Survivor Gabon: Interview with Corinne – “Crystal’s Gotten Kind of Robbed.”

[Mariner]

Here at long last is the interview we participated in with Corinne Kaplan last Friday. Corinne, the 29 year old, pharmaceutical sales rep from Los Angeles is just as outspoken and bold on the phone as she was on the show. She had a lot to say about the remaining players and her alliance and a few surprising observations.



I was curious. Do you still hate everyone as much as you said last night?

There’s only one of us that I really hated. Everyone else they’re all right. I would never hang out with them again voluntarily. They can live. There’s only one person I really hate.

Can I take a guess as to who that is?

Sure.

Sugar, isn’t it?

Yep. You’ve got it.

I thought your plan with Bob and the fake idol was brilliant but it had one serious flaw which is why I’m talking to you right now.

Right, well the flaw is that . . . you have to understand when I started playing the game I was playing it thinking everyone else was rational, practical, logical players and they weren’t. So eventually I decided to save myself I needed a completely ridiculous plan because that’s what these people would fall for. They don’t listen to reason. So we come up with this insane plan to use yet another fake idol made by the same guy that made the other one last round. I tell this ridiculous story and I do this great acting job trying to convince Kenny. What I didn’t realize is that Crystal and Kenny bought the fact that it was a real idol which is amazing, right? That’s the hard part. But these people who let Sugar walk around for over twenty days with her idol have now decided that this needs to be flushed out when after Day 36 it’s null and void anyway. How could I possibly have thought . . . and I told Kenny over and over again well whatever I’m going to use it either way. To show solidarity if you guys don’t vote with me I’m not going to think that you’re with me if you don’t vote with me so vote with me so that I know you are with me. I’m not going home. I have an idol.

Did you and Bob talk about that? If that’s what they decided to do?

You know Bob and I just never thought that they were going to try and flush out the idol and you have to understand too that the goal when you say flush out an idol is for me to use it if it’s real I would saved myself but either way they should have voted Matty out. Because worst case scenario then Matty goes home and he’s a much bigger immunity threat. And, another thing I couldn’t understand is there are five people in this alliance. You cannot all be in the final. You’ve got to jump ship to save yourself. If you’d jumped with me then you at least guarantee yourself a one in four instead of a one in five chance.

Yeah, you’re right.

It totally logically made sense. My plan was great except I didn’t realize I was playing with mentally handicapped people.

I talked to Randy a couple weeks ago about rational thinking so I know what you are talking about.

So frustrating.

It also seemed really emotional when the family members showed up.

Oh God, yeah. That was incredible.

How much of a boost was that for you?

It was bittersweet because my brother gets there and it was amazing to see him but when he got there I had to tell him, Chad, I’ve got no prayer. I don’t know what we’re going to do and I’m listening to Bob and Bob’s doing the same thing to Peg. Me, Bob, Peg and Chad are hanging out in the forest while everyone else was in the hut. Bob and I are strategizing and telling Peg and my brother we're just completely helpless. We’re like listen guys, one of us is going home next round so it’s nice that you’re here and yay I made it this long but not much longer.

What did you like the most and the least about Gabon?

The people or the territory or like what do you mean?

I mean what did you take away from this that you remember the most and what part of it did you just like hate?

Well, the most for sure is the friends I made out there. They’re like family to me now. I can’t imagine. I don’t know how the casting people did this but I swear to you like me, Marcus, Randy, and Charlie we were the best of friends on the show. There was nothing fake about that. We really, really liked each other and I will have them forever. I can’t say the same for the other mutants that I was on the show with. They don’t like each other at all. That was amazing. That was the best experience. To be able to share that with them and even though I got voted out I got to go to Ponderosa and then it was the four of us on a seven person jury knowing we get to pick who the winner is there was still some sweetness in that and I get to go and have a couple drinks with them. It was awesome. Six days with them in Ponderosa.

Actually, I was going to ask you that. What’s it like hanging out with the boys there?

