What was your strategy going into the game? Did you ever think about doing girlpower again?
Ami Cusack: – I Definitly thought about it, but I wanted to get to know the players a little bit first, because after seeing Parv, she’s a flirt. A huge flirt with guys, not girls. I can always hope and dream, but… I had to see what I was playing with first. After I saw that that most likly wouldn’t work, I wanted to go with people I could trust, like Yau-Man and Eliza and not so much Jonathan, btu definitely Yau-Man and Eliza. Those are two people that I very much trusted.
Seemed like you floated back and forth between the fans and the favorites. Did you ever hook up with anybody? Did you ever have a strong alliance?
AC: Yes. I had an alliance from day 2 with Jonathan, Yau-man, Eliza, and Johnny Fairplay, as much as you can be in an alliance with him, and Cirie. We’d all talked about sticking together until the end. Well, that didn’t alst very long as you well know. I did have a strong alliance at the very beginning, but obviously not that strong.
It seemed like you were making a lot of forays over to the fans that last few weeks.
AC: I didn’t relaly feel like I was part of anything. I didn’t feel like I was part of the Favorites, just because they had a strong 5 and I wasn’t part of it. We never really talked about anything. The Fans, they were struggling to stay above water, so I was the first person they came to, because they knew that I was on the outside.
A couple weeks ago with Chet at TC where everybody wanted him to vote out Ozzy and he ended up leaving for medical reasons. What happened?
AC: I didnt’ talk to him about it. I know that Eric and Tracy were drilling him, drilling him, drilling him, trying to get him to stay in the game. He just wouldn’t do it. So I stayed out of it. If there was no way of him staying in the game anyway, what’s the point of me even conversating. He was very adament about leaving. So I just kind of stayed out of it.
That would have changed your game tremendously.
AC: Definitely, but Chet didn’t have the cajones to last it.
What was your relationship with Amanda and Cirie?
AC: Cirie, I just like hanging out with her. She’s funny. She laughs a lot. She’s like hanging out with your kid sister, playing around the block. She’s fun to hang out with. Amanda, she’s from Colorado as well, like she’s lived there as well, so she’s a cool outdoors girl. I wasnt’ that tight with Amanda.
What’s your opinion with Ozzy?
AC: In the game, before he voted me out, I absolutely loved and adored him. I think he’s an amazing man. I loved being on the beach with him. He’s adventurous. He’s always going. Always, always going. I like that about him.
The scene at the very beginning of last night’s episode, where you were talking with him on the beach about never voting him out. Was that honest or where you trying to cover yourself?
AC: No! I wouldn’t have voted Ozzy out. I really, absolutely think that he deserves the millions dollars.
What did you think about Eric?
AC: He came up to me after he totally sold me down the river and he’s like “I’m so sorry, Ami. You’re the only that’s been nice to me on this beach. All the other Favorites have been really mean to me. You were there for me for me at the very beginning. waaa… waaa. waaa.” He’s a nice kid from a small town and hasn’t seen much of the world.
Are you friends with him? Did you understand why he did what he did or are you angry?
AC: I can’t be angry about that. He’s playing the game. He’s playing Survivor. But do I want to be friends with him? At this point? No. I’m not going out of my way to be friends with the guy.
At TC, you got all emotional. Was that because you were about to go home or was it because you felt betrayed?
AC: I was really upset that Ozzy did not feel how much I would support him and how much I really thought he was a rock star. That super bums me out. I think a lot of that emotion came from stuff that was going on in my home life as well. So when you’re dealign with sensitive issues and you go out on an island and you’re put in a situation where you don’t feel like any one genuinely loves you and you’re dealing with things, it’s hard. You saw KB, Kathy, she lost her mind out there. You really feel issolated and there’s no on there just to give you a hug and say “You know what? I love you and everything’s going to be OK”. So I was sensitive and that’s not the Ami that you gusy are used to, but we all have our moments.
Were you prepared for that TC? Did you expect what was going to happen?
AC: I knew about 5 minutes before we were leaving for TC that that was going to go down, so I wasn’t really prepared, no.
I was suprised to see you cry. That’s not the image I have of you. I felt so badly for you.
AC: Ahh. Thanks. When I was leaving. They cleared out the contestants and I was leaving and saying goodbye to the crew and I felt like Alice in Wonderland. Or like Dorthy with my headband on and my dress and my bag under my arm like Toto. I really was going to miss everyone. Such a great group of people. Both the crew and the cast. I was really sad to be leaving the excitement. It’s really a fun thing to part of Survivor.
