“I Hoped My Loyalty Would Persevere”: An Interview with Survivor: Cook Island’s Rebecca

Rebecca volunteered to swim when Brad wanted to do the puzzle a couple immunity challenges ago – and her tribe lost. What happened to her swimming ability? What would she have done differently? And what else does she have to tell us? Read on to find out!

RealityNewsOnline: What did you first think when you found out the tribes were divided by race?

Rebecca: At first, I was upset about it. I didn’t know it was going to happen until that day, and I felt uncomfortable being part of any type of segregation. Going forward, I thought it could be a good thing, exposing people to different cultures. This show could have given people a good opportunity to see that. In the end, it ended up being a quick stunt.

RNO: What was your strategy coming into the game?

Rebecca: My strategy was to compete as hard as I possibly could. I was looking forward to being strong in challenges. I was going to lay low going forward and to not make waves within the tribe. And then I planned to carry through to the merge and be more aggressive.

RNO: Did Elisabeth Hasselbeck give you any good tips?

Rebecca: No. You can’t tell anyone you’re going to do the show. I didn’t want to put her in an uncomfortable position. So I chose to lie about the entire thing.

RNO: What did you do to prepare yourself for the show?

Rebecca: I trained really hard with a personal trainer. I swam as much as I could and tried to eat as healthy as I could and prepare for a lot less food. A lot of meditation so I could prepare for all the elements that come with playing this game.

RNO: Were you surprised at the vote, or did you have a good idea that it was coming?

Rebecca: That day, the day of the immunity challenge – after we lost, I had a feeling they were going to vote me off. The vibe at camp was definitely different and no one was looking at me. No one came to me to talk about who we were voting off except Nate. I knew things were not right. Previously, my body gave way and I showed my weakness. But I hoped my loyalty would persevere. But it’s a game, what can you do?

RNO: Since nobody came to talk to you, did you go talk to them to try to convince them to keep you instead of Jonathan?

Rebecca: No, because nobody came to tell me they’re voting me off. We had talked previously about Jonathan being the next to go. I assumed we were sticking to that plan, especially since [the most recent challenge] wasn’t lost due to my fault. I thought I had showed that I was getting stronger. When Nate came to me and said we were going with the original plan, I thought we were. Then things started getting weird. Then at Tribal Council when they talked about productivity, I said alright, it’s me.

RNO: Was it obvious that Jonathan was trying to kiss up by working hard around camp?

Rebecca: Oh yeah! (Laughing) It was extremely obvious. When Jonathan and Candice crossed over, I knew I was in jeopardy. Here is the original white tribe all back together again. I had a feeling even if he hadn’t kissed up, he was okay. I knew Candice wasn’t going anywhere. I thought they had a stronger alliance sticking with their original tribe members. But he still was working extremely hard to make sure everybody felt the same way; he did a good job of it.

RNO: Did you do anything to counter it, such as doing extra work yourself?

Rebecca: No. I didn’t. I knew where I was weak was in the challenges and I worked to be strong that day in the immunity challenge. Other than that, I thought loyalty would persevere. So be it.

RNO: What did you think of Candice and Jonathan mutinying?

Rebecca: Initially I was surprised. But immediately when they came, I knew Candice and Adam had formed a relationship from day one. And I thought for Jonathan it would be a good move going forward to rejoin his origin tribe, I guess because of the trust factor. He was right, ‘cus it worked.

RNO: Many of the contestants this time around were not as familiar with the show. Other than working with Elisabeth, how much did you know about Survivor ahead of time?

Rebecca: Everything, because I’ve watched every single season and I’m a fan of the show. I knew what I needed to do to the play the game. I just didn’t realize how losing so much weight would affect me. It took away from my endurance. There was nothing I could physically do about that. A reward would have helped, but we were losing every challenge. I never really got any food reward other than a bottle of wine, and that does not help my stamina or endurance.

RNO: Speaking of which, why do you think your tribe lost so many challenges?

Rebecca: We had a hard time working together. We could not establish a consist rhythm in every single challenge. I wish I knew why. I guess we didn’t strategize enough on challenge day and really figure out everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. We had a hard time communicating when it came to that.

RNO: Do you feel we saw the real you on the show?

Rebecca: Yeah. I would have to say that what you saw was me – you saw my strengths and weaknesses. It pretty much was the real me. If anything, I talked a lot more and you didn’t get to see what I thought about what was going on, but you could see my facial expressions and those were pretty accurate.

RNO: If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?

Rebecca: I would have trained harder! I would have started starving myself months before the game began so my body could be prepared. Definitely training in the ocean as opposed to the pool would have helped a lot more. Dealing with the currents wasn’t in my favor. Mentally I was pretty strong, physically, I needed to condition my body.

RNO: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

Rebecca: I will be cohosting The View on Monday and talking about some more Survivor dish.

RNO: OK, we’ll see you there. Thanks!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out my interview with Jenny and 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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