Posting Interviews of Players still in the game here...

• Noura Interview,Sheldor, 08:34 PM, 11-21-19
• Elaine Interview,Sheldor, 08:41 PM, 11-21-19
  • RE: Elaine Interview,michel2, 00:11 AM, 11-22-19

'Survivor: Island of the Idols' Star Speaks: "I Know I Am Intense"
NOVEMBER 11, 2019 9:05am PT by Josh Wigler
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-island-idols-noura-boston-rob-sandra-merge-1253822

The Hollywood Reporter checks in with one of Boston Rob Mariano and Sandra Diaz-Twine's newest 'Survivor' students: "My life is Noura's world and I work hard to create and maintain it."

Survivor champions Boston Rob Mariano and Sandra Diaz-Twine (alongside the gigantic statue replicas of their heads) are the inspiration behind Island of the Idols. But are they the stars of the CBS drama's current season? The highly competitive cast would beg to differ.

Given the talented ocean of players, it's easy to pick your own personal favorite among the crop of season 39's castaways. Some options: Kellee Kim, who won an immunity idol and hid it from her tribemates deep within the recesses of her own hair; Jamal Shipman, yet another idol-holder, and someone who, like Kellee, has not shied away from discussing the ramifications of the real world's social politics on the game of Survivor; Janet Carbin, the lifetime lifeguard who most recently visited the titular Island of the Idols, only to shoot down an opportunity to play for an advantage; and Kentucky's own Elaine Stott, who visited Rob and Sandra one round earlier than Janet, earning a key victory for her alliance in the process.

All of them are worthy favorites, as are many others — but as far as singular forces of intensity are concerned, one Island of the Idols castaway stands apart from all the rest:

…Noura Salman, the health and wellness entrepreneur, originally hailing from the Vokai tribe, currently living on Lairo beach, looking ahead at this week's looming merge.

In an alternate Survivor timeline, there's a world where Noura not only misses the merge, but leaves her tribe first, Reem Daly style. Even without the Edge of Extinction this season, Noura has somehow survived and thrived through three visits to Tribal Councils, laughing her way through the Jeff Probst interrogation process time and again, even though she had lost her right to vote at one of them.

By her own admission, Noura is new to Survivor — as a player, of course, but also as a viewer. Of those who have visited Island of the Idols thus far, only Noura stands out as someone who may or may not have instantly recognized Rob and Sandra for their past Survivor achievements; the jury is still out on that one. Meanwhile, for Noura, the jury is very much in. With Jack Nichting as the first member, Noura has guaranteed that she will at the very least last long enough to cast a vote for the winner of Survivor: Island of the Idols, if not sit in the coveted position to win the season herself — an outcome that will surely find its way to the center of a summoning circle or two before long.

"Noura is a wild card," executive producer Jeff Probst told The Hollywood Reporter about the player in the preseason, with only one day of production currently under their belt. "She's got this great energy. I think she's either a great fit as an alliance member who will spark about and maybe do some of the dirty work and get inside and find things out, or she's outside the alliance and she's in trouble. Right now, she's probably making decisions that are going to determine if she survives her first couple of days. She has the kind of personality that could be too much for somebody, especially when everybody's cagey, but she also has the type of likability that people could go, 'She's not going anywhere. She's super cool. She's easygoing.' It just depends. In those early moments (of the game), you have to read the room."

Reading the room of the greater Survivor fandom, the results are in: Noura is an endless wealth of entertainment through seven episodes and counting. Ahead, THR briefly checks in with Noura for the first time since the preseason, to get her thoughts on the coming merge, her first few weeks on the island, and more.

Congratulations on making the merge! By your own admission, you're relatively new to the world of Survivor. In the preseason, you viewed this as a net positive for your place heading into the game, seeing yourself as a "disruptor." How did your expectations measure against what you actually experienced in these first few weeks of the game?

Coming in to play, I knew the food piece would be the least of my worries because I already eat plant-based. I'm fully vegan and I am used to going long periods of time through intermittent fasting or long water fasts. This definitely gave me an edge socially and in challenges because I never felt like I was missing out on something that everyone else was. I didn’t care about the food rewards. I knew all I needed to do was just overdose on coconuts to keep my energy up and stay full. I was eating easily one to two coconuts a day, and I never got sick out there.