It’s amazing. It was exactly what I wanted to do in Gabon. They don’t show much of this but Charlie would yell at me we have to stop hanging like this. People are on to us! When Randy was going out in a blaze of glory I had to separate myself from him and I’ve never been more miserable in the game than when I couldn’t hang out with the people I wanted to hang out with. I was forced to be pretend nice to the people I didn’t like. So when you’re at Ponderosa, you get to do whatever you want. Now, all the sudden . . . I’ll tell you this that whoever the next people who come to Ponderosa they are aside from Bob we didn’t like anybody else. There is no more interaction. We had nothing to do with the other people. We’re having our own party at Ponderosa.

What were you thinking when Bob first approached you about the plan with the second fake idol?

Well, when he first came over, of course, I would love to believe there was a chance there was another idol floating around but you have to know that I know Marcus very well. Marcus is very, very smart. Marcus would never have gone to tribal without an idol. He just wouldn’t do that so it wasn’t very believable but while Bob was pitching it . . . until that thing happened with Randy which I can explain if you guys if you want to know what really happened. Bob’s no liar. He would never lie to my face. He’s just really not that guy. So, when he said that of course my first instinct is to believe him but I mean literally a nanosecond after I was like really and he says no not really but is it believable?

You kind of led me into my next question because I did want to talk to you about Randy’s blindside and that fake idol?

Okay so this is what really happened and I don’t know why they don’t show this . . . they pulled Bob aside. He was definitely the next to go even though they hated Randy and you know my episode you saw they said Bob was the next to go if he didn’t win immunity before Corinne because he’s such a big immunity threat so they pulled Bob aside and said look we really hate Randy and we want to embarrass him and if you agree to do this we will save you for one round you will buy yourself three more days in Gabon if you agree to give him that idol and tell him that it is real. And, Bob did it. And, you already saw when he came back from tribal in my episode how absolutely disgusted he was. He said to me Corinne I would rather be sitting here in the jury booth than have had to sit through that. This is not the person I am. He was horrified. I mean really, really, really upset about it. And you see he flipped out. That man doesn’t flip out. He flipped out on Sugar.

It seemed like there was a lot of stress between Bob and yourself with Sugar. Can you explain that some more too?

Sure. You know the thing with Sugar is that there is nothing she ever did specifically to me. She was just incredibly irritating to live with. She’s very high maintenance. She’s really, really irritating. And, it’s one thing you know; Marcus is not high maintenance but if he was he’s winning all our challenges for us, he’s catching all the fish and brings a lot to the table. If he wants to sleep in a certain place in the hut, wants to make the rice now instead of later, let’s let him do it. So when you’re with someone like Sugar who is absolutely deadweight who has done nothing to contribute to the tribe and you have her barking out orders at people it’s not okay and it becomes extremely irritating and after awhile . . . you know the goal is not to get into fights with people that’s bad business so you have to kind of hold it in and all you really want to say to her is, you know, “Shut the f*** up!” But you can’t so. . . when she was giving me a lecture and we got into it last week I wanted to leap across the table or the hut and strangle her but I can’t. What good is that going to do me? Get me kicked off the show, you know.

You kind of called her out last night even after you were voted out.

So besides the fact that I already got into this on the recap this is an unemployed, unemployed waitress with no college degree who lives off the kindness of others who is giving me advice on life. Now she goes on and she’s trying to teach me to be a better person. She’s rolling around laughing on the floor during a tribal council which is probably the most somber thing that you do, you know what I mean? You respect other people playing the game making it as far as they did. Even if Sugar had been voted out you would never have caught me doing that. That was just so unnecessary.

I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had.

Yeah, but you know there was other incidents too. When Paloma was voted out in the very beginning that was the first tribal we went to Sugar was acting like she was on her way to the Oscars. She was like does my hair look good. She didn’t bring her bag with her she’s never been happier because Paloma was going home. It’s just not right. There’s a certain level of respect that goes into the game. You don’t take joy when somebody goes home at tribal no matter who they are.

You and Bob together last night obviously you came up with that plan with the idol. Did you underestimate Kenny and Crystal’s ability to look into the future and see what was going to happen?

I overestimated them if anything.

In what way?

