, The Circle.
Caress hoped by playing the confident Paul she could fake it all the way to a $100,000 cash prize.
Caress opted to use her smooth-talking brother as her inspiration for her character, using his photographs in a bid to charm the other players in the game.
Unfortunately for Paul, that meant watching through his fingers as her attempts to flirt didn’t land with the women of the show.
While Paul is rubbing shoulders with the President, and even appearing on The Graham Norton Show, but over the past few weeks he’s been staying in watching his sister “fumble on his behalf”, capturing his reaction on TikTok to the hilarity of fans.
In a chat with Quori-Tyler – who is playing as herself – Caress tried to flirt with her, writing: “I must be living the life right now. Quality time with QT? What’s good girl? How you feeling? Word on the street is things are about to get spicy for you.”
“This is so awkward,” Quori-Tyler is heard saying, as Paul wanders around his kitchen looking unimpressed while rubbing his hair in frustration.
He later declared the scenes “literally an out of body experience”.
In another scene, where players were asked to paint pictures of each other, “Paul” was branded as having a “big mouth and big ego”.
“I’m not even on the show and I’m fighting for my life smh” he wrote next to the clip.
In The Circle, which first launched on Channel 4 before being bought by Netflix, popularity is the name of the game, with those voted least popular getting booted to make way for someone new.
You can play as yourself or catfish as someone else to compete, with the winner taking home the sought-after prize money.
Despite some embarrassing slip-ups, Caress currently remains in the game, with two more weeks of episodes before the winner is revealed.
Episodes nine to 12 drop tomorrow – will she survive? And what will Paul have to say as her efforts playing him?