At Vanautu, you were the Godess who ruled everything. I like how you played that. But this time it didn’t seem like you were as dominant. Is there an explanation for that?
AC: In Vanautu I was with a bunch of women. It’s not that hard to rally up the ladies and say let’s all kick some ass. It was just ladies. If you stick guys in there, the dynamic changes. It becomes a different game. Can you imagine playing a game with all guys and then throw women in? It completely changes the dynamic. I felt at really at home with all women. I have no problem relating to women how amazing they are and let’s go kick some ass. With guys it’s a little different. You have to play a completley different game.
You felt like you were out of your element?
AC: I was out of my element because my alliance was gone. Not because there were guys being there. It was was just a different dynamic.
Since the show, are you friends with people?
AC: I’m friends with pretty much everybody. I love these people. Once you have an expereince like this with each other, you go through these things together. I mean, you’re sleeping with rats crawling all over you. Eating food off the ground. Taking a poo in the woods when you don’t have toilet paper. You really experience the basics of life together. There’s really a bond that you will have like you won’t have with anyone else in your life.
What are you doing since the show?
AC: I’m still working at the coffee shop that I work at downtown Denver, Common Grounds. I just had knee surgery to repair my knee form one of the challenges, that I blew it out. I’m working with Survivors that Care, a group of Survivors that really want to give back to the community and really want to do charity work and take what we’ve been given, which is recognition from people in our community and do something positive with it. We want to work with kids. We want to create some excitment when it comes to giving back to our community.
How can we contact that?
AC: I’ll be giving out more information on that later, I’m sure on my MySpace page or they’ll be a announcement. I don’t have everything up quite running yet, but I’m definitely going to have a web site where people can go adn request us to come to their city and put on a charity event. Most of the cases, we’ll let the people pick the charities that they want it go to. They’ll obviously have to do wome work and help us out in geting it going, but we really want to reach back out to our comminuties. We have so many powerful personalities that can make a difference. I don’t see why we can’t come together as a group and make something positive happen. I’m pretty excited about it. A lot of really good people are involved. Yau-Man and Buba from Vanautu. Cowboy and Melinda. Really good people that I love working with.
What happened to your knee?
AC: It’s funny when people on the street happen to my knee, I say I was tied to a women, running through the jungle. Two women were tied to each other, through mud and logs. People are just like “What on earth?” Survivor! I blew out my ACL jumping over one of those logs when Amanda was tied to me. Completley blew it out. I tore my miniscus in half.
You had surgery and everything’s OK?
AC: I had surgery a week and a half ago, so I’m on crutches. and in a brace still. I think it’s going to be stronger than before. That’s what I’m working towards.
What else?
AC: They are really cool people. Obviously some more than others, but I had a great experience. Micronesia, Paulau is one of the most beautiful locations on the planet earth. Mark Burnett did a great job picking that location. It is stunning.
Would you do it again?
AC: Definite instant yes. I would put on my tennis shoes right now with my brace and crutches and everything.
Anything more about Chet?
AC: Chet’s wonderful. Out of the game, he’s a splendid gift to mankind. In the game, he’s a namby-pamby little princess. Out of the game, I absolutely love that guy. But he had an injury that pretty debilitating. He had a huge blister on the heel of his foot that shot oowey gooey stuff all the way across the room, I guess, when he got it lanced. He was in a pretty serious condition, so I guesss I should give him a little bit of slack.
A few events that happened along the way that could have totally changed the game. If JF hadn’t gone out in the first episode, Parvati would have goen out.
AC: That would have been Wonderful! That would have been wonderful. I can’t believe Fairplay bowed out the way he didn, but you know what? I’ve really come to like that guy an awful lot. He’s a brillient man. I’m not going to give him too much hard time for that.
Favorite players in the game?
AC: Ozzy. I just think Ozzy is a stud, you know? Ozzy is amazing out in nature. I’d have to say he’s my favorite. You know what? Alexis. I knew I would like her from the first second that I saw her. That girl and I are going to get along great. I hope she does well, as well.
– Survivor: Micronesia airs on CBS in the U.S. on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
– Survivor: Micronesia airs on the GLOBAL network in Canada on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Sir Linksalot: Survivor: Micronesia
