Stars On Mars: Ariel Winter reveals she started acting at age four and her ‘experience was rotten’

Ariel Winter revealed that she didn’t decide herself to go into acting on Monday’s episode of Stars On Mars on Fox.

The 25-year-old actress opened up after being asked by fellow ‘astronaut’ Ronda Rousey, 36, if it was her decision to get into acting. 

‘I was four,’ Ariel said. 

‘Oh, wow,’ Ronda responded. 

‘You don’t really decide anything at four,’ Ariel added.

New ‘base commander’ Tinashe, 30, looked on as Ariel shared that it wasn’t an ideal situation.

‘My experience was rotten,’ Ariel said.

Ronda asked if that kind of experience was ‘inevitable’.

‘No, no. Well, it depends on the parent. It depends on your parent,’ said Ariel, who was emancipated from her parents at age 17 after her older sister Shanelle Gray took over her legal guardianship.

Ariel’s family drama became public in 2012 when her elder sister Shanelle accused their mother Chrisoula of physical and emotional abuse towards Ariel.

At the time Ariel was just 14 years old and Shanelle, who is 20 years her senior, asked for and obtained guardianship of her little sister. Chrisoula staunchly denied the abuse allegations but after the agreement was reached she and Shanelle jointly said: ‘The family has moved beyond the conflict.’

Ariel in May 2015 announced that she was officially emancipated. 

Tinashe in a confessional reflected on Ariel’s strength.

‘I’m really impressed with Ariel. You really have to be a strong personality and a strong woman and have a really strong sense of self to be operating in the entertainment industry. I relate to that,’ Tinashe said.

Ariel was one of 10 celebrity ‘astronauts’ who remained at the start of the episode titled Fire In the Hole. They were living together in a habitat located in the desert locale of Coober Pedy in the Australian Outback.

Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon, 33, said some of the ‘astronauts’ were starting to get cabin fever.

‘Is this place driving me crazy?’ Adam said. ‘Yeah, of course. The only good thing is that I was crazy before I got here.’

Porsha Williams Guobadia, 41, was convinced she heard a dog in the middle of the night.

‘I’m losing my damn mind,’ Porsha said.

NFL player Richard Sherman, 35, said the tough part was being away from his family.

‘The mental side of this is torture,’ said former cyclist Lance Armstrong, 51.

Ronda broke down crying on a video call with her family. 

Mission command sent in an emotional support robot dog to cheer them up and told them they would take turns looking after it.

‘Arf, arf, arf ” the robot dog said.

The mission computer said that Lance and Tinashe had to walk the dog. Once outside, Lance said he didn’t want to be the next base commander, but Tinashe said she thought she would be a good option.

Lance said in a confessional he would put his money on Tinashe to be there until the end.

‘She’s highly competitive, ambitious, and she’s very likable,’ Lance said.

Adam thought Ariel would make a strong base commander.

‘You need to step up,’ Adam said to Ariel.

‘Mission director’ William Shatner, 92, radioed in and said it was time to pick a new base commander. Adam suggested Ariel, but the group voted for Tinashe to take the lead. Tinashe told former NFL star running back Marshawn Lynch aka Beast Mode that she was taking the commander’s room.

The next morning, Tinashe assigned duties to her crew. She told comedian Natasha Leggero, 49, to harvest vegetables with Ronda while Marshawn and Richard were assigned to lead the day’s workout.

‘I do feel a little useless around some of these Olympians and professional athletes,’ Natasha said.

Vanderpump Rules castmate Tom Schwartz, 40, walked into the workout room.

‘I’ve seen some alliances forming while I’m here,’ Schwartz said. ‘For me, I feel like I’m starting to crack a little bit.’

Schwartz was worried because he had been in the bottom three recently. Ronda and Natasha gathered vegetables and Ronda said the garden was keeping her sane.

‘It’s tough living off freeze-dried ice cream,’ Ronda said.

Natasha said in a confessional that she was scared to come on the show because she had heard that Ronda was a ‘b****.’

‘She’s not a b**** at all,’ Natasha said. ‘She’s got a huge heart.’

