Never trust a pirate. That’s the theme that’s becoming apparent on the premiere season of Mark Burnett’s Pirate Master. Jupiter Mendoza had been loyal to Captain Azmyth all season long. What does that get her? A one-way ticket home. After alerting the captain that a mutiny was being discussed, the Captain stabbed Jupiter in the back, after she had been his confidante throughout the season. Jupiter, the latest cast adrift, took some time to speak with us this morning about her time on Pirate Master.
Below you will find both the written transcript and the full mp3 audio of the interview.
Can you tell us how you ended up on Pirate Master, did you audition or did they find you?
I actually am friends with Courtney from Survivor: Panama and she called me up one day and said, “Jupiter, I have the perfect show for you, want to be on TV?” And I was like, ” Oh yeah, sounds cool, what is it?” She’s like, “You know, it’s a pirate show, this is kind of the gist of it, but you have to go in tomorrow.” I was like, “Wow that’s kind of quick”. I went in, I went in for the audition, and realized that this was the perfect show for me and it kind of just took off from there, it was kind of a whirlwind of events that happened within a month, and I got it and I was really excited. It was mainly Courtney from Survivor that helped me.
Were you a fan of shows like Survivor and reality competition shows in general? Had you always wanted to be on a reality show?
Honestly, yes. I thought if there was anything that I was going to be known for, it would be for being myself. So, being on a reality show is the perfect thing for that. But yes, I’ve always been a big fan of reality shows, from the ones on VH1 to MTV to regular channel 2 , channel 4, so I’m really excited about it.
Going onto the ship and into Pirate Master what were your expectations and what was most different than what you expected once you got there?
Well I’d have to say I wasn’t… I didn’t really have expectations. I think it’s something that I’ve actually tried not to live my life by is expectations. I really didn’t know what to expect, the one thing that was a small expectation, I thought maybe we were going to have a little more food. Mark Burnett said beforehand, “Oh, don’t worry there’s plenty of food.” And then once we’re on the ship I’m realizing that there’s not as much food as I thought we were going to have, so that was one and only thing that I felt didn’t exceed my expectations.
Watching the episodes now from home, how do you feel about the way you were portrayed on the show, and was there anything edited out that you wish they had shown?
You know, I was very pleased actually at the way they edited me. I was really nervous at first because editing can go either way, it can either go for you or against you. I feel like they pretty much portrayed me and how I really am. There’s a couple of things that they didn’t put in that I was a little disappointed about, like eating breakfast with the captains for my birthday, and there was another time when we all went out onto the island and went into this like huuge orchard of bananas and mangos and we were catching fish. So there was a couple things, actually several things, that aren’t in the show that I kind of wish they would have put in. But as for editing for myself, I’m OK with it, I’m actually pretty pleased with it.
Lets talk about Azmyth for a second here. You were pretty loyal to him throughout the whole season it seemed, what do you think made him turn on you in last night’s show?
I think that sometimes I feel like he was swayed into it more than anything, because I felt that him and I had a pact, so I was like “I got your back, you got mine.” We established that early on in the show. I don’t necessarily think that it was all him, I think that Jay being very manipulative, I think he swayed that vote with the whole black spot, as did the majority of the people that got the black spot. He was pretty much the ringleader and he did a very good job of it, but I think that Azmyth got caught up in that, because he knew, and I told him, this was another thing they didn’t show, I told him I’m not going to mutiny against you, and unfortunately my time came faster because of that and thats something that I didn’t really take into account.
What was your confidence level at during Pirates Court? Did you think that there was a chance you would be cast adrift?
I gave myself a fifty-fifty chance on whether or not it could be me. In the beginning before Pirates Court, before you could actually bid on the pardon, at that point in time I was like “I’m not going anywhere.” But as time went on I started actually really thinking about what had just happened and all of the things that had actually just gone on and I was like “Wow, I probably should have bid on the pardon,” which I did not do. My confidence level was a little too high, you know, I should have just bid on the pardon is what I should have done. I didn’t, unfortunately.
Looking back on Pirate Master, what will you take away most from the entire experience?
In terms of just the whole experience altogether and learning to run the ship is amazing. You know, the friendships that I’ve made and that are still continuing, Azmyth and I still talk, Laurel and I still talk, Sean and Nessa, there’s a group of us that still talk and I think that taking away friendships and the experience and actually learning a little bit about cooking was something really cool that i took away from it as well.
(Interview Conducted by Oscar Dahl)
(Image Courtesy of CBS)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
