by Staci Krause

IGN.com - 11.27.06

Survivor: Cook Islands took another twist in the last episode, when Jonathan decided to betray the only alliance he hadn't done so to yet. Turning on Raro, Jonathan voted with Yul, Becky, Sundra and Ozzy to eliminate Nate, who didn't look very happy about it. Nate didn't have the individual immunity idol and he didn't win the individual challenge, so he became the next member of the jury.

We talked to Nate about the turn of his luck. He talked about the Raro alliances, what he thought about the racial twist and much more.

IGN TV: How did you come to be on the show?

Nate: One of the ladies who works for casting saw me at The Promenade and I think they probably needed to find some more men of color due to the way that they were splitting us up by race. So she asked me and approached me on my interest on being on the show. At first, I was kind of like 'ehhhhhhhh' and then I was like 'yeah, why not?' So I decided to go for it.

IGN TV: Had you seen the show before?

Nate: To be honest, I had seen a couple episodes of previous, previous, previous seasons, but once I decided I wanted to do it and that I was into it, I rented a bunch of seasons and kind of went to Survivor school and just studied up on winners and how they won and what to do, and what not to do. (laughs) So I was going in there not completely blind.

IGN TV: Did the studying help?

Nate: It helped my whole part of the game and to how far I got. At the end of the day, I wanted to win. It was at a point, where if we could have passed a couple pivotal points, it maybe would have worked more in the favor, but its all kind of spilt milk now. I'm happy with it. I don't have any regrets on how I played the game. The only thing I really regret is the fact that I didn't work harder to keep Jenny in the game and get rid of Jonathan at that point. I don't think she would have ever betrayed us.

IGN TV: Didn't that just come out of nowhere so you didn't have time?

Nate: You didn't really have time, but we thought there would be a possibility of us getting rid of someone else. We thought the scenario of maybe the person with the next amount of votes has to go, so we told Rebecca 'oh yeah, vote for Jonathan', in case it was like 'ok the person with the next amount of votes has to go' so then it would be him. So, I thought it was a shoe-in when we voted, but I think they viewed his worth in getting food, to keep him a little more. They thought he would be a little more valuable getting food and staying around until the next time, [and that] we had to rather than getting rid of him at that point. At the end of the day, I don't think they thought really it affected us, because the four of us had a four-way alliance. So I don't think they [thought it] would affect us if we got rid of her first or him first, but I kind of knew he was bad news, so I wanted to get rid of him at that point.

IGN TV: When you got there, was it what you expected?

Nate: It's exactly what I thought and then harder. You thought about it, but then really doing it and really putting yourself in those situations of being hungry and not being able to make fire right at the snap of the fingers like you thought, it was just like 'oh goodness, this is going to be a rough one.' I definitely tried different ways and techniques [of making fire], but I actually never really did it. That stick on stick method is damn near impossible, I'll tell you that. It's hard with flint, but the stick on stick is like, you must be out of your mind. I could never, ever do that. I tried many ways and I spent time out there doing it, but it's not what it looks like.

IGN TV: What was your initial reaction when you found out about the division along racial lines?

Nate: I laughed and I said 'you people are crazy with your ratings.' I said 'I cannot believe you!, but hey, then again, fine. If you want ratings, cool. I would want as many people to see me on the season as well, so if it captures interest, fine.' In some ways, it worked. In some ways, it didn't. Like I think they lost some sponsors or what have you because they took it the wrong way. But then it also opened up; I've ran into people on the street who've said 'I've never watched it until it was done by race and I wanted to see our people represented.' For what it was, it was all good.

Did I think it was going to play a factor in the game and get people to stick with the race and stuff? No, I think people are going to stick with one another that they felt comfortable with and people that they felt could help them get farther in the game. So if you happened to be an Asian person or a white person, it didn't matter to me. As long as you could help me get to a certain point and I trust you, then it's all good and it doesn't matter what color you are. The second we all merged and didn't really have to look at color, no one did. This is 2006, it's not like we still are 'oh we got to stick together.' I've stood through criticisms time and time again about race and what have you, but at the end of the day, that didn't matter to any of us. We really were just trying to keep the team as strong as we could. I turned on people that were in my own race, because I didn't feel their value to the tribe. And they could feel the same way about me.

