“I Don’t Like to Candy Coat Things”: An Interview with Survivor: Cook Islands’ Brad

Brad is the first member of the jury, which has him “totally stoked,” as you will see below. What else did he have to say about his time on Survivor? What was his strategy? Why was he so blunt? Read on to find out!

RealityNewsOnline:What did you think when you first realized the tribes were being split by race?

Brad: When I first realized it, I thought it was a gutsy move. I thought it was amazing, just an intelligent move on CBS’ part. But I thought at the same time it was going to piss a lot of people off – and it did. From a personal standpoint, people are people – it sounds so cliché, but I really try to see people as human beings. So it didn’t really bother me. One of the cool aspects was that all of us [on each original tribe] had similar backgrounds. We could all relate to some of the stereotypes and difficulties growing up. So that was a nice aspect. We all had common ground on some level.

RNO: What was your strategy coming into the game?

Brad: I wanted to play an honest game. I didn’t want to be as cutthroat as a lot of the other contestants. I wanted to stick with my original alliance.

RNO: What was your original alliance?

Brad: Yul and Becky from the original Puka tribe.

RNO: When you were at camp and said it’s every man for himself, I thought you were misunderstood – what did you mean?

Brad: I meant that pretty soon after the merge, people were going to be vying for the million dollars. It wasn’t going to be as lovey dovey as everyone made it out to be. I don’t like to candy coat things. I tell it like it is. Sometimes that kicks me in the butt at the end of the day.

RNO: Would you have been loyal to Raro in a merge, or would you have looked for a way to jump to an alternate alliance?

Brad: I probably would have jumped. Hindsight is 20/20 and I should have stepped off the mat. Yul and Becky and I had a pretty strong bond out of the gate. We were bonding pretty hardcore by day three. I can kind of tell, I always say go with your gut. And they’re great people.

RNO: So then, why didn’t you mutiny?

Brad: I didn’t want the entire Raro tribe against me once the merge took place.

RNO: When you said you didn’t trust everyone in your tribe, words that ended up being prophetic, who were you specifically talking about, and why?

Brad: I didn’t really trust Jenny. And I didn’t trust Jonathan nor did I trust Candice. Jon and Candice because I didn’t know them and they were so new to the tribe. And Jenny because there’s something about that girl from day one that my gut was like, “don’t trust this girl, she’s kind of shady.” That was one of the reasons I voted for her when Cristina was voted off.

RNO: We haven’t seen much of Jenny, but Cristina had some not-so-nice things to say about her. Did you see that side of her?

Brad: I did. That’s another reason I voted for Jenny. I [told] Cristina I’d give her a second chance. I liked what Cristina stood for. And I didn’t like how Jenny treated Cristina. What you didn’t see at Tribal Council was Jenny going off on how annoying and what a bad person Cristina was. That’s kind of tasteless.

RNO: Did Jenny explain the vote with the gun pointing at Cristina’s name?

Brad: Everyone questioned it, I think it was done more out of being stupid and not realizing what she was doing. She drew a volleyball when she voted for J.P. I think that was her little trademark, to draw something on her vote. I’m surprised she didn’t draw a blazer or a pair of boots for me.

RNO: Before the mutiny, did you realize that you were probably going to be the next person voted out?

Brad: No, I was totally blindsided. I didn’t realize my head was on the chopping block. I thought I was doing pretty good in the challenges other than that I didn’t swim and pissed a bunch of people off. [Before the mutiny], I thought it was going to be Rebecca, because of the way she swam, or didn’t swim, in the last challenge.

RNO: Can you explain your thought process for wanting to do the puzzle portion of last week’s challenge instead of the swimming?

Brad: We had lost every single freaking challenge at the final home stretch at the last three rewards or immunity and they were based off the end result, typically it was a puzzle. I do puzzles and creative things for a living, I get it like the back of my hand was what I told them. I knew me doing the puzzle would have been a slam dunk. Rebecca stepped up to the plate and said she’s been swimming, she can do this. And at the end of the day, she didn’t pull through.