Exclusive Survivor: Fiji Interview: Anthony


by Staci Krause

IGN.com - 3.28.07

March 28, 2007 - Survivor: Fiji is going strong, voting off the sixth person this past Thursday. With the Ravu tribe continuing its winless streak, even though the tribes were mixed up, Anthony's time was finally up when his tribe cut him, instead of the volatile Rocky, loose.

We talked to Anthony about everything from playing the game to his fellow survivors to his conflicts with Rocky.

IGN TV: Congratulations on being on Survivor, it's a big deal.

Anthony: Thank you. Thank you. It was a pretty big deal around the house. We were all screaming and yelling and turning cartwheels.

IGN TV: Was it what you expected it to be?

Anthony: For the most part, it was. The only things that were a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, definitely the food, the lack of food and the lack of water more so than anything. Dehydration was probably the biggest issue for me.

IGN TV: Did the social aspect surprise you?

Anthony: You know, they made it look a lot worse for me on the social side than it really was. Really, my big issues were with Rocky and Mookie and more so with Rocky than anybody else. I actually got along really well with 17 other people.

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

Anthony: As it turns out, I've been a big fan of Survivor for a long time and the way my life has worked, I've managed to not be in a good position to apply to the show. It turns out that they were looking and found me on Friendster of all places. They said 'hey, we think you'd be great for the show, you should apply'. I got my application together, my big phone book of an application, and got it in and it turns out that they really liked me. They put me on and I was really happy to be there.

IGN TV: Were you surprised about the diversity of the casting?

Anthony: You know, I was a little bit wary of it because my first thought was that wow, they were going to do it again. I was counting heads and looking at all the people they have out here, I'm thinking 'this looks perfect to split up it into four tribes of five.' And when we actually got on the island, we were all able to talk for the first time, and realizing that there were only nineteen and not twenty and we were all even that much more freaked out because we were like 'how are they going to do this?' It really looked to me, and I think to a lot of other people, like they were going to split us up by race again. I was like 'they are daring to do it.' It might have been a much different game had they gone for it.

IGN TV: The African American's definitely seemed to bond more than the others by ethnicity.

Anthony: Yeah. For the most part I got along really well with everybody, with the other African-American's out there. I think they are some really good people with some great stories. But then again, I got along pretty well with most everybody else out there, except for Mookie and Rocky. And even Mookie I got along with on a functioning basis. It was kind of weird, even with Rocky, that really caught me off guard when he first decided to come at me. He yelled at one point, that they didn't show, where we had a little bit of a run-in as it were and that didn't seem enough, I shrugged it off, whatever. It turned out that he was holding hostility for me from that point and I honestly didn't know it. I talked to him and still got along with him as best a couple of guys who don't really have much in common can.

TV: Was the roughing it getting to Rocky?

Anthony: Honestly, if you keep Rocky well-fed and watered, he's ok. That's in his instruction manual. You have to keep him well-fed and watered and he does ok. I think in some ways maybe the island life, he caught Fiji fever or something, I don't know. I think part of it comes from the fact, at least with me, that he just doesn't know how to deal with guys who aren't always rough and tumble. I'm not a wuss. I'm going to tell you up front, I'm not a wussy guy. I've dated a lot of women that people would be surprised that some of these girls had gone out with me, I think. But I'm a nice guy. I'm not all about being abrasive and not everything is testosterone driven. Part of that comes from being raised by my mom and my grandma, largely. But I also had in my life for a large part, my grandfather, who up until he died was basically my role model. He's what they called long suffering, he's got like a long temper, but when he got mad, you just look out! That was kind of my example. Basically, treat people like you wanted to be treated and have long patience for stuff.

And I guess he's [Rocky] just got a really short fuse as far as patience for people. At some point, he pretty much had a problem with everybody. I mean, they didn't show it, but he yelled at Yau-man. He yelled at Dreamz, he yelled at me, he yelled at Yau-man. He got upset with Rita. The only woman he really got along with I think was Jessica, and I think that was the mark of death for Jessica in many ways. That was before he got really, really hungry. It was actually funny, because he got along pretty well with Liliana as well, which I think had something to do with Sylvia breaking the two of them up, because we were kind of looking at them going 'another Romber'. We were all kind of suspicious of everything everyone was doing. Everybody was watching everything. 'Oh they are pairing up, we got to stop that right now.' I think a little bit of that was with Jessica as well.

