Stephen Baldwin Quits 'I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here'

Being a man of faith, Stephen Baldwin did all he could to stay positive in the jungles of Costa Rica on 'I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here.' But, in the end, he threw in the towel with less than a week left.

During the course of the show, "Stevie B" paired with John Salley on several challenges, baptized Spencer Pratt in the river and generally tried to keep the peace within the camp.

Stephen dished to AOL TV via conference call about why he dropped out, what he really thought of his fellow campers and if he'd be into appearing on another reality show. -- By Katy Kroll

There were only five days left when you quit the show, why didn't you stick it out?
Well, by the eighth day, I had already received 125 pretty severe insect bites, and I have this allergy to shellfish that could induce anaphylactic shock. What happened was, the medical team there explained to me that I actually had been suffering a similar reaction to anaphylactic shock because of the number of bug bites I had. So that was my situation on the eighth day, and I did stay an additional 11 days. They put me on high doses of Benadryl, and with just five days left, my strength, my health, really my immune system had so deteriorated, I started to get a stomach bug. You didn't see all this on the show. I think that if I had stayed five more days I'd have run the risk of somebody sticking me with an EpiPen, and I just didn't think that was in the best interest of my health. I left the show last Friday afternoon, and spent most of the weekend vomiting. Two of my bug bites had become an infestation of fly larvae under my skin, so we had to remove those. That was kind of gross. It was like out of a bad sci-fi movie.



They didn't really play up your illness on the show. The angle was that you missed your family, and there have been some personal issues reported in the press. Did those also play a role in you leaving?
Of course it did. I hadn't really spoken to my family in 21 days. There was communication that I had through third-party representation. My 12-year-old was missing me a lot. I did receive a letter from them while we were there that I read off camera, but [leaving] was mostly because of my medical situation.

Was this tougher than your time on 'Celebrity Fear Factor'?
Oh, this was way, way beyond anything I ever did before. I mean, I lost 22 pounds over 18 days, and that's a fact. When you only have a cup of rice and beans for breakfast, a cup of rice and beans for lunch and then a meal that you share with everybody that's about one-third of what you'd normally eat, it's difficult. That, coupled with the elements themselves, being in the jungle and the downpours of rain, all of it was really just way wilder than I anticipated. We really don't realize how good we have it. Regardless of celebrity, or whatever, there are so many things we just take for granted. Like it was really weird to, on and off over the 21 days I was out there, mentally freak out about how much I wanted a cup of coffee. [Laughs]

In the beginning, you didn't think Sanjaya Malakar was going to make it ...
[Laughs] I know, I'm so totally eating my Sanjaya hat there. I thought homeboy was going to punk on us in the first five minutes. It turns out he had this kind of Mowgli vibe going on that nobody could have anticipated.

Your bother Daniel didn't get along with Janice Dickinson. What's your take on her?
She likes to be rowdy, she likes to cause trouble; it's part of her personality. I, probably more than anyone else on the show, did my best to stick up for Janice. I really feel like there's a wonderful person underneath all of her shenanigans. I think she's great, she makes me laugh. She's so wacky. She can be a bit overbearing, but I don't think that's such a bad thing.

Do you think Heidi and Spencer Pratt's faith is genuine?
Absolutely, particularly in the case of Heidi. She's a devout born-again Christian; she was raised in the faith. It's not easy to be in Hollywood and understand what line to walk. I've obviously made a pretty clear line in the sand, and I'm pretty serious about what I'm doing. I think Spencer is still very young in his faith and in his career. I look forward to seeing his growth in the future.

Daniel mentioned you guys might get your own reality show. Does that interest you?
Actually, for about 10 months now, we've been developing a couple of concepts. Now there's talk after this program that Daniel and I might do something together, which I'm wide open to as long as the format and the thrust of the show is something that really makes sense. If you're not having a good time, what's the point of trying to force a square peg into a round hole? So yeah, I would be stoked if we could develop something cool and have it come out next year. I think we're going to go back into the jungle and find a rare tribe of pygmies and try to become their kings. [Laughs] Just kidding.