“I Checked Out of Survivor Way Before My Torch Was Put Out” – RealityNewsOnline’s Exclusive Interview with Survivor: Samoa’s Yasmin

As you’ll see in this interview, and as you may have guessed, Yasmin has plenty to say. Indeed, she began by telling me to just put her in a room and hit play, and she’ll start talking! So she did. Sometimes here, she strays from the questions in order to make the points she wants to make, but I think we got to the bottom of most of the issues.

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Yasmin, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us here at RealityNewsOnline!

Yasmin: No problem.

RNO: I have to start with the question so many viewers want to know. Between complaining about being outdoors and the “negativity” of other players and discussing who to vote off – what show did you think you signed up for?!

Yasmin: You know what, I guess not Survivor. I always crack a joke that I should have gone on The Amazing Race. Survivor was an adventure for us all. I didn’t know, that’s human nature. It did take me by surprise. I’m not an outdoorsy type of girl. That was a rude awakening.

RNO: How much of Survivor had you watched previously?

Yasmin: A couple seasons here and there. I had my favorites, but not enough obviously (laughing). I did say Survivor reminded me of high school, and it did. I was one of those girls in high school where I wasn’t a follower, I was a leader, and more than anything, I was a loner.

RNO: On a related note, why on earth were you wearing heels?

Yasmin: (Laughs) That is the million-dollar questions. I thought I was doing press. I’m a girly girl. There’s no other way to explain it. I was bringing my personality. They sunk in the sand, I had to keep moving. Stuff happened and you just have to roll with it. I heard all the jokes about the walk of shame in the heels, but what can I say?

RNO: Did you have a particular strategy coming into the game?

Yasmin: No. As a matter of fact of fact, I didn’t. If you look at my bio, my strategy was to basically just play hard. I’m a competitive person and my thing was to step it up in the challenges. Survivor is like high school – if you’re on the wrong side of the clique, you’re out no matter how good you are.

RNO: Why did you go over to Foa Foa and start talking down to them the way you did? What did you expect to accomplish?

Yasmin: That’s another million dollar question. That speech was obnoxious. Let me say something to you – on creative editing. A lot of people was not there so let me walk you into it. When we lost, it was okay for Ben to call us losers? But if you are a real person, you express yourself. It was okay when he said it.

That was not initially my first words to them. Editing. I don’t understand why people don’t understand that. Reality TV is not new to me and that is not the last time my face will be on TV. But yeah, it’s pretty obnoxious, but that’s part of my personality as well.

RNO: What do you mean, that reality TV is not new to you?

Yasmin: I’ve been working in the entertainment business for the last two years – I haven’t been a hairdresser in years. I have been on reality shows before. They chop and screw and edit it to just how they want it to look and however they want to portray you. That’s a chance you take. I did other reality shows based on doing hair. I used to own a beauty salon, I had 10 employees. I’ve seen it before.

RNO: In your CBS bio, you are described as, “An opinionated motor mouth from the Motor City, she always speaks her mind.” Did you consider not being so overtly opinionated and speaking your mind in order to stick around longer?

Yasmin: Not at all. I can truly say not at all. It’s one of those things where if you in the wrong clique, you’re going to go whether you shut up or be opinionated. My bio said exactly who I was and I was true to who I was. That does not bother me. For anybody who has question about why I did what I did, read my bio!

RNO: You admitted to Shambo that your strategy was to not work around camp, but then acted shocked at Tribal Council that people would think that. Was that all acting?

Yasmin: You know what, no? Can I tell you why? Can I tell you what they didn’t show? They didn’t show me and Brett going off to chop down trees for 30 minutes. I chopped down two trees. I went off with Kelly for at least 40 minutes looking for crabs. When you have a network that definitely want ratings, they’re going to paint it a certain way. That’s not what happened. Brett’s last words to me were, “You’re so cool, you’re definitely a keeper.” Yeah, kiss of death.

I was in total shock. If I have any type of issue with you, I talk to you, I don’t talk behind people’s back. I don’t have a reason to say things that aren’t true. I’ll give it to you straight and raw. Me and Brett spent so much time together, he could have came to me. He chose to throw me under the bus at Tribal Council. Sometimes that’s what people do and I can live with that.

RNO: Then what were you telling Shambo?

Yasmin: I was telling her exactly what I felt. You have no idea what type of tribe I was in because I’m the first one from Galu you’ve talked to. The whole thing about my tribe was that they were all over the place. They went from John going home because he didn’t do right in that swim challenge, oh my God shambo is going home because she lost the fishing gear, … Dave … Monica … Yasmin – c’mon honey, give me a break. I was in that tribe, I like consistency. These people just sat around and anything you didn’t do that they didn’t like, oh my God, you’re going home. Come on, that’s too much energy for me. Using my emotional energy was worse than physical energy.

I checked out of Survivor way before my torch was put out. When I left, you saw a smile.