“I Am a Leader”: An Interview with Survivor: Fiji’s Sylvia

There was a fair amount going on in Fiji that we have not seen, including some of the reasons for Sylvia doing what she did. She shares that information with us right here, so read on.

RealityNewsOnline: What was your strategy going into the game?

Sylvia: The strategy going in was not what I did – it was by my husband and son, saying to stay low, under the radar, be really quiet. Just take wood and bring the water, just do things that women do, don’t be a hero, don’t be a guy. Of course that went out the window with the first task!

RNO: What was your thinking in dividing the tribes?

Sylvia: I blame it all on Dreamz. The night before, he came to me and said, “There are 10 of us who formed an alliance on the beach.” I said, “What, how can you form an alliance [because you barely know each other]?” He said the two leaders were Liliana and Rocky, and he gave me their names. He said, “I’m one of the ten but I don’t think it’s right. So if you want to, I’ll come over with the nine of you who were working. But the first thing you have to do is talk to the old people because they want to vote you off first – you, Gary, Yau-Man, and Cassandra.” I said, “What, that’s awful!” He said to talk to the older people and see what happens. I did and then we got called to the challenge and I was asked to divide the tribes.

That was the only info I had. To this day I don’t know if what he told me was true or not, but I did it that way. I put the two leaders on different tribes and then I did five and five of them. That way if we split the ten up, they can’t be doing any weird alliance thing. What if I put all ten together? It would have been tough. So by splitting them apart, their power was dissipated.

RNO: We saw you agreeing with Mookie that the vote would go against Anthony. Did you take any proactive steps on your own to try to ensure votes would aim at somebody besides yourself?

Sylvia: No. I did not do that because the only name up besides mine was Anthony. So I went to each person and they said they were voting for him. I did not go to Earl, though, because I was pretty sure Earl and Anthony had an alliance. I knew he didn’t want me around – there was no animosity, he just didn’t want me around. I asked them if they’re on with Anthony. They said yes except Yau-Man, who wouldn’t look me in the eye. He said yeah, for now. He just never would commit to anything. I love that guy. But that’s when I got nervous. Then Michelle did the little knife dig as we were getting up to go for Tribal Council, she asked if we were good with Anthony – a little dig because she didn’t like me. I should have been much more forceful.

RNO: Did you feel you had a solid alliance with anybody?

Sylvia: The only one I would have had a really solid alliance was with Cassandra [at the beginning]. She could have pulled in Dreamz and maybe Boo. Gary didn’t like me, so he might have resisted that. But I think Cassandra could have maybe gotten Stacy. On my tribe, the only person I really got along with was Rita. And she didn’t even vote for Anthony, but for Earl. She said she would never vote for me, which I heard as a vote for Anthony. Wrong!

RNO: On the show, you were portrayed as fairly bossy. When I spoke to Jessica, she said that wasn’t true. But when I spoke to Erica, she indicated it was. What’s your view of the way you acted?

Sylvia: I totally wasn’t bossy. I’m kind of a collaborative leader. I put people together and say, “What do you think about doing it this way, do you like this idea?” It’s giving the idea but in the most effective way that I know in the real world. On Survivor, from a woman, that’s considered bossy. But Jessica is mature enough to know it was collaborative.

Gary is a builder. If I had handed him the plans like I should have, how do you think he would have been portrayed? A guy would have been a leader. I’m a woman, and I’m bossy. There’s no way around that stereotype. I am a leader, though, I’m not going to shy away from that.

RNO: Did you follow up with your suggestion from last week’s Tribal Council, where you said the tribe needed to select a leader?

Sylvia: We tried, but the tribe would just not go there. Earl was calling the shots behind the scenes. I didn’t realize that at the time because he was so quiet. He was so quiet and viewed as a strong person. He never jerked anybody’s chain. He just hung around and was really useful. But he was pulling the strings behind the scenes, now I realize. That’s how he got the vote against me because he wanted Anthony to stay. Mookie, who clearly wanted Anthony off, did not prevail.

RNO: How much digging around for the hidden idol were you able to do?

Sylvia: I did about two hours. I followed the instructions, under the threshold, about a 3x16 foot swath. I didn’t get to dig very deep because when I encountered native ginger root, I stopped because they couldn’t dig below the root.

RNO: Did anybody wonder why you were digging?

Sylvia: Yeah, but I had the excuse of digging for ginger root. So I formed a pile of ginger as my cover. I don’t know if anybody bought it, but…

RNO: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor?

Sylvia: It was a life-changing experience. I learned a lot about myself and I’m really glad I did it.

RNO: Thanks, Sylvia!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent Survivor: Cook Islands articles here on RealityNewsOnline:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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