If you’ve ever wanted to know the answers to the internet’s burning questions about Bear Grylls, you’re in luck. Earlier this week, Outdoors.com’s lead adventurer sat down with WIRED for an Autocomplete interview. In the nearly 10-minute interview, Grylls answers a variety of questions about his life, career, and the accomplishments that he’s most proud of.
Here are some of the highlights:
One Person on a Dedicated Team
Though Bear Grylls is the face (and name) of the brand, he gives full credit where credit is due.
The very first question of the interview is Who is Bear Grylls’ cameraman? As a part of his answer, he commends his crew’s talent as they “carry all the heavy gear” and do everything that Grylls does, but backward. When asked about climbing Everest, he shares very similar sentiments about working as a team to get to the top.
Later on in the interview, Grylls reflects on his time in the military and British Special Forces. Grylls notes that he spent four years in the military and that he learned many of the survival skills that he uses daily during his time in the special forces. Grylls also recalls that he made a number of lifelong friends during his time in the British Special ForcesF.
When asked “How is Bear Grylls still alive?”, he answers: “By the grace of God and a great team.”
On Will Ferrell . . .
One of the many questions Grylls answers in the interview references Will Ferrell, the very first celebrity guest he ever had on an adventure. “Will on that episode was incredible actually,” Grylls says and explains that as the first-ever episode of Running Wild, the intensity was significantly higher than any following episodes. Grylls had nothing but good things to say about Will Ferrell, stating that Ferrell was smiling the whole time, even though they were on the tip of the Arctic.
When asked How to survive Bear Grylls? He quips, “Talk quietly, dig deep when you need to, be resourceful, and never give up.”
Presidents and Prime Ministers
In late 2022, Bear Grylls was able to travel to Ukraine to meet with President Zelensky. Grylls’ trip was to help spread awareness of the fight for freedom in Ukraine. Grylls reminisced on the time spent with Zelensky in the city of Kyiv and said that it was a privilege to be able to go, especially during such a crucial time in Ukrainian history.
Back in 2019, Bear Grylls did a special episode of Running Wild with the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. As a part of the autofill interview, Grylls was asked how he was able to understand Prime Minister Modi when he was speaking in Hindi. Grylls tells us that he was wearing an earpiece that was translating everything the Prime Minister said as they were talking.
“It’s always a little bit behind,” Grylls said, “so it kind of looks a little bit weird, like I’m nodding at weird places.” Grylls calls himself a survival linguist, saying that he knows a number of languages, but none of them particularly well, even though he studied Spanish when he went to university.
Home Life
It is possible that the thing Bear Grylls is most proud of is the life he has created outside of his career—though, he says he is shocked to be able to call what he does a career.
Throughout the interview, Grylls discusses the ways in which his family—both past and present—have impacted his life. His father was the one who taught him to climb, setting his life in motion to become what it is today. But now, he is thrilled to have three sons and is married “to the girl [he] met when [he] was 22.”
When asked about what he serves for dinner at home, he states that it’s not nearly as exciting as what he eats when he’s out in survival mode, although he does occasionally throw in some survival foods to keep his family on their toes.
Watch the full interview here:
