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Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to get to chat with Mookie Lee, the Survivor: Fiji cast member eliminated on last week’s episode and new member of the jury.
He has some interesting insights into this season’s Survivor and his time on the island. Here’s what he had to say:
Reality Exploits: Mookie, you were on the losing team at every immunity challenge, yet you were one of the strongest physical threats in the game. How do you explain that?
Mookie: This game has a lot of luck involved. No matter how much you think you prepare or how much you strategize for every possible scenario the dynamics of the game just take you by surprise. I was unfortunate to be on Ravu both times even after the merge. So being the only one never to see Moto or have any luxury, it was very difficult, but I did what I could to stay alive.
Reality Exploits: I understand that you lost a lot of weight because you didn’t have much to eat for a while.
Mookie: Right. I think at some point, I refused to eat any more coconuts because that’s all we had. I think I lost about 25 or 30 pounds so I hadn’t been that light since I was in early high school.
Reality Exploits: Wow, there are people who want to go on a diet, but not that kind of a diet.
Mookie: Yeah, this was starvation.
Reality Exploits: So if somebody offered you a coconut macaroon now, what would you do?
Mookie: At least for the first couple of months when I came back I really did not want to eat coconut, I couldn’t stand the smell of it. But now, a couple of piña coladas here and there, you get used to it. (chuckles)
Reality Exploits: Were you ready to leave the game when you were voted off, or was that just your frustration that we heard?
Mookie: I was definitely frustrated. I think went through a lot and a losing streak and not having any food and things just not going my way. I think I just talked about my frustration. I think I talked about that even in the beginning of the old Ravu.
If you watched me throughout the game, I’m very competitive, I’m always on my feet, I’m always trying to strategize. Ata certain point when you get voted off, or when you know you’re going to be voted off, it is some sense of relief because you know you’re going to have things to look forward to like a bed and some food and a bath, to brush your teeth. But at the same time, you want to be in the game. You want to still play. You want to win that million dollars. So, yeah, a lot of it was out of frustration.
Reality Exploits: Do you think the editing was fair to everyone, or was there something that we should have seen that we didn’t get a chance to see?
Mookie: I think they did a good job editing but at the same time, some people got edited in a good way, some people got the villain edit as myself. I think I got little more of a villain edit than anyone else on the show.
Yau Man was everyone’s fan favorite every time he would do something good and then I’d make fun of him or do something that people would get upset about that obviously made me the villain. But I am somewhat of a nice guy. I can be pretty mean sometimes. Overall, I think they did a good job of editing the cast.
Reality Exploits: You say that you can be a nice guy and you can be a villain, but do you think the villain was exaggerated because you were hungry and tired and all?
Mookie: I think the parts where they edited me right when I made fun of Yau Man and things like that, people took it in the wrong way. A lot of the whole villain thing was because I like to have fun, I like to joke around. Maybe the situation or the way I did it or who I did it to made people a little upset. But overall, I don’t really think it was the food and all, it was basically just the timing of having some fun.
Reality Exploits: If Dreamz hadn’t betrayed the Four Horsemen, how do think things would have been different? Or is it even possible to think that?
Mookie: Oh, man, I think if the Four Horsemen had stayed intact, we definitely would have gone all the way. From our mentality and from our conversations earlier on we had a plan. Dreamz basically betrayed us and from there it led to the demise of the Horsemen.
Reality Exploits: When Dreamz tried to explain to you why he had betrayed you guys, I was a little confused, to say the least. Do you think he had a legitimate reason to do it?
Mookie: No. He just pulled something out of his butt. He had no idea what to say. We were like, “Yeah, whatever, Dreamz. We know you lied.” You know, the guy didn’t actually think what he was going to say to us because we didn’t fall for it. I really don’t think he had a strategy or had even thought what he would say to us that would even make some sense. He was just trying to play both sides.
Reality Exploits: I know that Alex and Edgardo were upset with you for telling Dreamz about the idol, do you have any regrets about that?
Mookie: You know, I do in hindsight. Obviously, I wish I didn’t, but at the time I thought it was the best decision I could make because I knew Alex and Edgardo were really close. My mentality was if I wanted to make it to the end, I would need to have a person that I would bring along with me that was close to me. And that person was Dreamz and I made the wrong decision, I chose the wrong person and I told him about the idol. I had to in order to gain his confidence. It was the wrong choice, the wrong person.
Reality Exploits: This is the first season that they’ve made you play the idol before the votes were cast. So if you had had it there, obviously, things would have been different. How much of what happened to the Horsemen do you attribute to that?
Mookie: The idol plays a huge part in this game, but the way it was used this season, I didn’t really like it, because you would have to know or have an alliance that would know that you were going. So it’s basically knowing who is the person to go and then giving that person the idol. In that sense, it’s hard to play the game selfishly, you really have to trust somebody.
Reality Exploits: But even when you did, and you passed the idol to Alex, it didn’t help your alliance.
Mookie: Right. Because Dreamz had a big mouth. He told them exactly what was going on. But if I had been able to hold onto the idol during tribal counsel, I knew Edgardo was going to go because of a comment that Yau Man made, but Alex already had the idol. I had passed it off to him and I couldn’t say anything.
