Cassandra was an underrated player in Fiji and had some interesting light to shed on the aspects of the game that we didn’t see.
Murtz Jaffer: Hey Cassandra!
Cassandra Franklin: Hey Murtz, how are you doing?
MJ: Not too bad. It was great meeting you at the Survivor parties this weekend!
CF: Oh, thank you so much. Everything was so surreal at that moment. I haven’t had any free time to absorb everything that I have gone through!
MJ: While we were there, I asked you about the comparison to Cirie from Exile Island. Do you get a lot of that?
CF: You know, I have to be honest. I did in the beginning. And they did think that we looked a lot alike.
MJ: What about game-wise?
CF: Game-wise, I have to be honest there too. I never had watched Survivor before but some of the tapes they had given me included the season with Cirie. I did learn a lot from her as far as trying to play the game and stay under-the-radar.
MJ: What do you think about losing to Earl? It seemed like you expected it when the final votes were read.
CF: Oh yeah. I knew for sure!
MJ: (Laughs).
CF: I knew midway through the game. My relationships at Moto, I would not consider to be my favorite relationships in life. I mean I was never able to really get in with the Moto crew. They had made a tight alliance early on, so it was difficult for Dreamz, Gary and I in that camp.
MJ: Yeah, you were basically on the chopping block.
CF: Exactly. And most of the people that were on the jury were from Moto so it went all the way back from those first days at Moto.
MJ: Why do you think Earl managed to skate through the game with no one even trying to vote him off?
CF: Earl’s brilliant! He just has a very strategic mind and I just watched him play the game. Dude, I was impressed. He put us all in the right place that he needed us to be and to be honest, I didn’t see it coming until after. I was just like whoa! He really positioned himself well in the game. He carried Yau Man all the way through the game. Yau Man, I mean he was amazing at the challenges, but as far as alliances, I think Earl was his only alliance.
MJ: When you were switched back to Moto, you immediately gravitated toward Earl and Yau Man. What was it about them that immediately made you jump?
CF: Oh, pretty much the same as… I really kind of associated myself with the older group because initially when we were put on the island, it was quite clear the difference between the older people versus the younger people. I noticed that a lot of younger people were making alliances really quick. So initially my thought was to align with Earl, Yau Man, Gary and Sylvia as a base alliance since those were the people that I most connected with. I felt like I could trust those people in the game. I felt like they all had a solid head and I felt really good about the fact that I could align with people that were pretty much like me as far as maturity-level.
MJ: How important to your game was it for Michelle to be voted out after the twist? You kind of took her spot in the alliance didn’t you?
CF: No, I was in the alliance before that. Earl and I had a casual conversation in the beginning and he said, ‘you know, I want to bring you into my alliance. How do you feel about that?’ He also said that if I was ever out there and felt frustrated, that when we merged, we would be getting back together and just get as many numbers as possible so that when we merged, we’re going to come back together so that’s why it was so immediate.
MJ: A lot of people are giving Dreamz a lot of flack for breaking his promise to Yau Man, but the truth of the matter is that you and Earl also voted him out. Aren’t you guys just as guilty as Dreamz?
CF: I don’t feel guilty about it. I never felt guilty about any position that I took in the game. I did originally, when Dreamz came to me, when he made that deal I really felt that Dreamz was really excited, his heart was in it and he wanted to do the right thing. It wasn’t until mid-day of tribal council did he let me know that he had a serious change of heart. That he really didn’t come to win a truck and that he had felt vulnerable at the time. That Yau Man played on his vulnerability. And that he was thinking that was the thing to do. And so I told him at that time, ‘you know Dreamz, you really need to think long and hard about it, whatever decision you make out here today is going to affect you possibly for life and you need to make decisions that you can live with.’ So at that point, I said you know, think about it. ‘If this is a decision that you think you can live with, then my advice to you is to consider it.’ At that point, I said that if you decide that you’re not going give him the immunity necklace, then you may want to consider giving him back the truck.
MJ: Alex really seemed to go off on you and Edgardo also carried a lot of ill will. Why did the Horsemen blame you so much and what is your relationship with them like now?
CF: They just took me for granted in the game. I mean they thought I was there… and just had pretty much given up on the game but I have worked with men all my life. I manage the civil engineering department at UCLA and I know how men think. Not all men, but I have a sense that they are about the business. Not about the chitty-chatty and talking and girl-talk and things like that. Besides wanting to stay under-the-radar, I used some of my basic work principles. Basically, hold your mouth until it’s critical basically so that you have the maximum effect and so a lot of the times, when I wasn’t talking they looked at it as me not knowing what was going on when clearly I viewed every personality that was out there and what they were thinking. While I am observing, they are taking me for granted! It was like the challenge that I won. It was the question and answer/personality challenge where Stacy took a really really hard hit. She realized that she wasn’t the person that people were least likely to take and so a lot of negative things came out about her and when they went back to the camp and Yau Man, Dreamz, Boo and I went on the cruise, when I came back, one of my strategies was that the people I took on the cruise were the people that I needed to make an alliance and make sure that we were going to be strong together. I don’t think that was something that came out. I think that this was something that they thought I had discussed with Earl. That wasn’t the case. Earl really wanted to go on that boat cruise! My thinking was that I needed somebody at camp. I felt that if Earl had come on the cruise and if I had left one of the other three guys behind that it would be chaotic.
MJ: Dreamz seemed to always have you in mind when he was making any strategic decisions. Everybody just seemed to accept that you and him were in a voting bloc. Can you describe your relationship with him?
CF: You know Dreamz, the first day I met him. I understood where Dreamz was coming from and I think most people mistake him for being a kitty cat and they didn’t realize that the man was true lion.
MJ: That sounds great, thank you so much Cassandra.
CF: Thanks.
Cassandra Franklin was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She currently manages the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has been employed by the university for 23 years.
Franklin participates in events to raise funds and awareness for Minority Women and Children with AIDS and Breast Cancer Research. Additionally, she is Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Southeast Communities Prevention and Intervention Program.
Franklin’s hobbies include skiing, traveling and shopping. She describes herself as fun, warm and giving. She is very proud of her family, including her mother, Varie, who is retired and living in Los Angeles with Franklin’s stepfather, Coleman. Her sister, Debra, resides in Los Angeles with her husband, Dr. Robert A. Williams, the pastor of the McCoy Memorial Baptist Church.
Franklin has been married for two years to her husband, Clif. Her birth date is April 19, 1964.
– Survivor: Fiji airs on CBS on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
– Survivor: Fiji airs on the Global network in Canada on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
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