IGN TV: What were you thinking as all 19 of you were working together to build a shelter?

Anthony: I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop actually. From day 1, I jumped in and I started making connections with as many people as I could and really the funny thing for me is because by the time we got split up on Ravu, I was going 'these are great people to be on with, I got connections with most of these people and I still got a couple connections on the other tribe, so I should be ok and if I could make it to the merge', that's what I kept thinking of, 'get to the merge, I'll be great', especially after those first few days, because I spent a lot of time with Gary and Sylvia and Cassandra working on the shelter. I spent some time with them, working on that. I went in to day 3 when they split us up into two tribes, going to Ravu, going like 'I got some really great chances over there, if I can make it to the merge, I'll have some support with people if it comes down to it.'

It was just nuts building that shelter. They were like, do this and the game starts. We're hustling to get it done, we wanted the game to start. We're waiting for buffs, we got no buffs. We've got not flag. We don't know what our tribe name is. We don't know what is going on. We hadn't seen Jeff in three days. Previously on Survivor, you are used to seeing Jeff right there on the beach when you land, telling you what's what. It was really unnerving, we're kind of like 'so are we going to have 19 people at tribal council, have it be like the largest tribal council or something.' It would have been an interesting vote

IGN TV: Were you worried about being stereotyped?

Anthony: Yeah, actually, in some ways. The whole thing about being a nerd or a geek or whatever you want to call that. I wear that like a badge of honor. I'm not ashamed of it. I go out clubbing with friends, some of the clubs I go to, they are punks and indie kids and hipsters. I'm looking at these guys and they are like 'where were you last night, you weren't clubbing with us', and I'm like 'playing D&D with a couple of friends.' I drop that without blinking, it doesn't bother me. Most of the gamers I know are actually pretty cool. Most of us have lives outside of it, so it's a nice thing. That's not a bad thing. But what I do get stereotyped as, because I'm from Compton, I should be a thug. Because I'm a guy, I have to act all macho and bullyish. People expect that. I think that's really short-sighted. They've never hung out with enough gamers, when you haven't slept for three days because you've been at a convention and you're sucking down Mountain Dew and Twinkies. It's really funny, there are a lot of people on the internet who have been saying some interesting things about me, but I'm kind of like 'you guys are the exact same way, you know you are.' I got out there and did it which I think surprised a lot of people. I might not have done well in some people's eyes, but middle of the pack, the sixth person voted out, the seventh person to leave the island, out of nineteen, that's not too shabby. Not great, not too shabby. I'm just glad I wasn't the first one out, because nobody wants to be that. I think that Jessica weathered that really well. It was nothing against her, and in fact I think we may have done her a favor. Life on Ravu… it was probably to her benefit that she wasn't associated with us.

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

Anthony: As far as what was going on in tribe, day-to-day life, probably not really representative of who I am. But that was largely because that was the game I was playing. I was in many ways not being myself except in interviews and with certain people. Interviews, you got to see a whole lot more of me and who I am and that's really when I was being most myself. And a couple of other people got to see me. Rita got to see shades of me. Earl got to see I think a lot more than most people got to see of me. We spent a lot of time strategizing and talking. Gary got to see a good side of me, because he's a great guy. The time we spent on the island, we got to know each other, not really great, but we got to know each other I think well enough to get a little bit of trust going. I can talk, if you haven't noticed that, so I just tried to dial that back. It was probably going to be an annoying factor for some people and it turns out, it was with Rita for most of us.

IGN TV: What was the hardest thing for you?

Anthony: Probably the two hardest things were dealing with the dehydration and quite literally, dealing with the emotional abuse. With the stuff that started pretty much with Sylvia's tribal council, that started coming out from Rocky and Mookie. That actually was probably the one time in the whole game that I felt blindsided. It felt like it came out of nowhere at that point and the personal level that Rocky took it, even if Mookie were saying stuff behind my back and if other people were saying stuff behind my back, that's one thing. But kind of laying it out there in such a way, that the only thing you can do is either fight back with the same kind of verbal abuse or sit and weather it, take it like a man. That made it really hard.

