Survivor Live Internet Talk Show with Sundra Oakley 
Episode 14 Survivor: Cook Islands  Cast-Offs 
Segment 2 Transcript

Probst's Thoughts:  Sundra.  Well, right now Sundra is smiling.  I know that because Sundra finds a way to smile at pretty much everything even on the darkest days.  I would hammer Sundra and say, "Come on Sundra, you're miserable."  "No, Jeff, I'm really not.  I'm happy where I'm at in life.  I'm happy to be here."  I could never get her to crack.  It frustrated me at times.  So now I just am giving into the fact that I know she's smiling right now. 

DR:  Sundra, how's it going?

Sundra:  Good, hi.

DR:  Good to talk to you again, Sundra.  How does this whole experience stack up for you against getting into an on screen catfight with Kim Cattrall? 

Sundra:  [laughs] That's a tough one, to be honest with you.  Getting to do that, pull Kim Cattrall's hair is pretty up there on the life experiences but this one, I have to honestly say, takes the cake.  There was nothing like it.  Nothing like it at all. 

JM:  And you cleaned up the best that we've seen any Survivor.  You looked amazing.

DR:  What was that all about?  You looked hot.

Sundra:  Thank you.  I guess I clean up okay, huh?

JM:  I had a girl crush.

DR:  I guess everybody sort of agrees that Yul and Ozzy were just completely dominant in different ways but really did deserve to be there at the end.  You in your own way were sort of the true survivor.  You started Manihiki, lost the first challenge, probably would have lost the second if Ozzy hadn't thrown it.  Then you go into the new tribe and you're really at the bottom of the pecking order, you work your way up there.  Then you have the merge, you guys are on the bottom end again.  You work your way up from there.

Sundra:  I went into this game not knowing a whole hell of a lot about it.  I just said that I'm going to go in there with my eyes open.  I'm never going to let them see me sweat.  I'm going to work my butt off.  Whatever it is I have to do.  I know I'm no Ozzy.  Damn, I wish I could climb a tree like he does.  I wish I could fish.  But there are many things that make a survivor and I'm just going to do what I can do...work hard...I put in my work time.  That's what you have to do especially when you have all eyes on you.  When we had the merge and I was the lone Hiki member on Aitu I think everyone thought that Sundra is out of there.  I did what I said I was gonna do.  I kept my eyes open.  I saw wherever it is that I had to be.  I stuck with that.  There were several times I could have made dumb moves that wouldn't have had me where I ended up.  It was a matter of trust and a matter of who I felt I could trust and who trusted me.  The best way that I could have someone trust me is to just be honest and be who I am.  I never put on a front for anybody.  That was me.  So yeah, I'm quite proud of myself to be honest with you.

JM:  Was there at one time, especially for you and Becky, where you said, "okay, there's no way that I'm going to win just because Ozzy and Yul are such dominant forces.  I just want to make sure that I ride with my tribe all the way to the four."

Sundra:  I always wanted to make sure that I stayed loyal even if it meant that I was going to get out earlier.  Some people don't like that.  They're like, you need to do whatever you gotta do to get to the top.  I understand that but for me it was, hey I gotta do whatever is gonna make me look at people in the morning.  I didn't go into any challenge not giving it 150% if not more.  That last challenge with Ozzy, I woke up that morning with some weird kind of electricity and I just had a vision of being with that yellow dirty shirt and the immunity necklace on it. It was like, "I'm gonna push, I'm gonna push."  I was never going to slack off.  I wish I could say that I can do all the wonderful things that Ozzy can do because I think he's phenomenal.  Yul is just smart as all hell.  But I wasn't going to let that deter me from doing what I had to do. 

JM:  Who'd you vote for, by the way?

Sundra:  I voted for Yul and it's nothing against Ozzy.  I love Ozzy but I did have a really tight bond with Yul.  There were quite a few private moments that Yul and I had that they never showed and I kind of wish that they had.  There were nights that Yul and I slept on the raft together.  We'd look up at the stars.  We'd sit on the beach together and just talk.  I think that really kind of helped solidify the friendship that we have today.  They're both very deserving.  I think with Yul being a little bit older he and I just related on a certain level.  I know Yul's the type of person, I think Yul's the nicest person next to like Jesus.  What you see with that man is what you get.  I know with him winning that million it's not going to just benefit Yul.  That million is going to benefit a lot of people.  That makes me feel really good.  We tend to think really selfishly and it's okay to think selfishly but I know Yul is going to try to help people and better somebody else's life.  That to me is beautiful. 

Caller:  You guys talked a lot about how tightly knit you were and how loyal you were to each other.  From the viewer's perspective it seemed like you guys would have voted Ozzy off in a hot second had he lost one of those last challenges.   Is that accurate or is that just how it was shown?

Sundra:  No, that was pretty accurate.   We were definitely tight as a four however within the three, and by three I mean Becky, Yul and myself, we had been in an alliance from the merge which they didn't really show.  We weren't dumb, we also know, we want to win, we want to get as far as we can.  And yeah, if we'd had the opportunity Ozzy probably would have gone.  We were very conflicted about that to be honest with you because we spoke ad nauseum about, do we go with the final four because we got here together or do we try to advance ourselves as much in the game.  It was a tough decision but we realized why we decided to leave our homes and sleep on the ground and eat maggots was because we wanted to get as far ahead in this game as we can with as much dignity.  And I think Ozzy knew that and could respect that. 

