An Interview with Cassandra
“I Definitely Deserved My Right to Be There” – An Interview with Survivor: Fiji’s Cassandra by David Bloomberg -- 05/14/2007 On Survivor, Cassandra seemed like she often just tagged along with the rest of her alliance. How does she see her performance on the show. Also, as probably the person who knew Dreamz best, what does she think of his story that he planned to double-cross Yau-Man all along? And what does she have to say about the way she was treated by the jury, especially Alex and Lisi? Cassandra answers these questions and more in this RealityNewsOnline interview. In my interview with Boo, he called Cassandra “complacent.” How does she respond to that? What was left out of the jury scenes that would have allowed us to understand the points she was trying to make? Cassandra addresses these questions and many more, so read on. RNO: What did you do to prepare for being on Survivor? Cassandra: I had to take swimming lessons. I had very little time to learn to swim and to overcome a fear of water. RNO: What was your strategy going into the game? Cassandra: To stay under the radar. I recognized that in the game, from pervious shows, I’ve noticed that older people are typically the first targets. So I wanted to stay under the radar, make it to the merge, and keep going. RNO: How did you enact that strategy? Cassandra: It was a challenge, but in camp life I tried to stay out of the constant hustle and bustle of all the alliance-making. That way I wouldn’t have to change alliances too often. I felt that staying under the radar would prevent me from having to make multiple alliances, break them, and have people not trust me. RNO: When I talked to Boo a little while ago, he described your game play as “complacent.” How do you respond to that? Cassandra: No, I wasn’t complacent. I wasn’t making alliances recklessly. I think Boo made a lot of reckless alliances which made people feel they could trust him only to maybe number five or so. My original alliance was what I stuck with all the way through, so it may have appeared I was complacent, but I feel he was pretty reckless. I think every time we changed, he changed alliances. RNO: What was the main point you were trying to make in order to get the jury to vote for you? Cassandra: My main point was that I felt like being the underdog going into the game and being able to win a lot of the challenges as a team and a few individual challenges, that I definitely deserved my right to be there and be competing for the million dollars at that point. RNO: That sure didn’t make it to the show did it? Cassandra: No. RNO: When you started hearing the questions from the jury, did you think you had a chance of winning? Cassandra: No. (laughs) No, but you know, Alex was just disrespectful. I think some of the people on the jury were really angry and they gook out that anger on me because they felt like I pulled Stacy into my alliance. We talked about it, Stacy and I, and I said it’s your decision, but stick with it whatever you decide. RNO: Do you have any idea at all what Lisi was going on about at final Tribal Council? Cassandra: I never knew what Lisi was going on about the entire time. She had no reasoning in any of her thought processes. I wasn’t surprised at her comment. She was the first one who wanted out of the game. I couldn’t take her seriously. But competing for a million dollars, it was hard not to say what I really felt. I wanted to tell her, “You are the craziest person I’ve ever met,” but at that point, I still felt like I had to make it through Tribal Council, so let me do it with my integrity intact. If I launched a strong attack against anybody, it wouldn’t have helped. It wouldn’t have hurt, , but wouldn’t have helped. RNO: Incidentally, speaking of the results, who gets second place? Cassandra: It’s a tie. We both won second place. RNO: You probably knew Dreamz the best out of anyone on the show. Do you believe his claim that he was playing Yau-Man all along, or do you think he intended to keep his word and then changed his mind? Cassandra: I think he intended to keep his word and I feel like a couple hours before Tribal Council, he was really struggling with the decision whether to give the necklace or to keep it. Just before Tribal Council, he just made a decision that he’s going to stay in the game. and so it was a difficult decision for him. The couple times I talked to him, I told him this decision would follow this for the rest of his life. RNO: So what do you think about how he’s rationalizing it now? Cassandra: It’s a hard call for me. I think that he may have lived to regret it. RNO: You didn’t get much chance to talk at the reunion – I guess you weren’t controversial enough. Cassandra: Jeff said I was just trying to win. I realized I’m a professional and have a life after Survivor. I didn’t want to go out there and say anything and do anything and then go back to my real life. I wanted to play the game with integrity and believe in people all they way. RNO: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor? Cassandra: It was a great opportunity, it gave me the chance to get over my fear of water. I’m really proud of the job I did. I wish I would have come home with a million dollars, but I’m still proud of the position I took in the game. RNO: Thanks, Cassandra!