Kenny who considers himself to be a mastermind has no long term sight whatsoever. And, again, there are five of you! You cannot all be in the finals! Your best bet is to go with two desperate people like Bob and I who have no other option and be in the majority there. I mean it’s so stupid. I thought that Kenny and Crystal were smarter than they were. And, they’re not.

Do you feel like you got an unfair edit?

No. I mean I was a little irritated there were a few episodes in the beginning where basically they have me invisible. I don’t say anything. And, you have to know, you’re talking to me and you can see that I’m not someone that’s ever invisible. I don’t really know why they did that but they did and so that kind of sucks because I think for the most part in the beginning nobody knew who I was. I didn’t really come out until maybe the last five or six episodes and that’s unfortunate because I was just as fiery in the beginning as I was in the end but you just didn’t see it.

Do you think maybe that’s because your tribe kept winning challenges?

Oh yeah, definitely. Listen if someone had told me that if you win you’re basically cut out of the show I probably would have thrown some challenges. I mean really it sucks to sit there watching these shows and you’re seeing like GC. and Crystal and Kenny getting the majority of the screen time and like nobody wants to listen to them at all I mean much less perpetually episode after episode I mean so enough already. Trust me you guys would have thought it was way more interesting to watch what was going on at my tribe but they don’t agree with me I guess.


Whose edit so far do you think is the most skewed?

I want to say this; nobody’s edit is done until their last episode and you can see from mine nobody really knew who I was until a few episodes ago and now you see my personality. I think for the first part of the show Sugar’s getting a sweetheart edit but you’ll see as I’m seeing that they're actually starting to give her a much more accurate edit. I mean she is an ass**** and she’s stupid and she’s very annoying and that’s starting to really come out. I mean what kind of strategic move is it to piss off the members of the jury. There’s four of us now. I mean I can’t tell you who will get the million but I can tell you who won’t. So that’s the worst strategy I’ve ever heard of. And, I think you’ll start seeing more what she really is. She’s dumb.

As far as the most inaccurate edit so far? I think Crystal’s gotten kind of robbed. Listen this is a girl that voted me out and I have no hard feelings. This girl was very, very tolerable to live with, very soft spoken. I mean she goes buck wild in her confessionals and sometimes at tribal but in real camp life she never says a word. I mean she speaks just above a whisper in real life and she’s not the racial stereotype that they’re making her out to be. So, I feel sorry for her. It’s bad enough she’s an Olympian that managed to do worse than somebody with no legs at a challenge but on top of that they’ve got her seeming like a crazy woman.

That’s very interesting.

You would be hard pressed to find someone that was on the show that actually liked Sugar. The only person that liked her was Ace and you saw what she did to him and everybody else can’t stand her. And, pretty much everybody is fine with Crystal. And, if you were watching the show and you didn’t know that you’d probably think that everyone hated Crystal. I think viewers don’t like Crystal.

What do you think of Kenny now that you’ve watched the show?

You know, he has to spend the rest of his life being Kenny. That’s its own curse. I think that Kenny is a nice guy who got a little too big for his britches and you don’t go around on Survivor . . . don’t you know enough not to say I’m the mastermind. He said to his sister when she gets there everybody loves me. That’s a little much don’t you think? Look, I’m not a big ego person and I always tell it like it is. That’s one of the biggest problems that I had with some of the other contestants. Sugar basically thought everyone wanted her. This is a pin up model who’s never seen the inside of a gym. I don’t know what the hell she’s a pin up for. There were a lot of egos flying around and they were totally unwarranted and that’s unfortunate. You’ve got somebody like Marcus who is totally humble. He was the bachelor of the year in Cosmo, you know? You have Charlie who’s extremely good looking, brilliant, in one of the top three law firms in the country and he’s self conscious about taking on the math problem he throws it Bob’s way on the challenge where we ended up having to get rid of Paloma with the flags. These overinflated egos that just have no basis. The people that actually have a legitimate reason to feel good about themselves are really modest.


So what do you think of Matty?

