PAGE 16 • GO! MAGAZINE
Thursday, March 25, 2021 • ThE BuLLETIN
bendbulletin.com/gosee
Bend runner, good Samaritan
Mehra to appear on game show
BY DAVID JASPER • The Bulletin
P
rior to one year ago, Rebecca Mehra, of Bend, was already well known from a track career at Stanford University and a professional runner for Oiselle, and
an Olympic hopeful in the 800 and 1,500 meter races. Then she went viral, after tweeting about how she came to the aid of an elderly couple too scared to
leave their vehicle in a Safeway parking lot as the COVID-19 curtain began descending a year ago, leading to all sorts of national attention.
At 8 p.m. Sunday, Mehra, 26, will compete
as a contestant on NBC’s “Ellen’s Game of
Games,” comedian and talk show host El-
len DeGeneres’ prime-time show featuring
wacky games such as “Blindfolded Musical
Chairs” and “You Bet Your Wife,” along with
new ones like “Name Dropper” and “Burst
of Knowledge,” invented for the show’s
in-progress fourth season.
I’m curious what you’ve been up to over
the past year, but of course want to talk
to you about the show. … You can’t divulge
the outcome, I’m sure.
I cannot, or else I will get in a lot of trou-
ble, I think. But you’ll see it (laughs).
Could you tell me in your words about
the show and what you did on there?
Yeah, it is, well, Ellen’s game show. I think
it kind of spurred from her kind of doing
fun games on her show that then got adopted
into a game show. Even in the pandemic — we
were all tested and there was a lot of protocol —
but it just kind of felt like a party when you’re
on set. Just really fun, lighthearted games. Of
course, it meant something and it was a compe-
tition, but it was all for laughs, and kind of a nice
opportunity to do something that feels good
and is fun in this not-as-fun year we’ve had.
(Games) are … things like “Blindfolded Musical
Chairs,” where you have a blindfold on — ac-
tually, it looks like goggles with googly eyes on
it — and you’re doing a dance and you have to
find a chair when the music stops.
It sounds like you had fun.
Q:
A:
Q:
A:
Q: Yeah, it was really an experience. It was
A: a different experience than normal, I
from (“The Ellen DeGeneres Show”) reached
out to me. I ended up having a couple of con-
versations with them. They weren’t really sure
what they were doing with the show. This was
before they’d even restarted doing things on
set with testing. It was such an uncertain time
… (I) didn’t end up going on the show, but the
woman who interviewed me for the “Ellen”
show recommended me for “Game of Games.”
So then I went through a separate try-out for
the game show … basically a series of mini
games on Zoom. And then I got the callback.
… I found out I could be on the show, I think
in July, and I think it was filmed at the end of
August into early September.
I assume you got to meet and interact
with Ellen.
I did. I got to give her a hug, which was
very cool and interesting.
I’m curious how she came across, and
if you paid any attention to the contro-
versy. (Last year, reports emerged accusing
“Ellen” of being a toxic workplace, leading to
reduced viewership of her daytime talk show.)
A little bit, especially because that was
happening right before I was expected
to go to Los Angeles and film on her game
show. I can only speak to my own experience,
and she was very, very nice. She was on set
the whole time. With COVID protocols, peo-
ple were really getting cycled in and out very
quickly, everyone’s in intense PPE, except for
the physical people who are getting filmed
on set. … In between takes, she was really
friendly, having conversations with everyone,
asking where everyone was from, if they were
Q:
A:
Q:
Warner Brothers/NBC
Rebecca Mehra, of Bend, facing host Ellen DeGeneres, plays the game “Peaky Blindfolds” in the up-
coming episode of “Ellen’s Game of Games,” airing Sunday on NBC.
A:
think, given the pandemic. There was a quar-
antine hotel. … I think I got COVID tested at
least four times while I was there. And they
don’t let any of the folks who are there for
the competition interact. I think part of it is
game rules, like they want to prevent anyone
from chatting with other folks about what
the games are like, and then, too, of course,
COVID and keeping everyone separate. So
it was in some ways an odd experience. Typ-
ically, there’s a studio audience, which there
wasn’t, and you get to have a significant
other or family members come and watch
you, which was not the case this time (and)
would’ve been really fun.
How did you come to be on the show?
Q: Yeah, so back when we chatted in
A:
March, that story went completely viral.
I ended up getting connected with some of
the most powerful celebrities. I got retweeted
by Oprah and Ellen, actually, and someone
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