It was quite an episode full of twists and turns on last night’s Survivor: Gabon. At tribal council, it seemed that Matty was done for, as Crystal and Kenny conspired to get rid of him. Then, in a last minute move, Sugar gave Matty his idol and their alliance sent Crystal packing. For weeks now, Kenny and Crystal have been running the show, voting out Kota tribe members Charlie, Marcus, Randy, and Corinne but now, it looks like Kenny is left all alone in this game while Crystal was left all alone at Ponderosa after being voted out. These days, she’s got Hollywood dreams on the brain but today, she took some time to speak to BuddyTV in an exclusive interview. Read on to find out who Crystal feels is the real mastermind of this game and why she lost so many darn challenges!
Tell me how you ended up getting on Survivor and what made you want to be part of the show.
I have always been a fan of Survivor so when opportunity presented itself, I went to a casting call in Virginia and CBS called me back.
What was your original strategy going into the game? Did you have one?
Actually, I wanted to be like a low-key player as far as the challenge but definitely garner up a lot of alliances and get the numbers on my side and in the end, not have my name written down at tribal council.
Is there anything that you saw on the show this season, when you watched it back, that surprised you, that you didn’t know that people thought of you?
Yeah, I’m quite surprised that, on the show, as many contestants disliked me because I thought I got along well with everybody. It’s just that, when they wanted to know something, I told them the truth – especially seeing Sugar last night, conspiring against me, that really hurt. I was rooting for her the whole way and we were in an alliance the whole time.
On last night’s episode, if you had it your way, who was your target? Who did you want to see go home?
Definitely Matty. He was the one that I was going after.
Is there anything personal about that or just that he’s a huge threat to you?
He was a huge threat and also, he was not stable in the game. He flipped alliances so many times and it was just starting to get frustrating and I didn’t know if I could trust him or not.
You did align yourself with Kenny, who has been calling himself the mastermind this season. Is he the mastermind?
Kenny, so far, has been playing a great strategic game and that’s what helped us go far but I will label the mastermind this season: Sugar.
In his interview with BuddyTV, Randy said that if you, Kenny, and Sugar made it to the end, he would walk off the set. What is his hatred for you guys? What’s the problem?
He didn’t like our alliance from the beginning because we were strong. We were Fang and we were losing and we were voting out people so Randy obviously didn’t like me then but he made it far in the game and he should be happy that he’s able to cast a vote.
You took a lot of heat this season from some of your fellow players because you lost so many challenges. What was going on? I thought you were an athlete.
Those challenges are so hard! I am an athlete, but in the category of track and field. I mean, I spend my whole life training and running around a circle but I get here, on Survivor, and they have me doing some crazy stuff. I was like, “What in the world?” Half those challenges, I didn’t even know what to do! I was thrown into a situation, hoping that I would come out alive.
I see this season, on CBS’s website, that they’re showing life after you get voted out at Ponderosa. How was that for you?
Oh my God, Ponderosa sucked. The people that were there just made me so sick. I mean, it was all Kota people and they didn’t like me and I didn’t like them.
I was gonna say, they all said they had a good time but I could see where you didn’t have that much fun with them.
I totally hated it.
As a member of the jury, what are you looking for when you cast your vote? What kind of player do you want to give a million dollars to?
A player that’s been loyal to me and a player that’s played a physical and strategic game and they weren’t as cutthroat or dirty. That’s who I’m gonna give my million dollar vote to.
What’s in the future for you? What does life after Survivor look like now?
Hopefully, Hollywood will come calling and they saw some potential that they would be willing to work with. If not, I will probably go into coaching on the collegiate level.
– Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