Reality Exploits: So when you went through Yau Man’s pack, a lot of the other castaways were pretty upset with you. But we’ve seen that happen on other seasons. What do you have to say to that?
Mookie: Yeah, we’ve seen it on other seasons. Coming to this game, you have to realize that there’s no such thing as personal belongings here or privacy. I was smart enough to put the idol under a rock up in the hills so that wouldn’t happen and people find out that I had the idol. I think that people were just overly dramatic and it really was not that big of a deal. Had it been Yau Man looking through somebody else’s bag, nobody would have said anything. And I think he even looked through Silvia’s bag earlier in the game and no one made an issue about that.
Reality Exploits: So when you had the idol and you found that Dreamz was going to play both sides, did you consider keeping it for yourself and not sharing it?
Mookie: If I had kept the idol for myself, I would have been in no man’s land. I wouldn’t have had an alliance. Just being loyal and trusting one alliance, which was Alex and Edgardo, I had to give it up to show that I was doing my part to be loyal to the alliance. Once you trust someone, you have to go all the way, you can’t be wish-washy and go back and forth because eventually you’re going to have an X on your back. And you have to consider the jury too.
Reality Exploits: The way they edited the trailers for last week’s show, they made it look like you might actually take Yau Man’s idol. Did you actually ever consider that?
Mookie: I definitely would have taken the idol if it was allowed. But the rules state that we’re not allowed to steal an idol from another person unless it’s not within their belongings or on them. But if I had been allowed to do it, you could count me in. I would have taken it in a heartbeat.
Reality Exploits: Were you surprised that you were voted out so early in the game?
Mookie: Yeah, I definitely was surprised. I expected to go all the way to the end. I know a lot people say that they want to go all the way to the end, but the way they play the game, it clearly shows that they just want to get by. Some of them didn’t expect to even get where they are. But definitely, I was disappointed.
Reality Exploits: Looking back, is there anything you would do differently if you had the chance?
Mookie: I actually think I played the game pretty well up to the point where I told Dreamz about the idol. If I could take that one thing back I think we would have gone all the way.
Either that or held onto the idol at tribal counsel and gave it to Edgardo. When I knew he was going to go, if I had had the idol on me at that time, I would have given it to him. Those two things would have completely changed the game.
Reality Exploits: Who from the show do you hope to stay in touch with in the future?
Mookie: I see myself staying in touch with Edgardo, Alex, Earl, Michelle, Rita. Some of these people I got to bond with and most of them actually made it to the merge. I guess the longer you are with them on the show, the more of a bond you have with them. Alex and Edgardo remind me of some of the friends I have in Chicago so we got along pretty well out there.
Reality Exploits: Who do you hope not to stay in touch with?
Mookie: Yeah, there are a couple of people that we never really clicked. There are some people out there that you just don’t have anything in common with. And obviously, I would try to stay away from people who are just annoying. People like Stacy. She just doesn’t seem like a very nice person and she wasn’t on the show.
Reality Exploits: So what about Rocky? Do you think he was portrayed correctly on the show?
Mookie: Rocky’s a wild man. He’s one of the guys I keep in touch with as well. I think I understand the guy. He a guy you’d have to take the time to get to know to appreciate him. First impressions, most people would think, “Wow, this guy is really something.”
Reality Exploits: What advice would you have for people hoping to get on future seasons of Survivor?
Mookie: I’m not sure about the casting and how they would go about getting on there, but if they are going to be on a place like Fiji and they had to prepare, I would say, watch some seasons to understand what’s going on. And be prepared to be betrayed and backstabbed and lose a lot of weight. A lot of people go into the game with some kind of strategy, but I think just having no strategy is the best strategy. Just be perceptive, see what’s going on around you and learn to adapt to any situation because things change all the time. There are a lot of surprises in this game.
Reality Exploits: Do you think you’d ever want to go on another reality show?
Mookie: I would definitely do another reality show. I think it’s really fun obviously, a lot of it is editing and how they portray you in the edit and you never know how they’re going to do that. But just to experience it itself is surreal. If I had the opportunity, I would definitely do it again.
Reality Exploits: Which one would you want to go on the most?
Mookie: I would do Amazing Race. There’s traveling and I just love that.
Reality Exploits: I know you have a new charity that you’ve started and I know you want to talk a little bit about that.
Mookie: Yeah, I wanted to use some of the Survivor 15 minutes of fame to do some good. And I started a charity called the Active Chicago Foundation that sponsors underprivileged children in the Chicagoland area with athletics and organized programs such as dance and arts. I just started that up and we’re having charity events and fund raisers here and there. We’re having a big charity event coming up in July.
We have a web site at www.activechicago.org or to the MySpace site for it and hopefully things will go well and people will support it. People can just go on the web site and make donations to it. It’s a really good charity.
Reality Exploits: Is there anything else that you want your fans and the Survivor fans to know about you?
Mookie: I’m very open, so if people have questions I’ll always answer them. I’ve been pretty good about answering MySpace questions a lot. And if I see you on the street, say “Hi!”
Anyone who wants to send messages to Mookie through MySpace can go to his site.