‘Survivor: Cagayan’ interview: Brice Johnson on idols, LJ, and entertainment galore
The world was deprived of someone supremely entertaining on “Survivor” when Brice Johnson was voted out of the game last week. This guy was funny, sharp, and knew how to play the game; really, it was for all of these reasons that he is no longer there, like some more people who were more or less coasting still are. Unfortunately, this is just how it all happens sometimes in the game, as the good characters get sent home early.
The only silver lining in Brice being out so early is that we had a chance to speak with him! Thanks to our redesign this is up later than the average “Survivor” interview (we usually have them up the day after the episode airs), but this one is very much worth the wait. In this, Brice refuses to acknowledge someone’s name, talks strategy, and also explains why LJ McKanas hasn’t really been in danger of anything just yet.
CarterMatt – Usually you don’t necessarily hear so much about someone being a social threat so early in the game, but that seemed to be the reason you were voted out. Were you aware that you were being targeted for that?
Brice Johnson – I definitely knew. My tribe was a little ‘blah’ … but I was funny, outgoing, I definitely helped around camp and was great at challenges. I think I was a surprise for my tribe. I think when my tribe first saw me I think that they thought I was going to be the fourth girl on my tribe, but I actually surprised them and I think LJ was definitely threatened by my personality and how well I could grasp people and how well I was actually doing in the game.
So why not target LJ for the vote? Is that something that was really discussed?
I’m a lover of the game ‘Survivor,’ so what I was thinking right then was that we needed to stay strong. LJ’s not that great of a social player; I mean, he talks to horses all day. He’s great at challenges, so we wanted to keep him around for that so that we could be that much closer to a merge if a merge was coming.
On the first night you all saw Morgan out in the ocean. How quickly did you know that she was probably out looking for an immunity idol?
I knew right away, but I didn’t really want to say anything because I knew that Morgan was probably going to be a little bitter over what happened earlier. I knew at the beach that those [other] four were getting together, so I knew that my best would be to try to work with my girl Morgan.
Since you are a big fan of the game, how crazy was it for you to see the Brains show up without Garrett?
Garrett is by far the most built guy on here; he’s chiseled! So I was baffled when I saw that he was not a part of the rest of the tribe.
We do have to talk for a second here about Jeremiah. What did you think about his move, and do you think that he’s completely hurt any choice of working with Morgan in the future?
I’m sorry, who are you referring to? (Note: We asked the question again, and Brice responded the same way. That’s when we figured out what he was trying to do … and it was really pretty funny. This is one of those times that you really wish that you could hear his voice off of the text of this interview.)