Gabon Cast Revealed

[pawpaw]

reality blurred + Marcus Lehman: "I am athletic, but I bring a certain amount of intellect and common sense"

Marcus Lehman, a doctor and Cosmopolitan magazine’s top Georgia bachelor in 2006, is intelligent and extremely articulate, and had perhaps the most casually confident and clear answers of anyone I talked to. He was recruited and cast as a result of his 2006 appearance in Cosmo, but like Charlie Herschel, was actually “a fan of the show since it first came out,” Marcus told me.
Like other cast members, he’s exceptionally concerned about how others will judge him in advance, and said that he was even being careful about things like the clothes he wore at pre-Ponderosa to keep others guessing. (He was wearing an A-shirt and board shorts when we talked.)
“From society’s perspective, I have a lot of things to ‘hide’ in a game like this,” Marcus said. “How do you be honest with people and upfront with them in a way that they can see that you’re a sincere person, but at the same time prevent them from making what I would say are the typical mistakes that I notice people make when they make when they meet me? As soon as they know I went to Harvard or am a doctor it’s like, bam, automatic assumptions. A lot of people rely on those kinds of instincts in this game. Unfortunately, they’re wrong, just like any presupposition or biases.”
That said, Marcus doesn’t plan to lie, but rather will “have conversations about the present,” day-to-day game and form bonds “so when the rest of the stuff comes out it’s not as a big of a deal,” he said. As a triathlete, he has obvious, visible physical strength and knows that “the biggest, strongest guy hardly ever wins.” But he also wants to be known for more than that. “I am athletic, but I bring a certain amount of intellect and common sense,” he said.
Marcus is subtly and not obnoxiously arrogant, and I didn’t even really sense it when I first talked to him, but that attitude is apparent in some of his answers. For example, he cited both cited Richard Hatch (“an intelligent guy that analyzed situations well”) and Yul Kwon as players he admires, and said of Yul, “I swear I had a man crush on him.” Later, Marcus returned to Yul and said, “I felt like he was faced with a lot of the same problems that I’m faced with … he’s obviously a bright guy, he’s fit, and to me that seems the biggest challenge in the game.” In other words, he admires Yul for characteristics they share—or even has a man crush on himself, too.
Marcus’ understanding of the game and what has worked well for past winners will definitely help him. Yul “established great relationships and kept his mouth shut when he needed to, and that’s the way to do it,” he said. And citing Richard Hatch’s honesty as an example, said that this season, “it would be great to have the game run its course in a way that’s a little more noble, and if I can play a part in that, by all means, I’d love to.”
Marcus plans to “seek common ground to develop trust” among fellow tribe members, and also act as the “arbitrator, the person people can turn to for solutions and also for trust. And really, at the end of the day, kind of sneak under the radar that way.” That sounds like a solid plan that might work.
What could get in his way are his hormones. When he cited the “two types of relationships” that cast members have, he said they were “friendships and intimate relationships,” and for the latter, “I’ve definitely considered maybe going down that road a little bit … I love flirting with girls, so it’s going to happen.”

[pawpaw]

reality blurred + Paloma Soto-Castillo: "I don't think you can compare...the next 39 days to my life outside of it"