Honestly, I think Matty is just above retarded and that’s just me speaking honestly. I don’t think he’s very bright. I think he’s nice, sort of but he has no scruples. Did you guys think it was endearing to watch him propose to his girlfriend? Don’t you think he could have picked a quiet spot? Was a jumbotron not available? Like, that’s the lamest thing I’ve ever seen, and it’s such an obvious ploy for camera time. I don’t really get on board with that. The other thing now I know a lot more about Matty. Matty inherited a good sum of money and blew it. Do you really want to give that person more money? Does he really deserve a second chance? It’s just not the kind of person that I would guess get behind.

Getting back to the editing, can you explain why everyone is listening to Kenny so religiously?

Oh, that’s easy because Kenny is the smartest of those morons. Sugar, you can watch it’s ridiculous that she turned on Ace. That kid loved her and that’s the only person on the show that liked her. I mean he took such good care of her and for her to listen to Kenny and then turn just goes to show you how gullible and how they’re just not bright people. I don’t really know how else to explain it. I mean Kenny’s not the smartest but he’s smarter than the rest of them. You’re watching him convince Crystal when she knows better than to vote me out. She knows Matty’s a threat. She’s conflicted over it. Because Kenny told her to she votes for me? Come on.

It is interesting because Charlie mentioned it and so did Randy, we’re not seeing any of this Sugar stuff that you guys are talking about.

It’s unfortunate. I believe that you will. I feel like you’re going to have to see it at some point. They can’t hide it forever.

So what was your original strategy going in?

Well my first thought was I wanted to be a powerhouse for a female. In the beginning you never vote off powerful females, you vote off weak so I wanted to make sure I was really well trained for it. I also have a theory that you don’t bitch, you don’t whine, you don’t cry about it. You’re on Survivor, you knew what you were signing on for, and no one wants to hear someone whining about how hungry you are. We’re all hungry. I knew going in that I wasn’t going to be that kind of person I was going to have a good sense of humor the whole time and I was going to be somebody who worked really hard at the challenges and at camp and I did. My other theory going in was that I wanted to have an alliance of somebody that needed me and somebody that I needed. Originally, I thought Marcus would be a good candidate for somebody I needed and Bob would be a good candidate for somebody who needed me but I got really lucky and you can’t predict it it just depends on who plays the game with you and I got Charlie who’s amazing and Randy who was like the best surprise of all. Going in I knew it had to be a tight three. In the beginning the kept calling us the onion alliance I never called us that I always called it ménage a cota because that’s way cuter. And, we were very loyal. You would have been much more interested to see if you put us five in the end. Watching us go at it with each other would be a much more intelligent thing than whoever’s left now.

Speaking of names, what do you think of Nobag?

What do you think I think of Nobag? It’s stupid; stupid and thought of by Kenny, the smartest one. At that point, really am I going to argue over the name? I was like great, great idea.

If for some reason Sugar does end up in the final two, what are you going to say to her?

I will say this. I’ve always been a big fan of telling people what I think to their face. It’s just not something you do on Survivor until you’re voted out. If she’s in the final three, you can guarantee I will say whatever I want to.

Charlie has said in some of his interviews that he was told that Kenny used a slur regarding his sexual orientation. What can you tell us about that?


I heard the same thing Charlie did. We were told that when we were on separate tribes the comment was made that he was the fag on Kota. And, obviously, I am a huge gay rights fan and Charlie’s my best friend so that was disturbing and I don’t know how that plays in to what happened decision wise but it was a really peculiar vote. He didn’t say it to me but I heard the same thing Charlie did. We were both told that.

What haven’t viewers seen on tv that you think would surprise them?

What would surprise them? I don’t know. I think maybe if they saw the actual amount of times Sugar cried that would be surprising. I don’t know there’s so much that goes on in the time that you’re there that you don’t get to see especially when you’re on the winning tribe. You know what I think would have been really interesting if they showed more of the turtle and that whole killing of the turtle and all that. But, apparently that pisses people off so they don’t. That whole situation and how Dan freaked out about it and what I think is amazing is some things that I did and that hasn’t been done before which they don’t show is when we do the turtle I spend three hours with Marcus gutting the turtle and then proceed not to eat a single bite of it because it smelled so gross. Most people don’t turn down food on Survivor. And, I proceed to go to the picnic and Randy and I traded all of our food. I traded everybody with the exception of Bob my food like hunks of prosciutto, hunks of cheese for their share of champagne so at a time when I hadn’t eaten in nineteen days or whatever it was I traded my food in for alcohol which I think is really funny.

