Read on for my interview with Chanelle, and make sure to check in with Parade.com every day for interviews with this season’s contestants and other tidbits. Survivor 42 premieres on March 9 with a special two-hour premiere on CBS.
Interview with Chanelle from Survivor 42
What’s your history with watching Survivor? I’ve been watching the show since I was probably around 10 years old. I grew up watching it with my family. And it’s just something that I’ve always been super fascinated by. The fact that the people that you vote out have to vote for you to win, that’s really what intrigues me about Survivor. The fact that you have to play this game where you have to hurt people’s feelings by taking away their dream, but you still need them to like you. That really was something that I’ve enjoyed and been interested in. I’ve always been interested in people, which is why I went into recruiting. There are just so many things that transfer from my occupation into the game itself. Like building relationships. When I talk to a candidate, the first thing I do is build rapport. I need to find something in common, even the smallest thing, to make people comfortable to get their guards down. There’s a part of the recruiting process that I like to call “the sell.” You’ve vetted a candidate. You know that you want them; you need to convince them to join your company, even though they have a lot of other compelling options. That’s a lot like building an alliance. You have someone that you’re like, “Man, I really need them to vote with me. I really want them to work with me, but they have a whole slate of other options that they may be able to explore.” How well can you sell them on working with you and the paycheck? Give me one Survivor winner and one non-winner who you identify with the most. One Survivor non-winner that I identify with would probably be Tasha Fox. She reminds me a little bit of how I want to play the game. She was smart; she was strategic. She was able to really build relationships to get her through to the end. And in Cagayan and Cambodia she was a physical threat. A winner that I could identify with in playing the game is probably Michele Fitzgerald. She was probably one of the best social people ever to play the game. She talked to people even when she knew they wanted to vote her out. She still had these bonds; she still had these relationships. And from a social perspective, I really want to play the game like that. I want to come back to camp happy. Even if I might have been blindsided, I would still say, “Hey, great move. Let’s be friends again.” That’s really how I’m thinking about the game. What’s one life experience you feel has prepared you most for the game? I think life in a sense can mirror Survivor. Just without the really, really harsh elements and the lack of food. In life, you have to build strategic relationships. We call those networks, right. And obviously, they’re not super transactional, and they do drive other values. But you have to build those relationships to get ahead professionally. And so I would say just life in general probably prepares you. It certainly prepared me! I’m super driven; I’ve always been that way. I have a super-strong work ethic that I get from my parents. And that’s exactly what you have to do in Survivor; sometimes you have to just put your head down and work. The people who lay around in camp and don’t do much are noticeable. And so from those aspects of building strategic relationships, working hard, and being super driven all pretty much mirror what Survivor entails. What do you think people will perceive you as? I hope people perceive me as strategic and smart. But also not cold, not harsh. I think it’s a very hard line for a woman to walk, being strategic and effective without being viewed as negative. So I hope that I’m viewed strategic and smart, but also at the same time very likable, very friendly. Someone that people can talk to., I want to have real relationships out here. That’s just not my number one priority. What do you desire in an alliance partner? I want someone who’s going to be loyal. Obviously, I don’t want an alliance partner that I have to second-guess if they are secretly plotting my demise. If they were smart, they would! But I want someone who’s going to be loyal, someone who’s going to be a thought partner, someone that I can bounce ideas off of, and can really kind of keep each other in check when either one of us is slipping. I know it’s a hard game, and everyone’s going to have their moments. But to have someone on the island that can be like, “Hey, pull it together, we got this,” that would be gold. I don’t know if I’ll find that. But if I did, that would be someone that I would want to take to five. (Laughs.) What’s the best advice you received before coming out to play? One of the best pieces of advice that I got coming out here was to be patient. A lot of people come into this game, and they want to drive. They want to jump; they want to go. And what you don’t realize is that a lot of stuff will come to you if you’re listening, watching, and taking mental notes. If you’re observing, a lot of the things will come. And so you can have this huge plan that you want to do going into the game. But you just wait a second, step back, and you let some things come to you. And then you work your magic with it. It’ll really, really be advantageous versus running full steam ahead with your head down and not observing what’s going on around you. Next, read our interview with Survivor 41 winner Erika Casupanan.
