“You Don’t Have to Be a Bitch in Order to Make It” – RealityNewsOnline’s Exclusive Interview with Survivor: Tocantins’ Sierra We didn’t see much of Sierra strategizing on Survivor, and indeed she said on Survivor Insider that she wasn’t the conniving type of person. So why did she come on the show? How did she manage to stay 30 days without such scheming? And what did she do that we didn’t get to see? Plus, what does she have to say about Tyson and Coach? Read on to find out!
RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Sierra, and thanks for taking the time to talk to RealityNewsOnline! Starting at the beginning, what was your strategy coming into the game?
Sierra: My strategy coming into the game was to find one person that I truly believed was a good person and would never lie to me. I was a little scrambled for time early because I was at everyone’s mercy. I chose Brendan to share a little information about where the idol was buried. I wanted to take him all the way to the end and be a good person all the way through. And I believe I stood up to that.
RNO: From what we saw, a lot of what you did involved following Brendan’s lead. What strategizing did you do that we didn’t get to see?
Sierra: A lot of strategy that they didn’t show. The fire pit idea [when we were digging for the hidden immunity idol on the beach] that they did show was my idea – I was setting it up to look like that.
You didn’t see was that we planted Erinn a fake idol as well. I used the actual plaque that was my clue and tied it to the back of treemail. It was on a different lot of water, but it said to go ten paces and dig. It worked and she dug for like two days. When Joe came over at the merge, he said look at this idol and she said look at this clue and they both realized. It just didn’t make sense to show [that story]. Brendan was like, you’re brilliant! He had tried to use a piece of paper, but I was like, “Erinn is too smart for that.”
Other than that, mostly to keep quiet is the best, especially when you start so young and being in an alliance. Just keep quiet and build relationships and ignore your alliance. We probably spoke every five days about what we were doing because it’s so hard to get a moment without looking suspicious. It looks like I never had any plans in the game, but I did. Also, me just being true to one person, the strategy would come later, but I didn’t want to pull anything until it was the right time.
RNO: What’s the deal with Jeff Probst suggesting in his blog that you’re dating a Survivor producer?
Sierra: (Laughs) I think the funny thing is me and Taj and Debbie would be lying in the shelter and saying we’re so hunger and the hunger pains are terrible. So we got tired of looking at our same guys and would prowl around and look at the camera men and the producers and would tongue in cheek it with them. It was great to be able to look at some really cute Australian guys. I think Jeff also likes to rally it up because I was the young one and I used to say how hot his crew was.
RNO: So you’re not dating a Survivor producer?
Sierra: I am dating someone, but I was dating someone before I left – not somebody new.
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RNO: Back a few weeks ago, you said in a clip that was shown on Survivor Insider, that you are not conniving and when your time is over, it’s over. You added that you wouldn’t play politics to stay longer. Why come on Survivor if you’re not conniving?
Sierra: Because I think I really proved you don’t have to be to make it a long time. Thirty out of 39 days is really long for not being a conniving person. Where I didn’t make up for being a conniver, I made up for in challenges and other strengths and with heart. I went there for the experience, not for the money, and I had to make sure I got that experience. If I had been paranoid and conniving, it wouldn’t have been the same. It felt good to be out there. I was happy because I was pulling my own weight. You don’t have to be a bitch in order to make it. You can be a good person.
RNO: Was that part of your frustration in dealing with the lies of Coach? That he was making you out to be a liar when doing so would have been totally against your goal in the game?
Sierra: Yeah! It feels like when you’re a kid and didn’t do something wrong and your parents are saying you broke something. You’re screaming and your body’s locking because you didn’t do it. This person is blatantly lying in front of my face and I’m telling people he’s lying and he’s claiming to be the most honest person in Survivor. You want to call it drama, whatever. I stood up for myself and screamed, “You’re a liar!” And all of America knows he’s a liar. It doesn’t matter if they believed me, now as we all watch it, I go home looking like the good person.
RNO: When I spoke to Tyson last week, he didn’t have a whole lot of good things to say about you. Among other comments, he said, “She is one of those people that doesn’t know she’s stupid and doesn’t know she’s annoying.” What do you have to say about him?
Sierra: The funny thing is Tyson and I have never connected until Ponderosa [where they go after they’re voted out]. Unfortunately, I think when your ego gets bruised intensely, the person you’re going to take it out on was the one you made the biggest ass of yourself to, and that was me.
I know I’m not stupid or annoying – America knows that, we all watched it. He never gave me the time of day. Those certain types of person, they don’t ever listen because they think they know everything and are really good at things – and he was, he was a great physical asset to our tribe. But when he says that about me, he’s deflecting it from himself going home that night.
All I asked him was – you’ve already been dicks to me, I’m going home, for six days they made it a living hell for me, I still fought so hard. So I thought, just don’t be mean to me. The first thing he does at Tribal Council is he nails me. But I’m not putting your name down because of personality, it’s because you’re good at challenges and a big threat. It’s Survivor, not Survivor Personality. He was arrogant and I don’t care what he thinks. At the end of the day, we all like each other and it was just a game.
RNO: When Coach lectured you on loyalty after he tried to vote you off, didn’t you just want to smack him? I mean, I wanted to smack him and I was just watching on TV!
Sierra: (Laughs) Wooo! I did. I smacked him with my words. What you didn’t see but see me say it in Tribal Council, I said, “Look, you’re both stuck up s#!t creek and I want to keep you both there.” There was no way in heck I was going to let them take me back in and be like, “I’m saving you.” No way, I had done enough pleading and begging that the first conversation I had [after the reward challenge] was the first time I let it all go and told them how it was. Coach called me the oracle [because I spelled out the alliance situation, as I did on the show]. You guys will never have my vote and I will walk out with my dignity.
RNO: Having now seen the episode, do you have a better understanding of why you were voted off?
Sierra: What needed to happen was J.T. needed to win immunity so Coach didn’t. But for the first time in Coach’s life, he won immunity in a board game. If it had been running, he definitely would have lost. He won immunity, which sent me home. They were going to save me and that brought us back.
I kind of had a sense that I was going to go out and I went out with a big bang and laid into him. I think that by voting out Debbie, they think would have caused more arguments, but I don’t think I would have entertained more arguments with coach. America saw what they needed to see.
They didn’t want more controversy. Coach is a very, very crazy person – the things he says and does are crazy. You don’t want to spend three days with somebody who is going crazy – I can only imagine what he would do. I’m sure he would whittle some nunchucks and kick all our butts… supposedly.
RNO: What was the most eye-opening thing you saw on the show that you didn’t know about while you were there?
Sierra: I knew Coach lied but I really didn’t know the extent. When he lied twice. I thought they were roundabout lies, but he black and white lied to J.T. I’m the one who said, “no way.” Then he said it again and I was like, oh my God, I almost broke the TV.
RNO: We’re running out of time, so do you have anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor?
Sierra: I went for an experience and I was never really there for the money. I really did have a great experience and I will take it with me forever. I have no regrets and I have a great connection with all these people after everything’s been said and done; we have something nobody will be able to explain to others. And I hold that closely.
RNO: Thanks again, Sierra!
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