What do you think was the turning point in the game for you and your alliance members?

Without question, when Marcus decided he knew Crystal’s cousin. I mean that was horrible. We had already decided no matter what even if we don’t get to speak after the feast we were thinking we’d merge and it would be hard to get everyone together again we decided with the alliance that no matter what Crystal was next. We weren’t going to talk about it. There was no changing the plan. It was always going to be Crystal. All the sudden he changes the plan. We get divvied up on different teams. I know Susie’s a wild card. You’ve got to stick to the plan. Susie knew it was Crystal, Susie didn’t like Crystal. It would have worked. But, he decided to put all his eggs in the Crystal basket and we know that’s a bad idea.

So when you went to the next reward challenge and saw that Marcus wasn’t there did you know that you were in trouble?

Oh yeah. Because you have to remember that I spent the entire time on that team dominating. I mean my alliance if not for that twist surely would have gone to the end. I mean there was no way we were turning on each other and it was a perfect alliance. Once he was gone, I knew we were in a lot of trouble. Once he was gone I actually still thought okay we’re still divvied up on tribes. I can still fix the numbers by throwing the next immunity challenge which is why I volunteered to sit out the reward with golf because I thought I can’t have Sugar play in the next one because I need to throw the challenge if need be and I thought that we would go to one more immunity and I would throw the challenge and we would get rid of Matty. Now we’re even. Unfortunately, whatever, they decided yet again that the twist was going to happen before another immunity and screw me and my alliance.

[Google]

 

[buglover]

No matter what she says about herself, she's really good friends with Randy and that tells me all I need to know about her.

[Brooks]

Brilliant interview, Mariner! And I hope you are feeling well again.

[waywyrd]

My plan was great except I didn’t realize I was playing with mentally handicapped people.

The girl doesn't mince words, does she?

Her comments about Crystal's edit surpised me. Why give Sugar the cutesy good girl edit and make Crystal out to be the loudmouth crier? Boo on editing.

Loved the interview, Mariner!

[MsFroggy]

As irritating as Corrine is, she's dead on about the stupidity of these people. I've been harping for weeks over the fact that none of these morons saw fit to flush out Sugar's immunity idol. Do any of them have a functioning braincell? Apparently not.

She is also right, as far as I'm concerned, about Sugar. It's been a while since I've seen such a whiny, useless, vindictive little snake on Survivor and that's saying something.

Thanks for a very good interview, Mar!

[dagwood]

She is dead on about the idiots on the tribe, but I can't imagine going through life that negative.

Great interview, Mariner.

[xtremist]

I am on the other side of the fence. I am not a fan of Corinne. Kenny and gang did out-play them, albeit due to a some luck when the tribe switched. So stop calling them illogical and losers.

Thanks for doing the transcript, Mariner!

[shoepie]

She is irritated that they didn't show her "firey" nature until too late in the show? She likes Crystal? Everyone still in the game is stupid? And why is she speaking to Marcus who aligned with Crystal and jeopardized their alliance?

I wonder if it will ever cross her mind to take some responsibiliy for her demise. If she thought it was the best plan for that alliance to break and include her, then where is her expert game play to make that happen? She didn't exactly radiate trust or work at building a relationship with any of them. Biting your lip is just not enough. The social aspect of this game requires creating trust through respect.

Wow, just wow, what a mean spirited woman. And she is proud of this too.

[Mags225]

She seems obsessed with Sugar and sounds pretty jealous of her actually. Also, I haven't read a lot of these interviews in previous seasons but I've never heard anyone else be so upset about screen time - they didn't show enough of me early on, Matty's proposal was just to get screen time, they left out footage from the three hour turtle kill, people would have loved to see me trade my food for champagne. Thank god Corrine didn't have any say in the editting. Snoresville.

[Rattus]

Hateful shrew. I love it when "losers" take down the misguidedly arrogant.