‘Survivor: San Juan del Sur’ interview: Winner Natalie Anderson on victory, big moves, future on TV

After watching most of “Survivor: San Juan del Sur,” there was little question to us that Natalie Anderson was the strongest player. She made big moves, she never felt too much under pressure, and she even managed to do all of this without angering the jury too much.

As someone who was a big fan of the Twinnies dating back to “The Amazing Race,” we were super-psyched to chat with Natalie this morning about her win, plus a number of other big things that happened along the way this season.

CarterMatt – Congratulations! This was such a crazy season; you basically made the game into a Twinnie sandwich.

Natalie Anderson – I know! Twinnie bookends. It’s awesome. I was watching Nadiya at the live shows last night, and I didn’t even get to talk about Nadiya and my relationship, and how crazy it was that she was the first person voted off, and I was the last one. It was a very surreal moment for me.

It wasn’t that long ago that you and Nadiya were on the last ‘Amazing Race,’ and it was a total bummer to see you gone early. I’m sure that was a tough thing for you, but did that drive you even more to do well here, or is it like comparing apples and oranges?

I think it’s apples and oranges. Me and Nadiya, we tend to get over things fast, and getting kicked off ‘Amazing Race’ first, we were so disappointed in ourselves; but, we move on really quick, and as soon as ‘Survivor’ happened, and I really didn’t care about how I went out on ‘Amazing Race.’ I was just mad that the stupid idiots on Coyopa voted Natalie off first. That was more of a driving force for me to do well. It was our own doing that we got kicked off ‘Amazing Race’ first, but on ‘Survivor,’ I could look at the idiots on Coyopa and I was so mad, and it allowed me to channel that into doing something for myself and Nadiya in the long run.

Let’s talk about early in the game, since you didn’t get a whole lot of screen time due to, as you put, the ‘idiots on Coyopa’ losing so much. What was that first week or so like for you, getting acclimated to the game?

I was really blessed with my tribe. The guys came up to me, within the first couple of days, before the first immunity challenge, [and said] ‘no matter what happens Natalie, we need you around because we want strong girls because we want to win immunity challenges.’ They knew that I was the strongest girl on my tribe physically.

It’s crazy the hand you’re dealt. I feel like if I was on Coyopa I wouldn’t have gone first either, because Nadiya didn’t help herself in that situation. But, the fact that the guys all rallied around Dale’s ideas without thinking for themselves, and then voted out Val next, who was the second strongest girl, and then Baylor and Jaclyn were still there, basically useless at that point, it’s just crazy.

My camp was a way better hand that I got dealt with the guys versus Nadiya’s.

Let’s talk about Jeremy, because you and him were very close out there until he was voted out. What was it about him that caused him to be such a good ally?

I think the fact that we both lost our loved ones back to back allowed us to bond, and we both realized around day 6 that ‘we were the only ones out here without our actual blood. We need to look out for ourselves at this point.’ The fact that Nadiya and Val got voted out first and second kind of secured that bond.

I just got a good vibe from Jeremy, and I realized that he was really a student of the game, and he’s obsessed to the point where he took notes on every episode. I realized that this is a great asset for me to have in my corner. I was willing to work with Jeremy as long as I could; I would rather work for somebody I trust, even if they are a big threat, and then worry about that later down the road. You got to wait until you worry about the bloody jury speeches and all of that.

We connected, and it’s so crazy because Val and Nadiya were besties on their [pre-merge] Costa Rica trip, and the fact that me and Jeremy bonded was really weird, but cool at the same time.

I think one of your best moves was when Jeremy was voted out. After that you could’ve metaphorically burned down the whole camp, but you kept your cool and continued to work with the people who voted your best friend in the game [at that point] out.

You know, Jon and [his group], they thought that it was a really good move. It was probably such a stupid move on their part because when I came back to camp, I had the option of [leaving] my alliance at that point. I was tight with all the guys that were on the other side, and Wes, Keith, Reed, and Alec would have welcomed me with open arms.

I decided to stay with my ‘alliance’ because I knew that I had credit with them, and the fact that Jon told me about his idol right then and there told me that for some reason, they actually felt bad about doing that, which they shouldn’t. I just said that ‘you know what, I got to emotionally hold back for now.’ It was hard for me, because from Jeremy’s point of view, he thought that I was in on the blindside. In tribal it looks like I’m Team Jon because I’m telling him to play his idol and I am part of this ‘strong five,’ but I realized that if I made that move too early [to get rid of Jon], my a** would have been sitting in the jury, as well.

One other move that got a lot of discussion online was you keeping Keith over Alec. I don’t know if the show gave us enough of why you wanted to do this, and how close Alec was with Jon.

Yeah. Me and Keith had a great relationship from the start, we for some reason were always tight, but because he was such a loose cannon, everyone was worried about being in an alliance with him after the whole ‘stick to the plan’ s**t. Alec was totally ‘bros before hos,’ and I felt like Jon was grooming him to be one of his stupid minions.

I was like listen, if I am going to take out someone now, I want it to be Alec, because I don’t want to give Jon the room to work with Alec, and I knew Keith wasn’t going to work with Jon. I knew Jon wasn’t going to be able to manipulate Keith as easily as he would be able to manipulate Alec.

I also kept Keith around because I needed someone to help me beat Jon in the immunity challenges because come on, between me and the girls and Jon, none of them were going to help me beat Jon.

Do you think you would’ve beaten Keith in the final three? I think you would have.

Yeah, I would’ve beaten Keith, but I didn’t want to risk that because it is really scary to look at the jury and see all of those boys there. They weren’t at all bitter which was awesome, but I’m assuming the worst going into the final three than assume the best.

Couple of last quick things. Was there a moment during the jury speeches that you thought you won, or a moment where you thought you lost?

The jury speeches were awesome, because Alec came up and said what he did, and then Wes came up, and I kind of knew I had it in the bag. Obviously I knew with Jeremy I obviously had his vote. I was a little worried about Keith, but I think he respected me as a player and as a person.

The only time I was nervous was when I started to think about Josh and Reed’s votes. They were really close to Jaclyn at camp. It would’ve been a vote because of game, but if they were just mad and being salty. Those were the only two I was worried about, and Reed ended up voting for Jaclyn, not because of the game, but because he wanted to secure Jaclyn as second place instead of Missy.

Finally, what’s next for you? Do you think you are going to do more reality TV, or do something different for a while?

It’s crazy. The last three years of me and Nadiya’s life has basically been ‘Amazing Race,’ ‘Amazing Race,’ ‘Survivor.’ I would do ‘Survivor’ again in a heartbeat. It is such a thrilling and exciting game to play. Me and Nadiya do need to get our life back on track and to get into a regular life for a while. I would like to do a reality show with Nadiya based on our lives, but besides that, I don’t know. We’ll see what happens, I guess.

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