Paloma Soto-Castillo is a 24-year-old student who has missionary parents, so she’s lived in different places. A year and a half ago, went to Kenya to do volunteer work where she “completely bushed it,” she said. That’d seem like excellent experience, but for a number of reasons, Paloma seems at once to be prepared for the game and not at all.
She was recruited at the Hard Rock Hotel’s Rehab pool party in Las Vegas, and is a student who graduated with a degree in communications last December but is currently working as a waitress and getting ready to return to school. While she has seen past seasons and understands the basic tenets of the game, I’d say she’s among those who know the least about it. While Paloma was pleasant, nice, and thoughtful, she ends up being kind of forgettable.
Paloma likens Survivor to a game like Monopoly and said she’ll “do whatever it takes,” regardless of her faith. Refreshingly, she said she wouldn’t draw any lines in advance of the competition because she doesn’t know what’s coming. “I don’t want to be that person that was interviewed … and then you watch me three months later and say, that girl’s such a hypocrite,” she said.
We talked a lot about that, because Paloma wants to differentiate between her game self and her day-to-day self, she insisted that what happens on the show doesn’t reflect who she is. While that’s not unlike the argument other contestants made, she seemed especially concerned about not being judged for what she does. “The situation is so different you can’t compare it to real life. Like, when I’m lying to someone on the game, I’m not lying because of resentment or things that I harbor inside my heart, it’s because I want to win a million dollars. So it’s completely different. It’s like you’re comparing oranges and apples. I don’t think you can compare this life and the next 39 days to my life outside of it,” Paloma told me.
That ideology works as a guard against accusations of hypocrisy, but at other points during our conversation, she’d also say contradictory or hypocritical things and not be aware of that. “I don’t gamble but I do like to play Texas Hold ‘Em,” she said, saying that she often wins or comes in second during tournaments.
Hypocrisy aside, that’s a skill that could benefit her in the game, except her Survivor strategy seems to be to wait around until everyone has no choice but to give her the $1 million. Paloma plans to “be myself, be low-key, let people bicker at each other, take each other out, be really helpful around camp, try my best during challenges, just be really active but at the same time not be too loud, where they notice, you know. And then, towards the end of the game, once my biggest threats have been taken out by each other, then I can just step up the game and eventually sneak up their somehow,” she said.
And if she does win, she has perhaps the most noble plan of any contestant, planning to give some of it to charity. She’s concerned that if her fellow tribemates learn that, she’ll be voted out because they’ll think, “she’s going to give some of her money to kids in Africa and build a school, so I’m not going to take her,” Paloma said. She also wants to buy a house, go on a vacation, and do other things with the prize.

[pawpaw]

reality blurred + Jacquie Berg: "I kind of just want to sit back so that people can't judge me, good or bad"

Like Survivor Gabon cast member Paloma Soto-Castillo, medical device salesperson Jacquie Berg was totally nice—and totally forgettable. I continually forget she’s even on the show. Our conversation was the shortest one I had with any contestant, and while Jacquie has a relatively interesting strategy, it was kind of boring to hear her talk about it because she’s so restrained. At one point, she said, “I’m trying not to be right now, but I’m very high energy,” and I almost laughed at the second part because of the subdued way she said that and everything else.
Jacquie “applied the day before applications were due” because she “I needed a change; I was working 80 hours a week for the past three years, and I needed a vacation, to say the least,” she said. She’s watched the show for the “last few years,” and as a role model in the game, cites a “mixture of like Elisabeth Hasselbeck and possibly Jenna Morasca, just because I think they could play off people’s emotions really well and get instant rapport with people.”
While she’s “super, super competitive,” her strategy is to attempt to fly under the radar, even to the point of throwing challenges, so she doesn’t come off as a threat and conceals her strengths, such as her athleticism (her CBS bio said she “[competes] in several sports such as gymnastics, water polo, crew, track and swimming”).
“This is going to be really, really hard I’m going to hold back. I don’t want to be a dominating leader in the group, which I tend to do when I’m doing team sports, because I have this intrinsic need to win. But I’m going to try to hold back as much as I can,” Jacquie said. “I kind of just want to sit back so that people can’t judge me, good or bad.”
I asked how she could win with that strategy, and she said she’d wait until after the merge and then start “winning all the immunity idols that I can.” That said, she also intends to strategize while using others as a shield. “I’ll probably try to instigate a couple vote-offs but not make it seem like it’s coming from me, make it seem like the other person—they’ll be the voice,” Jacquie told me.
Other parts of her strategy seemed to be completely obvious. For example, she said, “I probably don’t want to befriend or make alliances with those people that are going to backstab me,” she said. As to how she’d know that, she had pre-judged the other contestants. “I think I’ve pretty much pinpointed those that I feel are genuine and people who I can trust, and I can already see people who are trying to scheme a plan and, you know, have a front. So, stay away from those people,” she said.
While Jacquie had clear ideas already about who she could trust and who she wouldn’t because she’s “a really good reader of people,” she refused to identify those people (by description, because of course they didn’t yet know each others’ names). “I can’t say; I’m not going to say,” she said after discussing trusting “those people who can’t hide a smile” and “have true emotions,” and not trusting those who are “seclusive” and “hide behind rocks and stuff.”

