‘Survivor: Philippines’ interview: Artis Silvester explains ‘angry’ look, strategy

Considering that we picked Artis Silvester to win “Survivor: Philippines” before the start of the season, it’s pretty fair to say that we were rather sad to see the guy go on Wednesday night. After all, the guy had a tough time out there: despite coming across as very likable in the pre-show interviews, he was edited to look like a grump who was in an “axis of evil” alliance alongside Abi-Maria Gomes and Pete Yurkowski; and really, it was Abi’s own behavior that in a way led to Skupin flipping and him getting voted out of the game.

Since we didn’t see much of Artis all season long, we did have a number of questions for him not just about his strategy in a conference call with reporters on Thursday, but also about why he was presented while he was on the show.

Cartermatt.com – You seem like a pretty nice guy, and your final message on the show was pretty gracious. Why do you think the show chose to make you look so angry most of the time?

Artis Silvester – Whenever I am just sitting there twiddling my thumbs, my resting facial expression is that I am pi–ed off at the world. But I’m not! I was also in an alliance that had the baggage of Abi, and that roped me into [the depiction] of being an evil, villainous person. In fact, I was nothing like that; it just played out like that because if you just look at me going about my day-to-day stuff, you would really think that I was angry.

That was a huge obstacle for me going to this game, and it actually made me structure how I wanted to play the game based on the perception of what everyone had of me without speaking to me.

Since you obviously know how Abi was perceived by the tribe, did you ever consider flipping over to Kalabaw yourself?

Being a big fan of the show, and unless my recollection is wrong, I don’t remember anybody, or any male, who has flipped and won the game. No matter how dysfunctional we were, [Tandang] still had the numbers. We had to stay together … If I had wanted to flip, they would have still had the numbers. It would have taken two or three of us to flip. I really didn’t want that. After being with everyone and playing the game, I really wanted the winner to come from Tandang.

So let’s talk about someone who was notorious for flipping his first time he played the game in Penner: how savvy was he out there, and were you surprised by the move that he was able to pull off?

If you’ve played this game three times, THREE TIMES, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you are just wasting your life. He was supposed to be good, and he was … His game was pretty much indicative of what he does for a living. He tells stories. So he better be good at it.

Do you think Artis could have been a great character this season had he been given more time?