IGN TV: Were you surprised about the public reaction when the twist was announced?

Nate: No, I knew the public was going to have fun with it and say that they had gone too far and that they are crazy and this is wrong and racist and 'how could they do this?' The public's going to say whatever. The public just wants something to talk about and at the end of the day, it was just another topic of conversation for them.

IGN TV: Were you worried about being stereotyped?

Nate: Yeah, completely. That was the first thing we worried about. Certain things that we, probably, as a black tribe, weren't as good at as others. Such as paddling and stuff. Stuff that we're not too familiar with because we weren't all that boat savvy or island savvy. I definitely thought 'what are they going to say?' We definitely really started thinking about that kind of stuff right when we lost that first one. We're like, 'man, what are people going to say?' Just a lot of things that made us question the way people really think. At the end of the day, I remember Rebecca saying 'people are just going to say hey, they are people just like us, people are people.' You may have people who are going to vote for us because we are of their same race but at the end of the day, people are going to like me because of me and not because of the color of my skin.

IGN TV: How do you think the show represented you and your personality?

Nate: I think it did alright. I think it had times where it showed me laughing and wanting to smile and being cool like that. It showed my serious side, which was cool. But there were a few times that I thought I was portrayed a little negative. I think it showed us voting people out and it showed me kind of being more the ring leader on who to vote out and that kind of wasn't the situation. Everything was more a group consensus. There were certain times it showed a bad side of me. Someone said to me earlier 'you are such a nice person, but on the show it kind of seemed like you didn't want to mess with you.' I was kind of like 'I've never been that person. I try to be a warm person and respectful of all.'

IGN TV: Parvati seemed to be attracted to you. How come you never went there?

Nate: Ahhhh, who said it didn't? I'm kidding. (laughs) Parvati's a sweetheart. I respect and love that girl. I'd have to say she's one of my girls. But we knew that we could never cross that line out there playing a game for a million dollars. When Adam and Candice started taking theirs to the next level, that just reiterated to me on my point of how we can be affectionate friends but never pass that, never cross the line, especially out there. That's not the time or the place. You are playing a game for a million dollars. You got to be serious. I love Adam, he's my boy, I love the kid, but I think there were times he wasn't thinking logical because of his emotions and what have you.

IGN TV: Were you surprised when Jonathan and Candice mutinied?

Nate: I wasn't surprised Candice came over, but Jonathan came over, I was like 'what in the hell is he doing?' I thought maybe he thought he was cool with her and what have you, so I said fine. Then I heard people saying 'oh the white tribe was going to reunite, how could you not see that?' I was like 'you people are really special if you think that's what happening.' But I don't know what he was thinking. I wasn't happy with it because I still think that mutiny was the death of us. I spoke to Candice when I was kidnapped and she said she wanted to work with us, but I was cool with that. But I knew it should be later on in the game. Granted, we didn't know if a merge was going to happen, so it's hard to say after the game's been played, but it was also one of those things where she should have waited a little more towards the merge, but that's me looking back and seeing everything the way it was all played. That mutiny was the death of us. I think they got bad karma for what they did by squeezing out their other tribe and we all kind of had to suffer for it. As you can see, I never won a challenge after those two mutinied over and we lost four Raro members in the last three weeks.

IGN TV: Raro seemed to have trouble all along forming any kind of sticking alliance. Why do you think that was?

Nate: The women kind of had an alliance but that was never going to be long term. That was just for them to keep safe at that point and have a little bit of numbers. But even when the girls were plotting to get rid of J.P., they were all coming up to us guys and saying 'hey, you know what, I will not get rid of you, I will work with you.' They were all getting shady on one another because they know they needed some man strength and stuff around there. They just wanted to keep themselves safe at that point, but at the end of the day, they also were holding onto us even moreso after he was gone, because they realized the value of us as players. But as far as alliances go, I would have to say were all kind of messed on all our alliances. I definitely had a long term one with Adam after I spoke with Candice, after I was kidnapped, about working with him and Candice and Parvati and I. We kind of wanted to do a final four. We stuck true to that, the four of us never turned on one another. We kind of, as a team, didn't make the best moves to keep me in the game.

