“I Was Physically and Mentally and Emotionally Exhausted” – An Interview with Survivor: China’s Amanda

Did Amanda really think Denise was that big a threat in front of the jury? Why didn’t she form more connections? What was her strategy? Amanda answers all of these questions and more. Read on!

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Amanda, and thanks for taking the time to talk to RealityNewsOnline! Starting at the beginning, what was your strategy coming into the game?

Amanda: Coming into the game, I knew I had to align with someone right away, work hard at camp, and do well at challenges.

RNO: Did your strategy change once you got into the game?

Amanda: Yeah, I was definitely a chameleon. My strategy changed pretty much every day. Something had to be tweaked or I had to do something differently.

RNO: Jumping ahead to the question everybody wants to know – why didn’t you vote out Todd in going down to the final three?

Amanda: It was a toss-up between Todd and Denise. There were pros and cons for both, and I thought I had a better chance against Todd in the finals.

RNO: Did you really think Denise would be that big a threat in front of the jury?

Amanda: Yes, I did.

RNO: You told Denise you wouldn’t write down her name, but then you did. Why didn’t you just write down “Courtney” instead?

Amanda: The whole thing was kind of – that’s not how it happened. Denise knew she was the last person in the alliance and she was next to go. She knew that day that her name was going to be on the ballot. She kind of made it seem like I told her I wasn’t going to write her name down, which I never said.

[After the interview, I went back to my recap of the finale, and this is how I summarized their discussion in question: “Amanda says she has to think about it, but she guarantees she won’t vote for Denise tonight.” I also pulled up my recording of the show, just to be sure. Amanda said, "I will guarantee you I will not vote for you tonight. But I cannot guarantee what they will vote." So something is apparently amiss with how Amanda is remembering their discussions.]

RNO: What happened in the last few days? It seemed, from a viewer’s perspective, that the game just took an emotional toll on you and overwhelmed you as you got to the end.

Amanda: Yes, it did. I was physically and mentally and emotionally exhausted. Voting people off – it was hard to separate the social experiment part of the game and the strategic part of the game. It kind of became hard for me.

RNO: You indicated on last night’s episode that you hadn’t made many connections to the people in the jury. Similarly, even though you had been in the same camp with Peih-Gee for quite a while, you didn’t really talk to her until the two of you were left alone. Why do you think you didn’t form more personal bonds?

Amanda: Honestly, I just didn’t have many connections with a lot of the people on the tribe. I don’t know – it’s one of the things I regret, I should have made more personal connections. I’m glad I formed a bond with Peih-Gee later, but we didn’t click right away.

RNO: What made you decide to share your reward with Todd and only Todd?

Amanda: I didn’t want Todd to be at camp where he could make an alliance and vote me off.

RNO: Do you think that discussion with him made you more likely to keep him going into the final three?

Amanda: No, really the only discussion we had – I knew what he was going to say. I pretty much just took him so he couldn’t backstab me at camp.

RNO: If you could go back and change one thing you did, what would it be?

Amanda: I would definitely do better at [final] Tribal [Council]. I think I was too politiciany. I wish I could have been more candid and solid. I wish I would have played this game knowing it was more of an emotional game too, which I didn’t really consider.

RNO: What was the most eye-opening thing you saw on TV that you didn’t know about while you were there?

Amanda: I actually didn’t know Courtney had talked so much trash about me, that was kind of interesting to see.

RNO: Yeah, but she did that about everybody.

Amanda: Yeah, I know. But I didn’t think she’d say some of things – like the one about Denise being on welfare. It just surprised me, her comments about Denise.

RNO: When I asked Todd about the most eye-opening thing for him, he said the thing that most surprised him was that you weren’t 100% honest with him. What do you say to that?

Amanda: I don’t know when I wasn’t 100% honest with him. I pretty much told him I didn’t trust him and was candid the whole time.

RNO: So what was up with your clothes that you were blurred the entire game?

Amanda: (Laughing) My parents called me “fuzzbutt.” I honestly don’t know. I have no idea why my butt was blurred so much. I guess it was because it was a family show.

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

Amanda: It was just an amazing experience, life-changing.

RNO: Thanks again, Amanda!

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

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

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