“I definitely thought I got more votes than I did,” says the queen of Extinction.
She used that bounty of tokens to purchase three advantages in the battle back competitionand the effort paid off.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Congratulations on a remarkably wild run this season, Natalie.
Robert Voets/CBS
NATALIE ANDERSON: Thank you, I’ll take the congratulations, but I am the first loser.
Listen, I was out there.
I watched you get voted out of the game on day two.
You came all the way back, you made it to day 39.
Did you ever consider raising the sail?
Yeah, I don’t think I ever actually thought about quitting.
I mean, I feel like I would have to be medevac-ed before I quitSurvivor.
I never slowed down, and that’s how I am with everything.
And I get to eat rice and do this?
F— it, I’m good.
When you walked out of that final Tribal Council 10 months ago, did you think you had won?
I definitely thought I got Danni’s vote and Amber’s vote, which I didn’t.
I also thought maybe Kim and Sophie might’ve swung my way.
I shared some peanut butter with them, which they didn’t show.
So, I definitely knew it would have been a challenge to win.
I was really surprised with the fact that Danni didn’t vote for me.
That is so bizarre.
The first thing he dinged you for was sort of isolating yourself socially at Edge of Extinction.
What did you make of that?
So, he’s not wrong.
I definitely kind of withdrew from the collective of Extinction.
And if I’m going to be around that, that’s going to rub off on me.
My head, it cannot be in the same place as some of these other people."
And that kind of energy to me, I feel rubs off on people.
So, I was just doing my own thing.
And you could just use each other to laugh and have this dark humor, because everybody was miserable.
And that’s what it took.
And it did end up alienating some people, but I can’t apologize for that.
Tell me about the decision.
I was cringing, because that moment was so…
I just wanted to vomit.
It was so over the top and yeah, I get it, it’s emotional.
So I was just sitting there like, “Oh my God, barf.”
That is a Tribal I would have walked away thinking like, “All right, yeah.
Pretty much in the bag, Natalie.”
So, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get over it.
I don’t know.
That decision was a back and forth all day between Michelle and Sarah, and even myself.
Girlfriend is not in it right now."
And I put in Sarah, but Sarah was too close to Tony.
I just thought she was all about the girl power.
So I don’t know.
Michelle was freaking out.
Why Tyson and not Jeremy, considering how close you and Jeremy are?
So Tyson, one, he’s a fricking challenge beat.
It’s going to be Tyson.
And do you want to give him extra motivation to even beat you and give him an idol?"
Tyson had already tasted the blood going back in the first time.
It was going towards somebody that I knew could get back in the game the best.
And if I’m not going to bet on myself, who would I bet on?
It would be Tyson.
Did you put any conditions on that?
Were you making sure before you bought that for him?
No, no way.
Tyson is a good dude and that scene was hundred percent authentic.
He didn’t ask me for that idol.
And nobody knows thisbut you might know it actuallywhen I had a concussion, what was it, 2016?
And I didn’t know them and this was so, so, so long ago.
He and Rachel put me up while I was suffering with this concussion.
But those words were not even spoken.
What was that idol doing in your wrist buff?
I was so paranoid.
And then, I don’t know, I just ran away somewhere.
I just put it on my wrist and started walking around like an idiot.
And did you and Michele ever have any thoughts about trying to take Sarah out?
I mean, I wish I did, but Denise was also just super stubborn.
There was no way we were ever going to get her to flip on Sarah or Ben.
Oh my God, the Edge.
There’s so much that you guys don’t see.
And I think producers were a little bit nervous ‘cause I literally just didn’t move.
I was in one spot on the ocean laying there to die, basically.
I’ve never been on a tropical beach by myself."
So I spent a nice chunk of time completely naked.
I just got completely naked and swam around in the ocean.
And I was like, “This is like mermaid fantasies!”
That’s one thing that nobody knows.
And then the second thing is they just didn’t depict how hard the Edge was.
We would fall asleep every night and rats would be biting us.
We’d wake up to rats biting our fingers and our toes.
And how much we ate.
It was literally stabbing, sleeping in the dirt, rats biting us every night.
It made a regularSurvivorseason seem like a luxury beach vacation compared to what we dealt with this season.
You’ve now doneThe Amazing Racetwice.
Will we see you on the island again if you get that call?
Well, I was hoping for a win.
Now that I’m one out of four, I want to go back.
But listen, ifSurvivorcalls me back, I would definitely go back.
So, listen, ifSurvivorcomes knocking, you know I’m answering that door.
Don’t go onBig Brother, Natalie.
Those migraines are going to come back on day one if you do that.
As long as they have a gym, Dalton, I’ll be good.
And for moreSurvivorscoop, follow Dalton on Twitter@DaltonRoss.
