‘Survivor: Worlds Apart’ exclusive: Jenn Brown on Will’s blowup, recent strategy, supporting Shirin

Jenn Brown was a fascinating person to follow on “Survivor: Worlds Apart” over the past several weeks. There were times when we considered her to be a potential threat to win the entire game, largely because of her edit, having an immunity idol for a while, and having a pretty good social game and some strategy. Then, it looked like she was going to quit. Then, it looked last night as though she had found a second wind and was ready to cause problems for the other players, only to be voted out when Dan or Sierra could not be convinced that they were going to flip to vote with her, Mike, and Shirin.

We feel like this is a great interview (one of the better ones of the season) for many reasons, largely because Jenn is completely honest about the game, her fellow cast members, and some of the events out there. We also learned a few things that we didn’t know just from watching the show. (It’s hard at times to convey some of the humor and sarcasm she used at times; we’ll do our best.)

CarterMatt – So let’s start here with this: How have the past 12-15 hours really been for you since getting voted out? What’s the reaction been like?

Jenn Brown – Yeah, I’ve been getting a lot of texts from family and friends and stuff, all loving. That’s great. I’m getting a lot of internet love which is nice, having people you don’t know like you. Then I’m getting a lot of internet hate which is the BEST, just because it’s funny as hell to me to have people go out of their way to tell someone that they hate them. I do like that.

I watched the episode last night with Shirin, Mike, Hali, and Sierra, a bunch of friends. We had a blast. We all got tattoos yesterday! I’ve been doing interviews for a while, but it’s been fun. I’ve been around friends.

You talk a lot about fun in here, and this is something that has really struck me over the past few episodes is just how tense everyone is being. Was nobody really having any fun playing the game?

I wouldn’t go that far. I wasn’t, because those people were horrible. But now that I’m thinking about it the only people who were really all about it every second were Joe and Mike. They were like ‘YEAH, CHALLENGES’ or ‘PEOPLE ARE FIGHTING! THIS IS FUN!’ … Everyone was miserable at one point or another.

I was wondering if any of this went into you potentially thinking about quitting, and I think it’s easy for us to say and act one way being on the outside of the game. You had all of this tension, and then there’s also the weather. Was it really bad out there this season?

No, it was one of the easiest seasons in the history of time. It rained maybe four times for a maximum of maybe two or three hours. I think one season it rained 21 days day straight and people’s skin was falling off because they were so wet. The weather was easy; it was never that cold, it was never super-hot. It was temperature. Nicaragua was great. It was an easy, easy season.

I want to clarify something real fast. I did not quit. I’ve heard a lot of stuff like ‘you are a piece of s**t because you took a spot from someone who wants to be there.’ I’m like ‘I’ve been here for 21 days playing my a** off.’ I did not quit the game; this was another strategic thing I tried to do, because I tried everything else. I thought that if I told them that I didn’t want to be there and to vote me out, they’re probably not going to do that. So, they’ll keep me around for a little bit longer so I can find a new ‘in.’ At that point, there was nothing else that could have worked for me.

So everyone who’s saying I quit, man f**k those people. They’re mean.

It’s great you bring that up, because I know the whole idea of you ‘quitting’ as strategy was brought up in a ton of interviews that Joe did last week. You did make it through the last vote, and going into tribal last night, did you know that you were going home?

I did. It definitely was strategy, but it was a convincing strategy because it was half-true. I didn’t want to be there. Everyone was mean and I didn’t like. I was like ‘what’s the point? You guys are mean and you won’t talk to me, so I’m not going to try.’ So last night, I told Mike and Shirin to vote for me, because if they had split the votes, we were going to have a re-vote and I didn’t want to risk them re-voting for Shirin and having her go home.

I knew that I wasn’t winning the game. I knew that for a fact that there was no chance in hell. I knew that I was going anyway, so I figured I may as well go sooner rather than later and get some food. Shirin so desperately wanted to be there. I got to get to the ‘Survivor’ auction. That wasn’t my number one goal, that was not being the first person voted out, but it was a goal. I was set, I was happy. Shirin loves this and wanted to be there so much.

Was there any chance of Dan actually voting with you guys? We saw a lot of campaigning in the episode, especially from Mike.

There was no chance Dan was coming with us. He told us that. But, you need an entertaining show, though, and you can’t just be like ‘well, everyone knows Jenn is going home tonight.’ You gotta throw something in there.

Honestly, I think that this episode was one of the best episodes I’ve seen of ‘Survivor.’ I mean, it was edited amazingly. Like, the music is awesome, the cuts were awesome, and some [of the camera-work was great]. Like that shot with Mike listening around the corner. Great shot, whichever cameraman that was! It was such a good episode, but Dan was NEVER coming with us. There was no way he would have. Even if we had known of his advantage and had been able to use it. It was never happening. He was not able to be convinced.

So was the incident between Will and Shirin longer or worse than what we saw on TV last night?

Yes, I have heard. I have heard that worse things were said. I was not in camp when it happened. I heard Will coming down screaming and I was like ‘I’m out. I don’t want to be here for whatever is happening since I don’t care.’ So I left, I wish I hadn’t. I wish I had been there to yell back at him and get Shirin out of there because she handled it amazingly. Honestly, I think Max said ‘I’m glad I was not in the game because I would’ve punched someone.’ I’m really glad I wasn’t there because it would have been horrible. Watching it, it was awful to see, it was awful to hear about, it was awful to watch. It was one of the worst things I think I’ve ever seen on the show. The way she handled it was amazing. The fact it happened and there has been no regret of it happening is shocking to me.

It was kind of a funny juxtaposition. You have this man of God who is yelling at this woman, telling her that she has no family or friends or people who love her, and we were literally surrounded by a hundred people who love her. You had this guy, thinking that he knows these things when she is surrounded by love.

How much did it help Shirin losing Max from the game?

Oh, it absolutely [helped her], because then she would talk to us. Her and Max would just talk about the game all day [all the time], but after he left we could really talk about normal things and occasionally ‘Survivor.’ But also ‘what kind of food do you like?’. Max leaving was the best thing for Shirin and our whole alliance.

So we’ll end here on something a little silly. Who was the craziest person to live with: Was it Dan, Max, or Vince?

(Laughs) I only had Vince for six days, but he was definitely nuts. I’m going with Dan. Max wasn’t crazy; he was smart, he just wouldn’t shut up! Dan. Dan Foley. For SURE.

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We thought a little about what Jenn said about the confrontation being one of the worst things ever on the show, and we do feel pretty much in agreement with her. The only other times we’ve probably are even close were watching Brandon terrify people in “Caramoan,” Phillip accusing Steve of racism in “Redemption Island,” the Ted – Ghandia thing all the way back in “Thailand,” and a few other odds and ends. Dan talking about Shirin last week was pretty rough, as well.

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