I get along with all types of people – ethnicities, ages, genders, etcetera — but nothing prepares you for having to manage your personality and how you come off to others in this extreme format. They really don’t know you at all, and no words can create that bridge. It takes time. My big challenge was that they didn’t know me. They didn’t know that I am intelligent, successful, have a big heart and I am authentic. In this experience, only you can portray you. I am an overwhelming person and even though I get along with all types of people, in this environment it is very hard to decide how you will be your true authentic self, how you will honor those values without coming off to strong or bulldozing over other personalities and perspectives and values.

It's hard to hone in on your biggest moment yet — the trip to Island of the Idols is a standout, of course, and if you have any further details from that experience you would like to share, please, by all means…

I think what people need to realize with the visit to Rob and Sandra is that they are villains and that is not my personality. I am more of the hero/heroine role, so it was actually hard for me to take advice from villains. When they gave me the various options of persuading my tribe, all of these were villain approaches. I didn’t feel comfortable executing because they are simply not me or my style. You can see the distinction when I said "heart" / heroine and Rob said "ego" / villain.

If I had the opportunity to do this again, I would have candidly told my group that I know the details of tomorrow’s challenge and that if I get the most important role in that challenge I will get a block a vote advantage. If I don’t get that role, I would lose my vote which would be detrimental to our tribe in the event of a swap; we wouldn’t have the numbers. This was an expensive lesson for me, but a good one to have early in the game. After this moment, I knew I was going to play the Noura way, with truth and honesty versus lying and backstabbing.

This past week's Tribal Council was an eventful one, centering on gender dynamics both within Survivor and the world beyond it. What are your memories of how that Tribal played out?

Honestly, I remember every second of the whole game. Being in that particular Tribal Council, it was a privilege to speak about a topic that hasn’t been dissected in that manner on Survivor. I felt like it was a historic moment going down. I wasn't afraid to say, "Yes, I want women to band together." In that moment I said yeah, cause why should it be a secret? Why shouldn’t we connect with one another? Why shouldn’t we bond? There is something unique about the female gender. One, I was thinking, "Why not," but most importantly, you want to see women do better in the game more than ever before. In life and in the game, women will compete against each other, tear each other down and then rely on the men to get to the end. But how great if we can bond together and we don’t need them to get to the end — we pave our own way. And how lucky were we that we had an advocate for women in Jamal. He was that bridge between men and women in that conversation. He helped to facilitate and move that conversation forward.

Heading into the merge, I want to get a sense of where your head's at with respect to the rest of the players in the game

Going into the merge, I planned to rely heavily on who I felt were my two closest relationships: Lauren and Kellee. From the early days, I felt the closest with these two and felt I could speak my mind and share my opinions and gameplay with them. Beyond that I felt like I could have close friends and sisters to go through this experience with. Another integral relationship to me is mine with Dan. Time and time again he would remind me that my greatest strength in the game is through my heart and not my head. Whenever I was too in my head my game would be thrown off. I felt like he was the best gamer out there. That relationship was great because it gave me a better aerial view of the game and where each player stood at all times, and I felt like I had someone who would keep me in check and look out for me.

I was concerned about Dean making it to the merge cause it seems like he is the cat with nine lives. He had proven I can’t trust him. And I was extremely excited to meet the four Lairo I had never met before: Aaron, Elaine, Elisabeth and Missy. They seemed to have so much energy and fun to them. I was looking forward to being with the athletes. Vokai was always about strategy and I was ready for some more fun and laughs.

Looking at yourself from outside the game, what are you making of the audience's overwhelming reaction to the Noura show?

Honestly, I am loving it! I know I am intense, opinionated and beat to the rhythm of my own drum. This isn’t anything new to me, but I will tell you I am having fun with it. I am embracing the experience. I told myself coming into this I wasn’t going to walk around on eggshells on how I am coming off to others and coming off on cameras. I didn’t want to waste an ounce of energy on thinking about how I am going to be portrayed. Because I am an entrepreneur who does things her way, it was a big contrast to play amongst people who are actually used to living and operating in a certain identity and persona. My life is Noura’s world and I work hard to create and maintain it. I do the work I want to do and live the life I want to live and I put a lot of energy into making my dreams come true. I don’t take orders from anyone else or get stuck in how I am perceived. I hope people take from this the reminder that your sole job in this world is to be yourself. It is the hardest job in the world, but it is also the most important, and no one can do it better than you.

