Interview ‘The Amazing Race Canada’ Sacha and Sebastien
Brothers Sacha and Sébastien Régnier took on Season 12 of The Amazing Race Canada as lifelong best friends who brought two very different personalities to the race. With Sébastien as the more structured planner and Sacha bringing the laid-back energy, the brothers surprised themselves when those roles started switching throughout the competition. In this exit interview, Sacha and Sébastien look back on their emotional elimination in their hometown of Winnipeg, the challenges they loved and struggled with, and how their Métis roots made taking on the Red River Jig especially meaningful. They also share how their mom convinced them to apply, why the experience brought them even closer, and the importance of giving yourself a chance to chase the things you’re passionate about, even when there is no guarantee of where they will take you.
TEM (The Extra Mile) : So, I mean, how does it feel watching everything back?
Sacha: Wow. You know what? It’s been such a fun experience getting to finally share this with our family and our friends.Pretty much every week we have some people over to watch it together. It’s been nice. We know the outcome, so when we’re watching it, we’re kind of looking to see other people’s reactions and stuff like that. But just to be able to relive I look across the room and I see Seb and I’m like, wow, we really did that.That’s something that we’re never going to forget is that experience of being on the race. It was a time of a lifetime. It was just such a beautiful experience.
TEM: So how did you guys get in the amazing race? Like whose idea kind of was it to push one another into it?Sacha: Yeah, so it was actually our mom’s idea and she convinced us. So we’ve been watching this show. We actually started watching the American version when we were like super young. And then we started watching the Canadian version, of course, as soon as it came out. And so she’s been such a big fan and she’s really tried to like encourage us to try to sign up these past few years. And we just never thought about it too much. We’re just like, Oh yeah. Okay. Like we’ll do it. We’ll do it. And so this year I think my mom. My mom told me that, and I reached out and said, I’m like, should we just try this here? Yeah. We both thought, okay, well, whatever, let’s just give it a shot, and then, here we are. Like, it’s so wild, we had no expectations, and all of a sudden, we’re part of this incredible roller coaster, and it was pretty surreal, honestly, yeah, but it was our mom. Yeah, it was our mom that convinced us.
Sebastien: Yeah, we literally, like, sat, like, in these chairs to send our audition, like, a reel. We, like, literally, I was like, oh, that’s, like, 11 months ago, we sat right here and sent that in.Like, that’s kind of crazy to think about. Oh, well, thank mom, you know? You know, she was pretty, so thrilled that we’re on the show, but I think I have not ever seen her stress, like, that much, watching anything. And, like, we’ve had, like, she’s had to watch me do Skeleton, and that’s not an easy thing for her, I don’t think. So she’s stressed out way more watching the show than she does for anything else, so I think we kind of put her through it.
TEM: You guys obviously, you know, grew up together. Was there anything that you kind of learned about each other that?
Sebastein: So we kind of touched on it. We’ve always been super, super close. We’ve been best friends our whole lives. I don’t think we’ve realized we could get any closer, and yet we have through the solo experience. But the biggest thing, know you were talking about the purple shirts to start, but the whole point of me saying I have a plan and him having feelings. I’m more A-type. I’m usually more planning. He’s a bit more laid-back vibes guy. And it switched multiple times in the race. I don’t think we expected that. We expected we would stay kind of in our roles. And it was really funny kind of seeing Sash want to come up with very concrete plans or having a way to do certain things.And I was just like, oh, chill. It’s okay. It was like way… That was kind of fun for us to finish the leg and be like, did you notice that we did this completely switched positions? So that was kind of fun.
TEM: Was there any type of challenge that you guys kind of prepped for before the show that you wished you got to do that you didn’t do?
Sacha: That’s a very good question. You know what? Once you get on the race, no matter how much you study the game, you never really know what to expect. Even for a lot of the challenges where you have to pay small attention to details, sometimes you’re paying attention on the race to too much details, or sometimes you’re paying to not enough details when you think you need to do something really quickly. But what I wish we would have experienced over the season was something with a bit more adrenaline-inducing, kind of crazy, like jumping out of a helicopter or something. I don’t know, something a little bit wilder would have been so much fun, but you know what? All the challenges that we did, even some of the really simple ones were challenging sometimes and really cool for us to kind of figure out how to approach it, how to conquer that challenge together, working together. So yeah, it was just like super cool experience. All the kind of challenges, even the metal detector one that we really struggled with.
Sebastein:: Yeah, I think the only kind of challenge we prepped for was dance, because we’re not dancers, so I mean, oh my god, like, we were in our hotel room sometimes, like, if we could have access to YouTube in the hotel room, we would, like, try to pick up on dance lessons and just whatever, like, try to dance a little bit, and it was honestly really, it was really cool and pretty fitting that the one dance that we had to do was, like, the Red River Jig, which is, like, we’re Métis, so that was, we knew how to jig in the past, but this was a bit more choreographed than the jig that we know, but, like, it was, that was, I don’t think we would have been super stoked to do any dance challenge, but, like, that was, that could have literally been the only dance challenge we were happy to do, and that just happened to be the one that we had to do, so that was, yeah, very, very cool.
TEM: What was your guys’ favorite challenge and least favorite challenge?
Sacha: Okay, so, yeah, we often talk about it. Often a lot of people ask us what was the hardest challenge and all these different things, but I think what was the most fun challenge? I really like the face-off. think naturally we’re more like, I mean, Sébastien is a professional athlete and I grew up playing sports, so doing kind of sports was like a really fun one.