While the group slept a fire broke out in the biodome.

‘Risk of explosion detected,’ the computer said. ‘Evacuate immediately.’

They put on their suits and then ran outside and the dome exploded. The computer said the Hab was secured and they could go back inside. On the sixth day of the experiment, the group woke up to the loud siren that there was an incoming message.

Shatner said the explosion in the biodome destroyed their food supply.

‘You need to repair the biodome and replant your crops before it’s too late,’ Shatner said. ‘Because if you run out of food you may or may not have to eat each other.’

Shatner said the mission would test their survival skills.

Tinashe picked Ariel as her mission specialist. The computer told her she needed to fix the hole in the biodome and then pressure test it to make sure it’s sealed. Porsha and Lance were told to climb ladders with Marshawn and Richard holding them. They suited up and got into the rover and drove off to the outside of the dome.

‘I’m sweating my a** off,’ Lance said.

Once successfully sealed, Tinashe had the next crew enter the biodome.

‘Oh my god,’ Schwartz said when he walked in. ‘It’s a disaster. All of our veggies are dead.’

The computer told Schwartz and Ronda to go to the septic room and transfer 94 cups of ‘human’ bio waste and mix it with ‘Martian’ soil and put it in the planter box.

 The show said it was only simulated human waste.

‘Back on Earth, I have been deep in a rut but thank God I was able to come here, Mars,’ Schwartz said. ‘Get that fresh perspective. So for this, my role was, to be frank, shovel s***.’

Schwartz said that being on the bottom three ‘sucks’ and he planned to go above and beyond on the mission.

‘I was born for this s***,’ Schwarz cracked.

‘It really did smell like vomit and s***,’Natasha said.

Natasha started gagging and couldn’t stop. Adam started working on his own, pouring the waste into the planter box. Ariel saw Natasha just standing there so she assigned her to cut up the remaining potatoes. They then worked as a group to replant the potatoes.

‘The mission was successful,’ Tinashe said.

Shatner radioed in and told Tinashe it was time to choose which crew members she felt earned the survivalist patch and who would be extracted from the simulation.

‘The only people who were somewhat unnecessary were Marshawn and Richard, period,’ Tinashe said.

Tinashe said Ronda, Porsha, Lance, Adam, and Schwartz were all mission critical and voted for them to stay.

‘I don’t want to be in the bottom three anymore,’ Schwartz said. ‘I’ve had enough of that. I’m a s*** shoveling pioneer, and I got the stains on my shoes to prove it.’

Schwartz was excited.

‘To not be in the bottom three today felt really good,’ Schwartz said. ‘I think I’m a future dark horse.’

Ronda said she didn’t want to lose either Richard or Marshawn.

‘If I didn’t hold that ladder they wouldn’t have been able to do s***,’ Marshawn said. ‘I gave you what you asked for because at the end of the day I want to stay on Mars.’

Tinashe asked Natasha why she deserved to be there.

‘I don’t eat that f***ing much,’ Natasha said. ‘I put my hands in s*** and I really feel like I could contribute in new ways that I haven’t quite been allowed to yet.’

Everyone laughed.

‘I think I deserve to be here because I held the ladder like no other person could hold a ladder,’ Marshawn said.

Natasha cracked up.

‘I love Marshawn but it’s been very obvious that he doesn’t put the most effort in,’ Ariel said.

Richard said he thought Natasha and Marshawn were more valuable to the team going forward.

‘I feel like I’ve done my part,’ Richard said.

Tinashe decided to save Natasha and Marshawn, sending Richard home.

‘When Richard voted himself out, he had to leave,’ Ariel said.

Richard said he accomplished what he set out to do, but didn’t expect to make the friendships that he did.

‘The hardest part about Mars is not getting to see my kids,’ Richard said.

With only nine members left the ‘astronauts’ stepped up their social game chatting with each other about strategy.

‘This is a team,’ Ariel said to Porsha. ‘We’re here to survive.’

‘I didn’t know that alliances were forming that hard,’ Tinashe said.

‘We should be careful,’ Ariel said. ‘We’ll go next.’

Stars On Mars will return next week on Fox.