Interview with Dwight from Survivor 43
Why are you here on Survivor?I’ve been watching the show with my family since I was a little kid. And it’s something I’ve always dreamed of doing. I feel like being out here is just a representation of me and all the advice my parents have given me throughout my life. And I want to come out here and see what I’m made of. I know that I can come out here and win this game. I feel like all my life experiences make me very unique as a 22-year-old, and I feel like I’ll carry me a long way in this game.What’s the one life experience that you feel has prepared you the most for the game?I guess a collection of life experiences is my whole career as a journalist. So before I even entered high school, I interviewed three Secretaries of State, a few senators, definitely very influential people. All these things built up this fearlessness in me to go up and talk to anybody, get their story, get them to share information with you, and just go out there and put myself out there. The worst thing that happens to me is they say no. The best thing is I have this opportunity of a lifetime. And it’s the same thing for Survivor. I knew when I put the application out there, the worst thing that was going to happen was they say no. The best thing that happens is I’m out here in Fiji, living the dream. So that experience of fearlessness going up and talking to anybody will just allow me to get information on a level that other people won’t be able to do.What’s your history with Survivor?I first started watching Survivor: Fiji when I was younger. I was like, “Oh, this has to be fake. What are they doing? Why are they on an island? Why are they starving?” And I kept watching the show, and I was like, “Oh, this is real. This is very challenging.” I kept watching and watching as I got older, and I appreciated more and more what the people were going through and going out there for. And I realized, “I can do this.” And even though I’m not familiar with living outdoors, building a shelter, making fire, or foraging for food, I can go out there, learn, and do it. I’ve overcome many academic challenges in my life before, and I feel like this is a different arena altogether. But I adapted to those; I can adapt to this as well.Give me one Survivor winner and one non-winner you identify with the most.I’d say the winner I identify with the most is Wendell. He was a very charismatic and very social player but also extremely intelligent. It got him the challenge wins. And he built a lot of good bonds with some of the later jurors that allowed him to win the game. I feel like if I can emulate that degree of sociability, and hopefully challenge ability, it’ll take me a long way. I won’t be as good at making furniture and the shelter as he is because he’s on another level when it comes to that. But I’ll learn; I’ll do my best. As far as non-winner, I’ll be honest; I haven’t really compared myself to non-winners. Because I just want to focus on winning games and emulate those.What’s your favorite moment in Survivor history?From Second Chances, the vote where Kimmi ended up going home via the group decision. I think it was a good display of, while this game is very real-time, it’s also very emotional and very human decision-based. In that situation, of course, some people say, “Maybe Keith should have just gone home, because no one should have broken their vote.” But it was just a very good dynamic of the game players and human emotions all coming at once and making a decision.What excites you the most about this new era of Survivor?I truly don’t know what to expect coming out here. I have a bunch of ideas of what possible new advantages or twists they could have. But I feel like it’s maybe even wilder than I could possibly imagine. So the biggest thing for me is I want to see how I can adapt and how I can overcome these different challenges. And hopefully, I can make it far and make it past these different obstacles that’ll be thrown at us. Even though I don’t know what exactly to expect, I feel it’ll be more dangerous and risky, and I’m willing to take it on.What do you think people will perceive you as? I’ve been trying to control that as much as possible before the game’s even starting with what I can wear, how I act, and how I hold myself. I’m going to be honest with everybody that I go to Stanford University. I’ve mentioned that I’m a grad student. I’ve mentioned internships that I’ve had. But I do plan on being asked about that because I’m only 21. I don’t have the most life experience to pull from in comparison to the rest of the contestants. So I need to be honest about my experience at Stanford. I feel like people perceive me as someone who’s intelligent, hopefully not as smart as I think I am. I don’t want to be that guy that’s like, “At home, I’m super smart.” I’m doing pretty well for myself academically. But, of course, the game doesn’t build on academic success. It’s built on social and strategic success. So hopefully, I can adapt to that as well. I think they’ll perceive me as a pretty social player, but also pretty strategic. And hopefully, I’m gonna win challenges. We’ll see about that one. I’m not gonna sit here and say I’m gonna be a challenge beast. I might be good at some; I may fail a lot of them. We’ll find out together.What type of player are you looking for in an alliance?The type of player I’m looking for would be a rational player who is strategic and also has social bonds that are different than my own. I want to be able to work with someone who I can trust 100% and, at the same time, who has some different avenues of information than I do, so we come together to compare notes and make our best move forwards in the game. I mentioned rational because I want to be someone who will make good decisions, not someone who will just throw caution to the wind and do something to take a risk for the sake of taking a risk and blow both our games up at the same time. That would be an absolute nightmare for me. I don’t want to go home because of someone else’s mistake. I’d rather go home to someone else making a good game move against me instead of my ally fumbling the bag, and now we’re both out in the game.How eager will you be to look for advantages in the game?Oh, 100%! I’ll be so eager looking for advantages. That’s what you come out here to do. You see, from Season 41, for example, you had Shan, Xander, and Naseer find the idols, and they all made it pretty easily into the merge. In 42 so far, all three idol holders are still in the game. Finding advantages seem to be crucial, especially in this new era of Survivor, where every advantage so far has some kind of forced sharing of information. All the idols and the amulets and the extra votes have to be shared with someone. Something like Knowledge is Power, even though that was found secretly, once you use it, everyone knows that you have an advantage. So everything advantage-wise is public knowledge. But people seem to be afraid of targeting those people in this new era. So if I can find one, maybe I can instill some fear in people and make them not want to vote me out for a while. Then I use it to my advantage and get to people that are defying me and get them out.What is the one thing you told yourself you wouldn’t do in this game?Participate in intentional isolation or bullying of someone. That’s not the kind of person I am. Even though I know this game is built on deceit and lying and making the best move, I don’t want to be someone who tries to isolate someone else to make their experience out here a miserable one. Just on a human level, I just can’t get down with that. That’s just not who I am. And I don’t plan on doing that in any way.What’s the best advice you received before coming out to play?Just be myself. I know it’s a pretty simple answer. But just in life, people have told me I act down to earth, and I’m pretty chill. Even though I go to Stanford, people say, “I would never have guessed you go to Stanford because you just act like a normal person.” And while it sounds weird to hear, it is a compliment to my character. I don’t try to hold myself above others just because of the different experiences I’ve had.So just coming out here and being myself, I feel, will take me a long way with these people. I feel like they’ll appreciate me just being a normal, genuine human being. I know the game is built on lying and everything. But at some point, you want to see something familiar, someone just being themselves. And while I do intend on lying at certain times, I’m not gonna come out here and lie about every little thing possible. I want to just be myself and enjoy the experience.What celebrity or fictional character would you want to come out for a Loved Ones visit?Dwight from The Office. Just so I can yell at him for making my namesake always relate to The Office. (Laughs.) Next, check out our interview with Survivor 43 contestant Cody Assenmacher.