LAST EDITED ON 11-21-19 AT 08:43 PM (EST)

Elaine Stott of Survivor spills the tea on 'Hot Mess Lairo'
By Dalton Ross November 12, 2019 at 11:00 AM EST
http://ew.com/tv/2019/11/12/survivor-elaine-stott-island-of-the-idols-interview-merge/

The original Lairo tribe on Survivor: Island of the Idols excelled at one thing — losing. This was evident on the show as the team lost three out of four immunity challenges. But according to tribe member Elaine Stott, they excelled at something else: strategic dysfunction.

Every season, EW does a mid-game merge interview with a contestant, and with this week’s merge episode hitting on Wednesday, we decided to check in with fan-favorite Elaine to find out exactly what was happening out there on the island. What were the real alliances percolating on the tribe? And then how did she feel about being tossed aside by fellow Lairos Aaron, Missy, and Elizabeth before she scored that block-a-vote advantage? Speaking of which, what was going through her mind when she dropped said advantage on the ground while trying to retrieve it? And what’s this about Jason playing a fake idol that we never saw?

Elaine weighed in on all that and more in our mid-game chat, and we’ve also got some exclusive merge feast photos to share along the way, so read on, enjoy, and then see what happens post-merge when Survivor: Island of the Idols airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. on CBS.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let’s start with the original Lairo tribe. We heard talk from the women about a women’s alliance. But then Chelsea told me there was also another alliance that involved her, Dean, Aaron, Missy and Elizabeth. And then your biggest ally at times appeared to be Tom. So what were the real alliance dynamics on that tribe?
ELAINE STOTT: Well, that’s why I called it Hot Mess Lairo, because there were so many alliances and sub-alliances it was crazy. Yes, the girls had agreed on something early on, but as the days passed, the dynamics in the tribe changed, people started branching out and forming bonds with other tribe members. Chelsea is right, there was that five-person alliance that I found out about from Aaron on the day she went home.

That alliance didn’t last long because Aaron and Missy decided to jump ship. The move was crazy to me, but because I was trying to move myself up into a better position in the tribe I thought if they wanted to get rid of one of their own, I’m for it because I was clearly on the outside of that. Then you had Missy and Elizabeth who had gotten super close, and then they pulled in Aaron and become a strong three. I was a lot closer to Elizabeth than people knew. and we both were connected with Tom. So, for me, Elizabeth and Tom were my core alliance and I trusted them completely.

Vince was another person that I really trusted and wanted to work with, but I was put in a position of choosing between him or Tom, and I went with my No. 1. That’s the thing, there are so many layers to these relationships that it’s hard to navigate at times and you don’t know if you are making the right choice in the moment. That’s also what’s so fascinating about Survivor. Your relationship with someone can change on a dime for the smallest of reasons, and that is both terrifying and thrilling at the same time. So to answer your question, the dynamic was all over the place and things were constantly moving and changing.

Karishma said after the tribe swap that she was bullied on the original Lairo tribe. Tom disagreed with that when we spoke after his elimination. What is your take?
No, I don’t think Karishma was bullied. I think what happened was Karishma wasn’t fitting in for whatever reason and she couldn’t figure out how to change it, so she isolated herself even more. At one time, she had made a comment about being an older woman, and that Missy, Elizabeth, and Chelsea were like sorority girls together, and it struck me kind of funny because I’m a few years older than her, and I got along with them just fine.

I could see that those three girls were close, but I made it a point to try and make connections. I think Karishma done the opposite. Her actions just separated her further from the group instead of pulling her closer. She really didn’t participate in much around camp like getting wood or building shelter and that rubbed people the wrong way. So I just think when she didn’t fit in and didn’t know how to fix it, the seed of “Woe is me” become a reality in her own head. Instead of trying to change people’s minds, she gave into that way of thinking and didn’t try to improve her position.

You accepted Boston Rob and Sandra’s Island of the Idols test without even knowing what the test was! What happened to patience being a virtue, Elaine?
Patience has never really been my thing . Hell, I get road rage driving my lawn mower!!! So no, it’s not a virtue of mine! But I came on Survivor to win a million and to get one hell of an experience. I was like a kid in a candy store — I wanted to do it all! And the thing was, no matter what I done I was on the bottom of everything because I couldn’t shake the target that Aaron put on my back. So any means to get ahead when I felt like I was at the back of the pack sounded like a great idea to me.

