Alecia Holden (CBS)
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When I was on the set of “Survivor: Nicaragua,” I sat and watched Wendy-Jo beg her tribe to keep her around. For two solid hours, Wendy Jo went through a laundry list of reasons why she was a smart choice to save – even at one point mentioning that she had less blisters on her feet than everyone else. It didn’t matter. She was still unanimously voted out.
And up until this past Wednesday, that was the most hopeless Tribal performance I had ever seen.
I spoke to the victim of the new most hopeless Tribal performance the morning after her one-sided elimination. We chatted about her bullying tribemates, her positive attitude, and deceptive marker caps…
Gordon Holmes: Let’s start off with the relationship between you and Scot and Jason. Would you categorize that as more of a big brother/little sister antagonizing relationship or was it more like bullying?
Alecia Holden: I was smiling and laughing the whole time because I’d say, “If you want to portray yourself like that for all of America to see, than go ahead and do it.” But there was definitely a bullying aspect to it.
Holmes: I don’t know how smart this was from a gameplay standpoint, but it seemed like you were always standing up for yourself even though they held the power in the tribe.
Holden: Yeah, me and Scot were like David and Goliath out there, I’m not intimidated by him just because he’s bigger than me. And if I have a problem with someone I’m going to express how I feel. And they didn’t say much to my face until later episodes. That’s when I started confronting them.
Holmes: What did you make of Scot’s basketball analogy last night?
Holden: It’s funny because Scot says I’m a cheerleader, but most of his NBA career he cheered from the bench.
Holmes: When you found the idol clue, you shared it with Cydney. Did you trust her?
Holden: We got really close in the second episode. She even came up to me and said Jenny was flipping, vote her out. She had my back. I thought I could trust her. But it happened so fast and sometimes you just don’t think in the moment. So, I definitely made a game-changing mistake in sharing the idol with Cydney. I highly regret that.
Holmes: How did the Jennifer vote go down? How did it go from a potential all-female alliance to Jennifer standing on her stump at Tribal?
Holden: I was all about an all-girl alliance. I said if Jason goes home I’ll be doing the happy dance. Then I broke out into some embarrassing dance I wish I never had done on TV. But, I realized my option to stay in the game would be to get her out. But I ultimately wished she had been able to stay.
Holmes: Did you and Cyndey approach Jason and Scot with the information that she was flipping?
Holden: Jenny told me that she had gone up to Jason and told him that it was my idea. And that raised a lot of questions to me. If you’re trying to blindside someone, why tell them it was my idea? And then, Cydney had also spoken to Jason. Cydney asked me if I wanted to vote out Jenny or Jason. I said, “Jason.” The only reason I switched my vote was because Cydney came up to me right before Tribal and said, “Jenny is trying to flip. Let’s vote out Jenny to keep you in the game.” So, she gave me a tip on that so I thought I could trust her.
Holmes: Which was more embarrassing, the happy dance or leaving the cap on the marker at Tribal?
Holden: (Laughs) That made “Survivor” history. That was a very exotic pen. I can laugh over it. Lesson learned.
Holmes: In your defense, it’s not like that marker is a classic Sharpie. The design on that thing is very intricate.
Holden: That’s an extremely exotic pen out there.
Holmes: When it was clear that you were on the outs with your tribe after last night’s immunity challenge, did you think about outing Jason’s immunity idol to the other players?
Holden: I was thinking about telling the other tribes to put a target on his back, but it all just happened so fast. But I wish I had. I was in a tough situation out there.
Holmes: What happened back at camp after the challenge?
Holden: I had no options at that point. I approached Scot with how he acted at the challenge and it just led to a bunch of fights.
Holmes: Alright, word association time. Let’s start with Jennifer.
Holden: Jennifer is tough. She could have a bug in her ear and centipede could bite her face. That’s tough. She’s a…what do you call it? She’s a teeter-totter. She’s up and down, up and down.
Holmes: Scot?
Holden: Mid-life identity crisis. He was the dinosaur of the tribe. He was the old one in the tribe. And after the challenge he said, “Alecia just wants to talk about herself.” All he did was talk about himself. The man thinks he’s LeBron James. And he calls me a cheerleader when most of his career he was cheering his team on from the bench. He thinks of himself as God’s gift to basketball.
Holmes: Darnell?
Holden: Hilarious. Darnell is extremely funny.
Holmes: Cydney?
Holden: Muscles. She has some arms on her.
Holmes: Let’s finish with Jason.
Holden: They didn’t show this, but in my first interview I called Jason a mall cop. I said, “This guy comes in her trying to be all intimidating, thinking he’s Dog the Bounty Hunter. He needs to take those earrings out of his ears. He’s probably a mall cop rolling around on a Segway.” He tries to portray this whole bad-boy exterior. But, we had a day when our chicken got loose and it’s funny because Jason was like, “I can get all the bad boys, I’m a bad bounty hunter.” And when our chicken got loose, Mr. Bounty Hunter couldn’t catch it. I think he’s all talk.
Holmes: So if a chicken breaks the law in South-East Michigan, it has nothing to worry about.
Holden: (Laughs) Yes, 150%.
Holmes: Watching you these past couple of weeks, some pretty harsh things were said about you during the broadcast. Where are you with that?
Holden: I have a lot of fans. They feel bad for me, but I was OK out there. I’m an adult and I was smiling and laughing through much of the show. My mindset has always been; if I don’t care about you and I don’t respect you, you can’t hurt my feelings. The only people who can truly hurt me are the people I care about. I laughed. America is going to see how you’re acting and the light you’re going to be portrayed in.
Holmes: It really seems like you don’t let much get to you.
Holden: I really don’t. I grew up around boxing. I was a big tom-boy growing up. I have a lot of mental strength and I’m not going to break down. Everyone made fun of me the first episode when I said, “I’m a mental giant.” But I spent five hours making fire while they were sleeping. I didn’t cry. I didn’t sit in a corner feeling bad for myself. I remained mentally strong.
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Tags: alecia holden, survivor, survivor kaoh rong
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