IGN TV: Do you think if you had fought back, things would have been different?

Anthony: You know, it's really funny that you ask that because, part of what started the whole yelling back and forth with Rocky is Rocky would escalate things and I would fight back. And then he'd escalate it more and I'd try to de-escalate it and he'd keep fighting. When you put your hands up in the universal symbol for 'ok, I'm done', and somebody keeps coming after you, what are you going to do? Someone's like 'ok, you're right, we'll just end the fight', he was like 'no', he wanted to keep it going. I don't know if that's his way of testing how much of a guy you are by how much you want to fight, but I think I pick my battles pretty well. I think there's a little island fever that's hit him at this point. In many ways, I feel bad for Rocky, because I think he's getting even a shorter end of the stick than I am. There are times when Rocky is a really nice guy, but when he wants to be a jerk, he just does not hold anything back. I think the horrible part is that he thinks he's giving me a good, honest life lesson. It's like 'dude, step back and listen to what you are saying.'

IGN TV: So what was your general opinion of the twist with the haves and have-nots?

Anthony: Being on the have-nots side, it many ways it sucks. In many ways it sucks. It's funny, I can't find fault with the game because it's Survivor. You sign on for whatever and you don't know what the game is going to be until you get out there. I'm glad that I can honestly say that for sixteen days that I was out there, I played the real game of Survivor. I actually had to struggle and compete in these challenges with what other survivors have gone through before, not having a couch and coffee and all the luxuries of the island home. I slept in dirt and the other guys slept in a bed. I got to play the real game and as hard as that was for people to watch and as hard as it was for me to go through, I had the pride of going sixteen days with very little food and water and I still got up every morning, every day at dawn, and got up and did my thing. I think that's a lot to be proud of. Good on Ravu, good on Ravu for playing the game.

IGN TV: So you never wanted that coffee?

Anthony: Honestly, if anything, the one thing I would have killed for early on in the game was flint so we could start a frigging fire. If we had started off with full canteens, it would have been great, when they split us up into tribes. But there was 19 people, one pot to boil water, we barely had four canteens filled when we got split up, so going into it with that kind of deficit, I could care less about the coffee. One good fishing line and a flint would have made our lives 100% better.


IGN TV: What are you up to now?

Anthony: Back home. Back to my family. Back to my grandma and my mom and my friends. And back to work. I didn't win a million bucks, so I got to keep working. I find expert witnesses for attorneys. I deal with a lot of different people, a lot of different personalities, some Rocky-esque. I got good social skills. I got to convince people to take time out of their busy days to look over a file the size of a phonebook and testify in trial. If you can get through a secretary, you can handle almost anybody.

IGN TV: So you mentioned you are a gamer, what games are you playing?

Anthony: I do live-action role-playing games when I get a chance. I've been doing that off and on for about 14 years. I do the gaming conventions when I get the time off from work to. One of the ones I love going to is Dungeon-Con. I like the smaller cons, they are a little bit more personable.

What am I playing right now, City of Heroes is a big one I'm playing. It's addicting, it's like crack, it's great. Just one more level, I can do one more level. I've got both sides, City of Heroes and City of Villains.

IGN TV: You like being a hero or villain more?

Anthony: Honestly, the heroes are fun and all, but the villains have cooler powers. The villains are a lot more fun, but everybody wants to be a hero.
I play a lot of other games. Cyberpunk, Paranoia, which by the way is very helpful for this game in many ways. Trust no one, it's great. Everybody's out for themselves. It's the same gameplay.

IGN TV: Did you miss the games?

Anthony: Not really, because Survivor is the ultimate game. It's all consuming. You don't need other games while you are there, it's enough.

IGN TV: Any last words for America?

Anthony: I'd like to say that Survivor's been a great experience. It's opened my eyes up to who I am as a person, that I'm proud of myself and have a lot to be proud of and a lot of strengths. For all those future survivors who might make it out there, that they do it with as open mind as possible. It is an amazing experience, if you let it be.