[pawpaw]

reality blurred + Crystal Cox: "I can't play under the radar because I'm 6'3"

Olympic gold medalist Crystal Cox is “a fan since day one” of the show, and is super-excited about being on the show, and after applying for the first time last year, was almost cast for Survivor Micronesia before being cast for this season. “I’m here to play and I’m here to win,” she said at the end of our conversation.
While she may be known for her athleticism, she’s “a full-time mom” of an eight-year old who watches Survivor with her. “Anything that I do in life is for her now, and she’s my reason and purpose for everything,” Crystal said. She’s prepared physically by weakening herself, and said she “slowed down on the training and let my muscle turn into fat,” she said, although that “kind of put me in a slump because [training is] something I’ve done my whole life.”
In the game, which she seems to know well, Crystal wants to be “the ringleader of who votes who off” in an alliance, but she acknowledged that “there’s always that one person, but then, in the end, they get voted off, so I have to be careful.” That’s because “I can’t play under the radar because I’m 6’3”. It’s like an elephant hiding in the middle of nowhere,” she said.
Crystal has already faced problems with being too domineering, like when they were unloading luggage at pre-Ponderosa. Crystal said she thought to herself, “Damn, I hope they don’t think I’m trying to take control, because I clearly, I don’t want that to work against me.”
While others may be judging her—and several did identify her as an athlete in their conversations with me—Crystal clearly has strong feelings about other people. “Some of them I can’t wait to write their name down—as soon as I figure out what it is. Some of the guys, they are such dickheads,” she said, citing the way they were “cutting me off” at the airport and even in line at meals.
“Honestly, I get along with almost anybody, but like I said, there’s a few dickheads here. So, I’m going to have to play up trying to be their friend and kiss some ass, and vote them off before they vote me off,” she said. Her plan is to “definitely knock off the folks who don’t bring anything to the table,” including the women who are “playing up the whole sexuality thing. … I’m going to have to let them go, too, because they’re not bringing anything to the table. It’s strictly about survival out here.”
That said, she knows that “your fate in this game is determined by other people.” And although she isn’t fond of the “dickheads,” Crystal has favorites, primarily Susie, who she plans to align with. “I can just that tell me and her have this bond going. Hopefully, she’s on my team and we can build alliances and go all the way to the end,” Crystal said.
Overall, Crystal seems very grounded and realistic. When talking about what she’d do with the prize money, she said that “after I pay Uncle Sam his 50 percent,” she’d travel some and build a house, and “probably start a foundation for at-risk youth. I definitely want to do something along those lines, because I was, at one point, an at-risk. … I want to help pull other people out of that situation.” She hopes the show will serve as a “stepping point” for her to be able to help others as she transitions away from being a professional athlete.

[pawpaw]

reality blurred + Jessica "Sugar" Kiper: "I'd rather be the innocent pin-up than someone who gets paid to" act