Sebastein: What were some other ones that we I think, like, my favorite was chasing the cattle around and getting the… That was so much fun because we hadn’t, like, there hadn’t been a challenge yet where we were just, like, full out, like, sprinting and running around and that’s, I don’t know, we just love doing that, so that was like, okay, we don’t get to, like, do anything super, like, this one, like, I mean, although it was pretty, like, you’re running after bulls with, like, you know, like, that’s, like, not a super chill thing, but that was, I found that so much fun.Like, I remember being the moment, like, I could have done that all day. Like, I really could have done that all day.Like, I would have had no issue doing that. But I think we kind of talked about it the other day with the challenge. Which I think we found the most difficult, we’re kind of glad that it was in the first leg, was the stupid sailing.We’re prairie boys, we have no idea how to sail like that. We’re fish out of water, and like, you have to listen, like, they give you instructions on how to sail within like five minutes, and it’s the first leg, and you’re like, ah, freaking out, and they ask you like, you want more instructions?Like, no, we just got to go. And we were just so lost. So it was really nice that Sasha was resourceful and figured out that we could use a paddle.Because we picked up a paddle. that was, um, that saved their butts. Yeah, but that was a tricky one.
Sacha: That was a tricky one for sure, but we’re happy, like Sébastien said, that it was in the first leg, and we got to learn after that, maybe when we get instructions to slow down a little bit, take in a bit more motivation and not just jump on a boat and kind of try to go for it.
Tem: What would you guys, what’s one thing that you would tell any future contestants that are wanting to try out for the show?
Sacha: Oh, again, I think we, we just encourage. We were just the right fit, so you never really know, even if you don’t think you’re able to do this kind of race. There’s so many examples of contestants that are older or maybe that have physical disabilities or maybe feel like they’re not going to be able to intellectually be able to conquer a certain kind of challenge, but every year people surmount challenges and even to just apply. It’s a fun process, so we just encourage everybody to just try to have fun with it and just be yourself.
Sebastein : Yeah, honestly, we found that, again, we never expected to be on the show. This was our first time applying, so we were like, you know, never expected that we would So we’re very lucky to have been, but, like, just the application process was honestly, like, it was, it created even just that, like, just bonding for us, even just applying, because you have to sit down together and answer these questionnaires together, and you have to make this video, like, it seems like a silly exercise, because in a way it is, like, it’s just, and it’s fun, and I think, like, we bonded even just answering those questions and doing that video, because you kind of get yourself in that mind of, like, what would we be like on the show? Like, we’re thinking, like, with your partner, I think that’s just, like, a fun exercise, even if you’re not going to be selected, or if you think that we’re, you’re not going like, we never thought we would, so, again, like, our mom literally told us, like, just do it and see what happens, and we were just like, okay, screw it, like, we’ll just, we’ll put it together, we’ll have fun with it, and maybe we’ll never hear back again, and that’s fine if we don’t, and we were okay with that, and obviously, again, we were lucky enough to have gone through the whole process and been selected, but it was a really fun little exercise, so I would always say, yeah, have fun with Be yourself and just do it anyways, because it’ll probably be, you’ll probably like it.
TEM: So just to wrap this up, so we’re all about going the extra mile. So how do you guys go the extra mile? What does that mean to you?
Sacha: You know what? I think that’s a beautiful question. And I think for myself, and maybe this, Sebastien could relate to this as well, but I think going the extra mile, I think, is to stay consistent, perhaps, with your values.And what you want out of life, let’s say you have a certain goal, I think going the extra mile is just being consistent. And that doesn’t mean you need to, you know, wake up every morning at 3am, you know, and go to sleep and, like, really late in the day and just hustle all day. I think the most important thing to get you to that extra mile is to be consistent, show up for yourself, and I think give yourself some grace, be patient. But at the end of the day, try to make yourself proud. Try to stand for what you Believe in and chase those dreams, whatever you have in your mind, whether it’s, you know, being a professional athlete or for myself being a musician, or maybe it’s being a good father, a good mother, maybe being a good student, no matter what you have in your heart that you want to pursue, just show up for yourself, be consistent, and eventually it’ll work out.
Sebastein : Yeah, I think just giving yourself a chance is a big thing. think a lot of people sometimes stop themselves because they might doubt themselves, and that’s completely normal.Like, I mean, we’ve both doubted ourselves in our lives. Like, that happens because there’s a lot of things, and especially when you have goals, usually goals aren’t always something that are very easy to do. So it’s just like, don’t ever, I would say don’t ever give up, but also just give it your best shot at whatever you’re trying to do, whatever you’re passionate about, just give yourself the chance. Because whether you then reach that goal or don’t, you can be at the end of the day, proud of yourself for at least giving yourself the chance.And honestly, sometimes it’s not about actually reaching the goal, it’s just like, I know it’s cliche, but it’s just like, it’s the journey that it takes to get there. And it’s like, it takes the time and the experience you have, getting to whatever place or whatever you’re trying to do, is worth just as much, if not more than the kind of the actual moment of getting to do whatever it is you’re doing and wanting to do. And then I think, yeah, just do what you’re passionate about. We’re very lucky that we are able to, but that’s also because we chose that for ourselves. Like I chose to be an athlete when I could have been a physio at this point. Like I got into a master’s physio. just kind of know I’m going to do this crazy sport where it’s super expensive and it’s crazy and I’m gone all the time.Like, it’s just like, you know, and Sasha’s kind of sacrificing a lot of things in his life to be a musician.Like, it’s like, we’re not necessarily going after careers that are going to make us a lot of money or that are going to, but that doesn’t matter.to us because we love what we do. And at the end of the day, like we would rather sacrifice things or put in just a massive amount of effort.And the things that we’re passionate about, because that will get, like, we will get so much more out of it than if we were to do maybe something that’s a bit more regular in society.So I think just, yeah, give yourself a chance and just do what you love.
Catch a new episode of The Amazing Race Canada Season 12 on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and streams next day on Crave