‘Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs. Favorites’ interview: Corinne Kaplan on Dawn’s tears

Corinne Kaplan was pretty quiet for the first few episodes of “Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs. Favorites,” but when the show finally featured her, they definitely went all-out. She played a huge part in the last few episodes as she butted heads often with “The Specialist” Phillip Sheppard, and ended up going home after failing to execute a big move that would have put her and an alliance of seven in power for most of the remainder of the game.

So what did she have to say about these topics and then some? Corinne was thankfully just as opinionated in our chat on Thursday as she was during her time on the show. Also, she does a great job of explaining why exactly she told Dawn what she did, and it’s for a reason that makes much more sense than anything that we saw during the episode. This may be one of out must-reads of the entire season, so enjoy!

Cartermatt.com – Were you bummed for the first few weeks of the season that you weren’t really getting any attention? I mean, we know that it wasn’t like you just weren’t zinging people in confessionals.

Corinne Kaplan – When I watch it, I know that’s what people are thinking: I’m not just starting to be funny and witty on day 10. I am who I am all the time; you know, there’s 20 people, and they have to give everyone a character. And when you don’t go to tribal, especially when the teams are so big like that, you just don’t get a lot of airtime.

I think what I have to say is funnier than a lot of the other confessionals that they air, but I don’t control that. But yeah, I was pretty bummed, because I know when I’m going home, right? I knew I only had X many episodes to make my mark.

You mentioned earlier [in the call] that you were the reason that you ended up getting sent home, so was there any one reason why you told Dawn as much as you did? Was it a situation where you were just tired and hungry, and said a little bit too much?

No, it was a strategic move. She was my best friend out there; I was very close to her; I know you don’t see that, but [that was] the reality. Dawn was having a really hard time out there. Pretty much starting around Brandon, she was starting to unravel. She was having trouble, she was crying a lot more often, you saw her going to the well alone and having a cry-fest.

Since I care for her, as a friend and an alliance member, I said ‘let’s go talk.’ I said ‘what’s going on, Dawn,’ and she said ‘we’re at the bottom of this alliance,’ and she’s crying, hard. She’s saying that she doesn’t know what she’s doing, ‘I can’t get a footing, I feel like everyone is turning against me, no one’s going to take me to the end.’ She starts to really freak out. So I say to her ‘listen, worst case scenario we do this.’ Then I present her the option [to get rid of Sherri and then Phillip]; I do not say that I’m doing that. I just say ‘hey, here’s an idea. Maybe this will make you feel better. If, push comes to shove, you think we’re at the bottom of that alliance, after this vote we can just move over to this alliance.’

I told her this story for two reasons. One, to calm her down; and two, I wasn’t terribly confident that we had Erik in the first place, and even if we did have Erik, Malcolm had Erik. I did not. Malcolm had Eddie, Reynold, and Erik. All I had was Michael. I wanted Dawn in that alliance. That was my selfishness; that’s what I wanted. I understand when you watch it you’re like ‘why the hell did you have to tell her then, why didn’t you wait until Sherri was voted out?’, but here’s the thing: when you play ‘Survivor,’ you play it long-term. You make moves that are going to affect you long-term.

When I do things, I don’t do them in three-day increments; so when I was telling her that, I was trying to placate her and soothe her, and I was setting myself up for a better chance later on.

I know that there were other people out there who had played before together, like Cochran and Dawn or Phillip and Andrea. Is there any one person from ‘Gabon’ that you wish had come back with you? I know you’re close with Marcus and Charlie, and I know he wasn’t in your alliance, but I’d like to see Kenny back.

Oh god. I do not need to play with Kenny again. (Laughs.) It’s like asking which one of your children you love more. I adore Marcus, Charlie, and Randy. Marcus is literally staying at my apartment tonight, I talked to Randy this morning, and Charlie yesterday gave me a live texting on the east coast so I knew what was going on in the episode. I am extremely close to all three of them, and that I will never change.

I know it’s cheesy, but if you can’t win the million, you should come out of it with friends like I did. That’s the sad thing about this season for me; I didn’t really get that out of it.

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Are you going to miss Corinne on “Survivor Caramoan”? If you missed our full review of last night’s new episode, check it out over at the link here.

Photo: CBS