I had a chance to speak with Sugar on the phone the other day. She just so happened to be at Disney Land when we finally got in touch. With Rocky from Survivor: Fiji, Todd from Survivor: China and Kenny from Survivor: Gabon. I got a chance to speak with all 4, and here is what went down with Sugar.
Billy Debney: I hear you have a different story then most about how you made it on Survivor. Tell me a bit about that and how you didn’t actually audition.
Sugar Kiper: I was actually pulled off of myspace because I was a cover of a calendar, pin up for pups charity calendar. Me and my dog did pin ups (laughs). So they wanted me for Americas Greatest Dog. So they flew me and my dog in for an interview, and the lady said she actually wanted me for Survivor, I said “OH my god you’re crazy!”…cause I had never peed outside before. (laughs) So then I came and auditioned…they liked me…so I was like ok I guess this is cool. It was a good time of my life to do that cause of my father…and I was like at a place in my life where I needed to get a thicker skin and everything.
BD: And that was a lot of your reasoning for going on the show?
SK: Yea the thicker skin thing, also I had been in L.A. for 10 years with the Screen Actors Guild, then I moved to New York to be with my husband…almost kind of gave up on everything. But I knew if L.A. wanted me back, then I’d get some sort of sign. And I guess this was my sign. So now I’m back in L.A. with a publicist and everything.
BD: Now in my opinion we heard far too often about you “just” being a pin up girl, and you obviously proved everyone wrong…what was your plan to make sure that the “pin up girl” wasn’t the first to go?
SK: Well I knew that I needed an Alpha Male, which I found luckily with Ace. And I also knew at some point I would have to get rid of him or else it would seem like he was carrying me through the game. I didn’t need to kill him right then…but Kenny tricked me. But eventually I would have had to cut ties with him because 1- I knew America was gonna hate Ace, and 2- I needed to get my own street credit otherwise it would look like he carried me.
BD: You mentioned Kenny tricked you…but are you alright with how the Ace situation worked out? Or would you have liked it to work out a bit differently?
SK: Oh me and Ace are really good friends. I’m ok with how it worked out obviously, but I would have loved for him to stay around until the jury at least, cause he was a really great character, and a very good friend of mine. But I got a little crazy….we were starving. You know how it goes. But I went on saying I was a pin up model because I didn’t want people to know I was an actor, cause obviously that means you can lie pretty well, and convince you that you’re my friend, and then turn around and stab you in the back.
BD: Now the tribes got shook up a lot this season. What was it like for you and Matty when you found yourself on Fang with 3 people that you obviously wouldn’t have chosen to be around?
SK: You mean when it was me and Matty, the 2 jerks and Charlie? That was probably the hardest few days we had out there. And Matty had been on Fang the whole time, so he pretty much had it bad the whole time. But that was THE hardest, cause we were trying to stay positive, and they were nothing but negative and making fun of people the whole time, and talking shit about everyone. But luckily that was only a few days long.
BD: Since we are on the topic of Randy….the whole cookie incident. You mentioned you’re an actor and you obviously know how to make good TV. Was that what that was? Explain it a bit.
SK: That was ALL for entertainment value. You know I’ve tried to make up with Randy. You know I thought….Randy is a big fan of the show. And when we got rid of him the way we did…I figured if anyone would appreciate that it would be Randy. He went down as one of the best bad guys in the show ever. But you know…he’s under Corinne’s spell, and he won’t be nice or talk to anyone that wasn’t in his little fake group…that only took him on at the end when they needed numbers…but anyway!
BD: Alright lets move ahead a bit…final 4 tribal council. It was obviously a big decision for you…if you were going to vote for Matty or Bob. What was your reasoning for voting for Matty and making it a tie?
SK: Because I had saved Matty once and I had saved Bob once. And I love them both equally. That one was based on, I saved them both once, I didn’t want to pick a favorite, and I fire challenge for the final 3 would have been the most coolest thing ever…so how could I not have that happen?
BD: And kind of leave it up to them to see who had learnt the most while being out there?
SK: Right. Both had made fires back at camp, Matty and Bob. So I had good faith in their fire making skills, and both aren’t great under pressure, so it was just kind of a crap shoot.
BD: Alright now final tribal council…it was pretty tough for you. I’ve heard many different opinions on what Corinne said to you… but what do you have to say about it?
SK: Well I had my first tabloid recently, it was about me and Simon Baker in the movie Sex and Death 101. Cause that movie actually came out while I was in Africa. It was like “Sugar from Survivor has a hot and steamy sex scene with Simon from The Mentalist. But it was just a movie we did. And it wasn’t actually hot and steamy at all, it was really a hilarious joke kind of sex scene. But I was really stoked, and at the end of my tabloid it said “And Corinne Kaplan who said she is an unemployed leach on society, gets another look at her because she has actually been doing movies and television. So that was nice, I was pretty stoked about it. They even gave Corinne a dig!
BD: You must have loved the reunion show, all the boo’s that Corinne was getting.
SK: Oh it was awesome. Actually I guess Jacquie saw Corinne’s parents at the air port the other day, and they said they have about had it and are ready to move out of the country. I guess she has gotten death threats…but no one has tried to kill her yet…so I’m not crying for her.
BD: And I’m not surprised at all with the character she built for herself on the show. But you can tell she is one of those people that that’s the character she wanted…she loves the attention, she loves the boo’s.
SK: Exactly. And you know she’s trying to be an actress too, and she is trying to make a name for herself in Hollywood. But she don’t get it I don’t think. You can’t get America to love you when they first hated you.
BD: Alright now one question I have to ask…actually for my Mom. She wants to know how you had so many different outfits while on the show.
SK: Oh that’s funny, because before I went on the show, all my friends were like “how are you gonna do this?? How are you going to wear only one outfit??” So I said 1- I’ll be brilliant…and 2- I will NOT have to wear the same outfit, I will figure it out. So I borrowed a lot of clothes from everybody, and at different awards we’d get things and I would just try and make it different so I had something else to wear. The costumer who really just takes picture of our things and hands us our buffs was really impressed with what I did. And the bag outfit was obviously made out of one of the bags. I’m actually auctioning a lot of this stuff on my website and half of it goes to charity. I sell buttons and stickers…and glossy pin ups of myself. And then once a month we’ll put something up for auction like…the necklace I wore, or the bag outfit, or the dress I wore to the finale.
BD: Well that’s really cool, especially since half of it goes to charity.
SK: Yeah half goes to charity, and the other half basically goes to the website, and having to pay the web guy. I’m breaking even so far, I mean we’ve only had it up for two weeks, but its still really cool.
BD: Well best of luck with that. Now Survivor can bring some of you guys some great things, and it has to for you of all people. So what does 2009 look like for you?
SK: Well I gotta wear shades my future looks so bright. (laughs)
BD: (Laugh) Right on good for you. Well thank you very much Sugar.
SK: Oh thank you Billy. Say hi to your mom for me!
BD: I will for sure. Talk to ya later Sugar.