What was going through your mind when you picked up the hidden advantage in the challenge and then dropped it back on the ground while trying to stuff it under your clothes?
I was like, Holy s—!!! Omg!! I literally had a mini freak-out. I had tucked my shirt in because the original plan was to grab it and put it down the collar of my shirt, but in the moment, I thought nah, I better not do that because everyone is staring right at my face. So then I thought I’d just shove it in the back of my shorts, but I literally couldn’t get it in my pants because of my shirt being so big and tucked in. When it fell out, I really panicked. It happened so fast, I stomped my foot on it and pushed it against the cage and immediately turned around and picked it up and shoved it in my pants. I felt like a bumbling teenager on my first date.

What was it like to watch that episode and learn that before you got that advantage that Aaron, Missy, and Elizabeth all seemed ready to turn on you and vote you out rather than go to rocks?
I wasn’t surprised by Missy and Aaron, but I was surprised by Elizabeth. We were super close in my eyes, so to hear she was throwing my name out there took me back a little. Here’s the thing: I never trusted Aaron from the jump. And after the Chelsea vote, I felt the same way about Missy. Her and Chelsea were in an alliance and she was willing to cut Chelsea’s throat without hesitation and that made me nervous. From that point on, I didn’t trust Missy. So when I heard that they were throwing me under the bus, I wasn’t surprised in the least. I knew they didn’t have my back. That’s why I was so on board to get some kind of advantage, and when I finally got it, I knew I had to tell them because I knew they were going to flip on me. I guess Elizabeth felt like she couldn’t go down with a sinking ship, so she jumped on board with them and I don’t blame her for it.

Do you think if you didn’t have that advantage that you would have been voted out at that Tribal?
I was always nervous at Tribal because there’s always a possibility of going home no matter what the circumstances are. With that being said, even though it may have seemed like I was in danger, I still didn’t believe I was going home. I thought it would be Aaron or Missy over me because they were more immediate threats than I was, anyone could see that. If you read Jason’s exit interview, he says that Vokai was never going to put my name down that Tribal. It was going to be Aaron, but they switched the vote to me after I played my advantage at Tribal, hoping that Aaron would then flip. I got nervous when I played the advantage that something could go wrong. I mean they didn’t show it, but Jason actually played a fake idol. which had me a little concerned. But I really think if I hadn’t have gotten the advantage, I would’ve still been safe.

What’s something that didn’t make it to TV pre-merge that you wish we as viewers could have seen?
The beginning of the game — listen, even though it was Hot Mess Lairo, we genuinely laughed until we cried; it was some really funny times, I can’t explain it — it was ridiculous fun. I also wish we saw more of the relationship between me and Big Tom. Big Tom is one of the coolest guys, he really does remind me of my dad a lot. A real down to earth genuine dude. He’s big, tough, and rough, but at the same time he’s got a heart of gold.

Me and Tom would bust each other’s chops all the time, and he would talk about how it made him sick that I was in love with Jeff Probst, and then I would say, “Someone needs to do a pulse check on Dad because I’m afraid he’s going to die. He’s up there in age I’m worried about him having a heart attack.” He’d nap all the time, I was afraid he was dying over there lol.

I really think me and Big Tom should take this show on the road and call it Big Dummy Little Dummy and do a ventriloquist act and just crack jokes. They should really release a reel of Lairo those first few days, it’s guaranteed TV gold!

What has surprised you the most so far watching the season play back on TV?
There’s two things that surprised me. One was the spy shack, of course, and seeing Boston Rob and Sandra in their sweat box with the Bert & Ernie commentary. Listening to those two is freaking hilarious. The second thing is people actually buying that I’m dumb, lol. I thought for sure that people would see through a lot of that crap, lol. Like when Lauren said that I wasn’t smart enough to play an advantage, that had me rolling.

Listen, I don’t blame people for saying things like that because that’s literally how I was acting. I would misspell words, and say things off the wall to get them laughing. I didn’t want to come across as smart because I was worried about being seen as likable and strategic. Hell, I even fooled Sandra into thinking I’m dumb because at Tribal I would try and give as little away as possible, lol. No hard feelings though, I love Sandra and Lauren. So yeah, I was surprised people bought my BS that much.

Thank you for this, Sheldor. I haven't had time to read it all but one thing caught my eye, elaine saying: "The second thing is people actually buying that I’m dumb, lol."

She would NEVER have said that if she was going to be eliminated after making a dumb move. For her to say that, I'm sure she'll have the opportunity to prove that she is VERY smart. Now, was voting out Missy enough? I don't think so because some will see it as a mistake.