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‘Survivor’ Castoff Simone Nguyen on Her Demise in the Game: ‘Ali Had the Control’ (Exclusive)

Simone Nguyen
Simone NguyenRobert Voets/CBS

It’s tough being the outcast. Just ask latest Survivor season 35 castoff Simone Nguyen, who admitted to Us Weekly in this exclusive interview that her tribe thought she was “very weird.”

The Massachusetts native, 25, was voted out of “Heroes v. Healers v. Hustlers” despite the group annoyance with fellow tribe member Patrick Bolton, whom Nguyen tells Us “wanted to be on TV so bad.”

It looked like the diversity advocate, who lists “volunteering, yoga and complaining” as hobbies in her CBS bio, could have had a chance to stay, but ultimately the hustlers decided to keep the boisterous redhead over her.

Check out our interview with Nguyen below:

Us: How was it watching the episode back?

SN: Oh my God, it was so cringeworthy. Can I just say how embarrassed I am that they talked about the fact that I was able to go to the bathroom? Yeah, it was a big event for me, but oh my God, how is that going to entertain millions? I had no idea. You never want to hear yourself in an interview, in a recording, or anything like that, but for me to be able to watch my own story play out, it was tough. It never feels good to hear that the skinny guy, who’s never been on a date and doesn’t drink and wears turtlenecks, thinks you’re weird. Sorry.

Us: How did you feel going into tribal council? Where did you think the votes were at?

SN: I seriously thought it was a 50-50 chance that it was either me, the person who messed up on the puzzle and is clearly not fitting in with everybody, versus Patrick, who is the loudest person I have ever met in my entire life. He talks endlessly about gingers. He treats everybody like they’re there to entertain. He is insane. I love him, but insane. I was just thinking to myself, “OK, I don’t really want to vote out Patrick, but he is my only shot to take.” So I took it. I was talking to Ali [Elliott] about it. I was talking to Lauren [Rimmer] about it. I was really trying to make it happen, but I couldn’t in the end. I really felt like I’m either going to go early or people are going to forget about me, and that’s going to help me get to the end. People did not forget about me … because apparently I’m very weird. I didn’t mean to be.

Simone Nguyen, Devon Pinto, Ali Elliott, and Patrick Bolton at Tribal Council on the second episode of SURVIVOR 35.
Robert Voets/CBS

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Us: Whose votes did you think you had? Whose vote surprised you the most?

 

SN: At that point, I kind of figured they already made their choices because people do get along with Patrick. And I think people respect me too, but it’s not the same. But I will say that I felt like if I was going to be saved that night, it was going to be by the grace of Ali. Ali is a real player. She’s tough as hell. She’s someone who — you look at her and you should be scared. You could be scared for a lot of reasons. First of all, she’s so beautiful. Second of all, she is smart. When she was talking about being a personal assistant, at first I didn’t believe her. I was like, “No, you have to be an attorney.” Or “You’re a doctor.” As the days go on, you’re like, “Oh, GloZell Green, I kind of recall her from YouTube. That’s a thing.” I felt like Ali had tons of control in the beginning. Her and Ryan [Ulrich], even though I didn’t connect with Ryan that well, I wanted to.

Us: Were you surprised to see Ali was playing both sides?

SN: No! Ali is the type of person who can get along with everybody. I was just like, “OK, I’m just going to let people think they can control me, so hopefully they value loyalty more than they value a physical threat in the game.” I was just like, “Yes, use me bitch! Take me to the end! Who cares?! I’m trying to get there!” That was kind of my strategy going in. I felt like I was so close but so far away.

Us: You and Ali both did the puzzle. Why did you take the blame for the loss?

SN: There’s that, but there’s also the fact that in the previous immunity challenge … I was supposed to do [the puzzle] and I had gotten up to the top of the thing and I turn around, I look down and basically have a panic attack. I was like, “Ali, I can’t do it. You need to do it.” So Ali pulled out the win from the last immunity challenge. I was like, “I love you. Thank you for saving me. Save me again!”

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Us: Lauren seemed most annoyed by Patrick. Why didn’t you try to pull her in more?

SN: Here’s the thing, she’s annoyed with Patrick, but I’m an outsider. She’s annoyed with me. She and I are so different. I was trying to vibe off her because this was both our first times leaving the country. She was not having it. She was not reveling in “Oh, wow, look at the majesty of the ocean and the stars.” She’s a really serious person. I honestly feel that Ali had the control and whichever way Ali decided to go, Lauren would follow her too. Lauren and Ali were really tight. They are do different, but they got along really well. And I think the fact that both of them are so hardworking. I can’t even hold anything against Ali because I’m like, “Yeah, do you. Make the choice that’s best for yourself.” It’s fun to watch her as a Survivor player. It’s not so fun to get voted out.

Us: Who was your closest ally out there? Who did you connect with the most?

SN: Devon [Pinto] saved my life during the marooning. Thank you very much, Devon. I felt really good about that. It was like seeing a play in front of me. I kept seeing all these people connect over various things and I didn’t have a thing. … Ryan and Lauren are bonding over the fact that they have different types of bodies. Lauren is a bigger girl. Ryan is a skinnier guy. Lauren said something like: “You can’t change the fact that your body looks a certain way.” I was like, “Oh my God. I know I put on some weight for the show, but I will never be able to really experience it the way they do.” They are next-level. It was so obvious Ryan enamored everybody. He was charming everybody, including me. I didn’t want to be charmed. It was tough. I felt like I was an outsider, but these people are people I really respected and liked as people.

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Us: Your tribemates seemed to think you didn’t do much around camp. Is that fair to say?

SN: OK, let me explain that right now. I did more around camp than Ryan. But nobody cared if Ryan did anything around camp because he was laughing. He was cracking jokes. He was making everybody happy. I would get up in the middle of the night. Ali would ask Patrick for help and I would get up. He’s clearly not getting up. I’m trying to help people here. I was working hard. Yeah, I took a break, but I was still doing a lot. On that tribe, everybody does a lot. We were hustling.

Us: Lastly, was there anything you could have done to keep yourself in the game?

SN: Looking at it now, I feel like the decision was made before we got to tribal because Ali was the one who was really controlling the votes. The lie they had said to me was, “Simone, we’re going to vote for Patrick.” Patrick was playing it up for the screen time. He wanted to be on TV so bad. “Aw man, don’t let the ginger be voted out.” Maybe at that point, if I had gone up to Patrick and was like, “Look, they’re trying to vote you out.” Maybe that would have changed his mind about me and then maybe it could have been Lauren? But then again, Lauren was so tight with Ali, I don’t think that would have happened at all. It was either Patrick or me.

Survivor airs on CBS on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.

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