Jessica “Sugar” Kiper is yet another Survivor Gabon cast member who plans to lie about her identity, but more than anyone else, she may be recognizable. As her extensive list of credits on IMDB reveals, she’s acted in many TV shows, most notably as Shane in Gilmore Girls. She also appears in the “pivotal” and above-title role as a stripper in the film Sex and Death 101.
While she was anxious to discard that identity, she kept making references to her time on the show as an acting gig. “I think I’m here for comic relief,” she said at one point, and talking about being recruited, she said “they brought me over for this show,” like it was just another acting job. She was also annoyed for being “treated like extras” with “handlers,” and views the show as the “best way to get my actual self out there.” During our conversation, when I reached over to adjust my digital audio recorder, she even asked, “Do you want me to go ahead and say that over?”
Because of moments like those, I wasn’t sure how to read her. We had a pleasant conversation, and I enjoyed talking with her. However, Sugar seemed alternately likable and genuine, fake and performative. More significantly, she seems to represent everything that’s wrong with recruiting cast members, which can sometimes yield unexpected players, but can also yield people who don’t know or care about playing the game. Perhaps worse, Sugar was initially recruited—but not for Survivor. “Actually, they scouted me for that really dumb Greatest American Dog show … and then they brought me over for this show, and I’m way happy, because this is what I need right now,” she told me.
That’s a reference to the recent death of her father. “My dad passed away, so I’ve just kind of taken a break. I haven’t been doing much of anything. I’ve been soul-searching and hanging out, basically,” Sugar said. When talking about her father, she started crying, and this is going to sound callous and cold and horrible on my part, but I felt like she’d just been waiting the whole interview to cry. I have no doubt that her sadness over his death is entirely genuine, but the crying didn’t feel real, although it was really awkward.
Here’s why: After describing herself as “very super-emotional,” Sugar said she’ll “automatically cry” if she sees someone else cry. And then she pointed out that she was going to cry before she did. “I’m on the verge of tears, like, every five seconds—like now, and I don’t even know why,” she said, and the tears came. Perhaps I’m just skeptical because I know she’s an actor, or I’m just insensitive.
While the other contestants may not know she’s an actor, they do know that she cries, as she said that “everybody’s already seen me cry like two or three times,” she said, due to “stuff about my dad.” The others also know that she’s dramatic because during Survivor School, when they were learning about Gabon’s wildlife, Sugar screamed when “an ant fell out of a tree and fell on my paper.” Producers “separated me from everybody because they thought I was making jokes or something,” she said.
Speaking of those other contestants, she had some remarkable perception—comparing Charlie to Todd, which of course he and the producers were concerned about, and identifying Matty as the “enlightened rich guy” (at least, I think she meant Matty, since she didn’t, of course, know his name yet)—but them again, she also referred to “the old gay guy” (Randy?). Sugar also said that “the gay guy [Charlie] scares me. … Maybe it’s because of Todd in season 15, maybe that’s why this guy is scaring me. I know that I won’t have any effect on him whatsoever, so maybe that’s why he scares me.”
She also said that Randy (I think) and Susie didn’t seem friendly. “When people don’t smile automatically back at you, I think maybe they’ve got something ****ed up in their psyche, I guess,” she said. Overall, Sugar said, “I think I have the guys read pretty well,” and her challenge is to “get the girls to know who I am” and “get past my image,” which she said others tend to judge her for. Speaking of image, as you can see in her promo pictures, she was wearing bright red lipstick, pigtails, and a leopard print bikini during all of her press interviews.
Before being contacted, she had “never watched [Survivor] before, to be honest. I read six books and they lent me like six, seven seasons, so I’ve seen a lot of it, I understand it,” Sugar said. “My only game plan is to not tell everybody else that I’m an actor and just tell them I’m a pin-up, because I do pin-ups, too.” She said “I’d rather be the innocent pin-up than someone who gets paid to”—and here I said “lie,” and she didn’t agree with that, but basically said acting.
As her role model in the game, Sugar cited Survivor China finalist Courtney multiple times. “I’m going to go with the flow because that has worked for people like Courtney, so she was not strategic and she was not physical, so it can work. I’m just going to see if I can sneak through to the merge.”

[pawpaw]

reality blurred + Gillian Larson: "I don't want to be the overwhelming mother"

At 61, Gillian Larson is Survivor Gabon’s oldest contestant. But she had more energy and enthusiasm than anyone else. Gillian was so excited about everything it seemed as if Survivor was a drug and she was tweaking on it.
She was thrilled about everything—from the show’s creative challenges to its music to its “social/psychological game”—and has applied 15 times over eight years. You have to kind of wonder why they never picked her until now, and this is purely speculation, but it may be because that enthusiasm works against her—as it could in the game.
That’s because Gillian is absolutely exhausting to talk to. She’s had interesting life experiences and is admirably passionate about life, but she just exudes so much energy it’s draining to listen to her and hard to stay engaged. I think that may have influenced her low ranking in my initial list, because even re-listening to our interview, I was amused by her in the first few minutes, but by the end I couldn’t wait for those 17 and a half minutes to be over.
To her credit, she recognizes this. When I asked if her enthusiasm might work against her in the game, she said, “I’m going to do a lot of assessment of how people are. What you’re seeing now is really me, but maybe what TV will see for the first I don’t know long will be like, who’s that? My friends will say, she’s being a bit of a dud. … I don’t want to be overwhelming.” That word and theme were ones she returned to many times. “I don’t want to be the overwhelming mother,” she said later. Because of that, Gillian plans “to check it all out before I make any moves at all, before I’m even me.” She also doesn’t want them to know how old she is because they might think she’s “an old broad they should boot off” and “a useless old thing who gets them losing challenges.”
That seems to be her strategy: assess and wait. “I don’t want look like a dud, I don’t want to look overwhelming, I don’t want to look like a leader, I want to look like a nothing at the beginning,” Gillian told me. Discussing game strategy, Gillian cited Nelson Mandel’s theory of leadership: “He believes that the spirit of leadership and the effective leadership is to let the nimblest of the flock run ahead, while all along, they’re actually being led from behind.”
That said, she also plans to “be a mom,” unless the others have mother issues, which you can hear her discuss below. Besides the strengths she says she brings into the game, like her strong swimming abilities, she said, “I’ve learned everything I possibly can” about finding food and living in the wild.
Born and raised in South Africa, she travels a lot, although “on a shoestring,” spending about $10 a day by staying in hostels and backpacking around. Since moving to the United States with her husband, she’s moved 18 times. While she’s a nurse, she just moved to the west coast, and “just haven’t gotten around to get another job,” she said.

