“I Have a Very Strong Personality…” – An Interview with Survivor’s Nicole

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Nicole, and thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us at RealityNewsOnline! At the very beginning, you were on the boat and all thought that you were just going for a photo shoot. What was the first thought that ran through your mind when Jeff Probst started talking about the game starting "now"?

Nicole: My first thought was "I can't believe I am in this dress" and, then, that I didn't have a bra on... but my thoughts quickly shifted to the idea that there were sharks in the water we were about to get into and that I had better swim as fast as I could to get ashore. That is probably why I swam ahead and split off from our group – out of fear of lingering in the water.

RNO: Considering that Probst told everybody repeatedly to make sure to work together and that you would never be going back to the village, how did things end up so chaotic with your tribe?

Nicole: To start, two of our group members had a difficult time with the swim and one even began swimming away from shore. That set us off to a bad start. Darrah, Ryan O., and I got ahead of the group and by doing so, hindered the "togetherness" of our tribe. By the time we met back up a couple of the people in Morgan were already upsetting the locals and screaming at them in a heated debate over money. Drake was together and organized and negotiating well with Sandra (she spoke fluent Spanish). For Morgan, it just went downhill.

RNO: Why did you all leave the village while still having money available?

Nicole: We were told that we had best leave plenty of time to get to our islands and set up shelter, fire, etc. before nightfall because the nights were going to be rough. With this is mind, I think we were so rushed and panicked that we just wanted to get to our island as quickly as possible. We didn't know if it was 5 minutes or 5 hours away and were concerned about showing up after sunset – it was already late afternoon when we arrived on the island. Someone – I'm still not sure who – was hoarding the money as well because it didn't turn up until the very last minute when we didn't have enough for the boat right and then suddenly, more balboas appeared. It was very confusing.

RNO: Did anybody on your tribe notice that some of your stuff was missing (the items that Rupert "pillaged" from your raft)? If so, what did you/they think happened to it?

Nicole: Honestly, I didn't know what happened to my shoes until I saw the show. I had no clue the other tribe had grabbed them or that Rupert had traded them. No one in Morgan really even discussed this as far as I can remember.

RNO: What did you think of the "get naked" strategy in the first challenge?

Nicole: I thought it was silly and gross. I never understood it and if anything, it hindered our performance as a group because all of the girls were dying to get out of there and the guys had to have felt a little uncomfortable (except for Osten).

RNO: You seemed to first get annoyed with Tijuana in the village. What did she do that set you off there and what happened later to continue to make you dislike her strongly enough to push to get rid of her?

Nicole: I was annoyed because I felt she was talking down and being disrespectful to the locals. As she grew frustrated with the communication gap, she just kept raising her voice and yelling at people in the village – thinking that the volume of her voice would somehow help them understand English. I was frustrated and embarrassed by this and it left a very bad first impression on me of how she deals with people and situations.

RNO: How did you prepare to go on Survivor? Did you watch previous series, read up on strategy, etc.?

Nicole: I didn't watch previous shows or read up on strategy. I studied some books on survival skills to brush up on what I might need to know and trained much more intensely. I hit the gym and ran for about 2-3 hours a day. As the days before the show approached, I also gained about 8 pounds thinking I would need it if I wouldn't be eating.