JM:  Was it also a little bit that Ozzy was winning all the challenges and that kept you four safe anyway.

Sundra:  Oh, hell yeah.  Thank God for Ozzy. Please let's not get...he was definitely...I tip my hat off to that man.  He's phenomenal and of course that helped us.  I would never say differently.  He knew it.  He knew he was a big target. 

DR:  How much thought went into forcing Yul to use to use the hidden immunity idol?  I know that Adam came with this plan to do it.  Did you guys just consider it?  Was that something you thought about doing?

Sundra:  No, I never considered it.  I never did and Adam was very ticked about that but I said 'no'.  Yul had been good to me from my first day when we merged.  I had said many times that I'm only going to make decisions that aren't going to make me feel like a schmuck.  And I would have felt horrible.  And, you know, it wouldn't have been worth it to me.  It wouldn't have been worth it at all. 

JM:  I hope you're getting a good gift from him for Christmas.

Sundra:  I already told him that he owes Becky and I a holiday.  We said that on the island when we didn't get to do that reward spa.  I said, "If you win you are so definitely taking Becky and I to the spa.

DR:  Had Yul given Becky the hidden immunity idol for that final one...

JM:  If she would have taken it.

DR:  ...yeah if she'd taken it and it was used against you, would that have affected your vote on the jury?

Sundra:  Ummm, you know what, no.  It wouldn't have affected my vote because guys, we know it's a game.  I know the game kind of brings about a whole lot of paranoia and hurt feelings but the only thing that I could do is give myself reality checks all the time and say, "okay it's a game, put your feelings aside a little bit."  I would have been surprised if Yul had not offered Becky the hidden immunity idol.  They'd been together since Puka.  It would have been so naive to think on my part, "Oh my God, he gave it to her and she took it?"  I wouldn't have begrudged her of that at all.  That's why when she...what they didn't show at the fire making challenge...was that I had ran out of stuff and I said, "Jeff, just give it to Becky. It's Becky's. I'm out, it's hers."  She still proceeded to go ahead.  The way they cut it, they made it look like I just said, "I'm out" and she started getting fire.  But she wanted to prove and I respect her so much for that.  She's a class act and underrated and it wouldn't have affected my vote because at the end of the day I think he got what he deserved.  He got the million because he was smart.

DR:  I agree with you.

Caller:  Do you regret not trying to take the immunity idol away from Yul?

Sundra:  No, I don't regret not taking it away. 

JM:  Back to what you were saying about, "go ahead let Becky take it"...why?  Why not wait and see if she runs out of matches?  Maybe if you just wait and do whatever else they would have done...build a house shelter...I don't know.  Maybe if they would have went to something else you would have won that.

DR:  I think they were going to give them each a blow torch.

JM:  You said give it to Becky but why not wait and see if she can't make it also when maybe you would have won the third round?

Sundra:  Throughout that whole challenge I looked to see what she was doing.  My fault...I wasn't judicious enough with my matches.  You're nervous, you're sitting there, the wind is blowing, the jury members are looking at you, you feel all this pressure.  Seriously, I sat there and I was trying.  I got some good flames a couple of times and we sat there for awhile before I said, "Jeff, I'm out."  I sat there thinking and it was my time.  I was completely content because I was a girl who didn't know anything about this game but I obviously had a hell of a lot of respect to do it.  I was up against people who studied this game from day one.  They can tell you every contestant and their whole biography.  I wasn't that but I still was able to trust my gut, keep my eyes open and do what it was that I said I was gonna do and it worked to my benefit.  If it meant going out then, then that was fine.  I didn't think my behind was gonna last that long anyway. 

DR:  Sundra, I gotta say, not at your expense, but that was one of the funniest things, that fire making thing.

JM:  I couldn't believe it.

DR:  The jury falling asleep while you guys are doing that.  Unbelievable. 

Sundra:  I had a good laugh at that one, too, because we were watching it and like this is hilarious.  It was so funny because Ozzy and I...it had gone from Ozzy and I sitting and holding each other's hand because even though we know the outcome of the challenge, we were still nervous.  And to go to that where we could crack up.  Becky and I were saying "My God."  We were just thankful for it because everything is so super serious in this game.  To have some moment of laughter and to be able to share it with her, I thought it was great.

Caller:  You're absolutely gorgeous.  Did you tell anyone on the show that you were an actress?  And if not were you afraid that they would think that you already had a substantial career or were just there to be on TV and not there to be serious about the game.  Did you ever discuss your Hollywood career with them?

Sundra:  No, I deliberately never told anybody that I was an actor because it's very easy for someone to use that as an excuse against you.  And truth be told, there was no way in hell that I did Survivor to benefit my career.  I know that's very hard for some people to believe but I did Survivor for Sundra the individual.  I came off of having a very rough emotional year last year.  Gained weight and was just feeling at my low point.  I remember just sitting and thinking, I need something to shake up my world.  I didn't want somebody to cheapen my experience and cheapen what it was that I wanted out of this just because it's an easy tactic.  If I hadn't done Survivor I'd be going and doing the same thing I'm doing now which is doing my auditions, doing my classes or whatever it is that I have to do.  It's easy to say that because that's what people do. 

DR:  Sundra, we appreciate you taking some time out to talk to us.  Congratulations on making it all the way to the final four.  Really something and we'll keep a look out for you.

Sundra:  I enjoy watching you guys.  You're great.

JM:  Good luck. 

More Survivor Live Interviews:

Adam>>      Sundra>>     Becky >>     Ozzy >>