[pawpaw]

reality blurred + Corinne Kaplan: "I just want the money"

Corinne Kaplan is smart, articulate, occasionally funny, and unapologetically awful. When we talked, she was pretty much already angry at everything: Africa (she said it looked just like Florida, where she grew up and went to school), the production (because they didn’t fly her first class), and her accommodations (she got food poisoning the day before, and complained about her bed). She said things like “I get irritated very easily” and “I’m not into people, especially strangers.”
Why, then, is she even there? Casting producers recruited her and convinced her to be on the show, rather than the other way around, and she said that “is important to know, because I never would have auditioned. I am not a fan of the show, being that I’m not a fan of reality TV in general. See, I’m totally prissy, [this is] not something you would normally find me doing.” She actually actively fought the casting producers, saying she had a much better chance of winning The Bachelor. But one thing convinced her to do this show: the money.
She kept returning to the idea of being there for the money but never said why she wanted it, and when I pressed her, she just said, “I want it to have more money.” Later, she finally elaborated: “I would do a lot of random things I can’t do now. Like, I would have loved to have gotten laser hair removal on my entire body before this, but I couldn’t. Things like that. Just like whatever; stupid things in life that are too expensive.”
Despite being there only for the cash, she recognizes that winning won’t change her life. “I would still have to work, because let’s face it, after taxes, it’s not a million.” And she said “not one penny of it will be going to any kind of charitable organization, that’s for sure.”
As someone who’s never watched the show until she was cast, Corinne cited Parvati (surprise!) as her role model. “That’s exactly the kind of game I would play,” she said. Her strategy also consists of “play[ing] the role of somebody that’s entertaining. … It’s going to be really boring out there, so I think somebody who lightens the mood is really good.” She says she’ll be empathetic towards others, although, hysterically, she struggled to come up with the word: “you’re empaz-, em, em, empa, why can’t, empathy, like…”
She also plans “to be good at challenges so I’m an asset to the team so people will want to keep me. And I’m going to try and not have my behavior be very irritating. … I think I’m fairly likable. My only downfall is that I’m just mean by nature.” Somewhat surprisingly, she actually prepared for the physical parts of the game. “I did all kinds of training—I hiked with weighted backpacks,” she said, although she also admitted she’s never spent a single night in her life sleeping outside.
If it’s not already obvious, she plans to get rid of the nice people first. “I would vote them off because they get along with everybody because they’re really nice and pleasant to be around. Those are threats,” she said. She’s not worried how she’ll be perceived or about her behavior. “Nobody gives a **** about reality show stars anyway, and if all of America hates me, that’s just idiotic,” she said. “If I win a million because I’m a total bitch, then you should applaud that.
Corrinne is funny, saying that keeping track of her lies “without alcohol, I don’t see why that’d be a problem,” and revealing that she initially intended to pretend that she was an Alaskan crab rights activist who planned to use the money to make a documentary that was the opposite of Deadliest Catch called “**** You Fisherman.”
At one point, Corinne insisted, “I have no moral compass.” The most damning illustration has to do with her (now former) job as a pharmaceutical sales rep, where she said she knowingly sold drugs to physicicans that she knew would kill people. “Selling drugs is a lie. I sold drugs that I knew damn well—I sold Vioxx for Merck before it got taken off the market for killing people. I knew damn well it was dangerous; I went around telling them to write it. There’s a lot of serious lying I’ve done in my life,” she said.
That’s okay, Corinne told me, because “I’m doing a job. For me, in that case, Merck told me to go out and sell drug even though I had hesitation about it. It’s not for me to say. … Don’t listen to me. Read your ****ing journals. Why the **** are you listening to your rep? Just because I’m pretty? You think I know more about the drug? No.”
Likewise, for Corinne, being on Survivor Gabon “is work; I’m trying to make a million dollars. It really doesn’t matter. I hope everyone gets injured; I don’t care. Just not me