IGN TV: Did you have any inkling you were being targeted for elimination?

Nate: Yeah. I'm not ignorant. I knew that it was going to be either myself or Adam who was going to be targeted. I didn't think they were going to go for Jonathan yet. I saw Yul talking to him so much. There was no way he was going to talk to him all the time and then vote him out. It didn't sit right in my stomach. I knew that Jonathan knew I didn't trust him. And I think he knew I was the one who voted against him the week before when I was trying to save Jenny. I definitely thought there would be a possibility, but I didn't think he'd want to go after me yet at that point, but once we started realizing things and how they didn't talk to the four of us and they were going into tribal council completely warm, we started thinking 'ok, this isn't cool.' Once I saw my name up that first time, I knew it was me. You know how they do it, they always put the person going home second.

IGN TV: Would you have considered changing alliances if you had been approached by Ozzy?

Nate: No way! I was going to work with Ozzy, definitely, because I liked Ozzy. And I said I never wanted to take someone out of the game just because they are strong. If Ozzy was that strong and that good and I couldn't beat him in a challenge, then I didn't deserve the money. That's just the kind of person I am and that's how I'm playing the game. I told Adam, I told all of them that they had my word and I was going to stick with them. I also told J.P. I had his back and I stuck with him too, and I told Sekou I had his back, and I stuck with him too. Regardless of what I knew, the girls told me they were going to come after Sekou, but there's nothing I really could do, or basically wanted to do, because it took a target off my back. I tried to always keep it true to my alliances.

IGN TV: Do you fault Jonathan still for switching, because regardless, you would have gone home?

Nate: If he had not switched, I still would have gone, but he's the one who gave them my name. He gave them my name. He could have gone after Adam or he could have gotten Candice. I thought they were maybe going to want to go for Candice, just because of the fact that she betrayed them, they wanted her out before anything. Jonathan had it out for me, so I'm definitely going to be upset with him. He put my name voluntarily out there.

IGN TV: Are you still angry at him?

Nate: I'm not angry, no, it's a game. I had some harsh words and I've been asked a lot, 'what do you feel about your words', and I say, for the way he played the game, I stand by those words. He was a backstabber and he did betray me. Outside the game, though, I think he's a great guy. I think he's a good father and I think he's a real good guy. Outside the game. But inside the game, he is all those things I said. I'm not going to be like 'oh, he's not.' No, he is. Are you kidding me? To say he's not a betraying backstabber? He's backstabbed everyone's that out there right now! He acknowledges it. For me to say it, it was just putting icing on the cake. He put himself in that position. He should have never jumped over. You reap what you sew.

IGN TV: What was the hardest thing for you?

Nate: Keeping my mouth shut. You know how you want to say things every time someone gets you upset. Basically keeping my mouth shut and not shooting myself in the foot. There were times to seriously just go off on people. The hardest thing was, besides the sleep and the lack of food, was keeping your mouth shut and really biting your lip. Biting my lip is really hard for me.

IGN TV: What did you enjoy the most?

Nate: I enjoyed hunting probably the most and the island itself and the water was beautiful. I had times, at night, Parvati and I would sit on the raft and just look at the stars and it was like 'are you kidding me, do you see where we are at? This is amazing, this is just so beautiful.' The overall island was just breathtaking. That was one of my favorite things is where I was at.

IGN TV: What are you up to now?

Nate: Working on a few projects with my brother and I'm going to be coming out with my own CD again in the '07. And, I'm going to be staying out of trouble. (laughs)

IGN TV: Any last words?

Nate: It was a great experience and I'm happy that I really got to do it. At the end of the day, I'm happy that I was given the opportunity to do it and to really test myself.