by Thinus Ferreira
The corporate lawyer Amy Eliason (33) from Johannesburg had her "destiny tied" to the chemical engineer Renier Louwrens (30) and when he was voted off in Survivor South Africa: Immunity Island on M-Net (DStv 101) it meant that she also had to go as they both became the next two members of the jury.
Do you think that you got taken down as collateral damage by the tribemates not liking Renier or do you think they liked you the least?
Amy Eliason: Ha, ha, ha, it's a good question - I think that at the end of the day if people wanted me out, they would have voted for Renier, knowing that I would have gone out.
So, you know, I can't say they loved me and wanted Renier out and I was just collateral damage. They knew - even though my name wasn't written down, they knew that writing Renier's name down was going to take me out. So they had to have been comfortable with both of those eventualities - Renier and I.
So, was I collateral damage? In a way. Was it because Renier was more disliked than I was? I don't believe so.
When did you realise that it might be a problem and that you might be decided on to be the two to leave - when you got chosen to go enjoy the reward challenge and were sitting there and eating with the other two, or only once you returned back to camp and felt the mood?
Amy Eliason: I mean, when we got chosen for reward, my first instinct was to be really excited and "oh yay, this is going to be so amazing".
You can't help it, your instincts just kick in. And then while we were sitting there, Renier and I had a little conversation. I think Renier said to me: "We are so screwed" and I was like "You are so right".
So we had our suspicion but I thought we had a game plan, we discussed what we were going to do and try and turn the tide but when we returned to camp, it was ice-cold.
You see it in the episode - nobody looked at us, spoke to us, offered us food. And while I was laying there I thought: This is going to be almost impossible - they hate us.
Then when Renier spoke at tribal and suddenly pulled out a little bag and said he had immunity and went up to Nico Panagio, how much of that were you privy to beforehand, or was it a surprise to you as well?
Amy Eliason: It was a surprise, it was a huge surprise. He hadn't told me he was going to do that. I had to try and keep a straight face and to pretend that maybe I'm in on this with the whole situation but it was so difficult. I was like: What is he doing?
All he said to me before tribal council was "No matter what I do or say, vote for Tyson".
So I didn't know what was coming up, I was just sitting there, knowing that he doesn't have an immunity idol, I didn't believe him either, but I must just let him do his thing and he's obviously got a plan and if it works, great, but I'm voting for Tyson.
And how did you feel when he walked up to Nico as if he had an immunity idol?
Amy Eliason: My heart - there was, because I thought, no he's completely bluffing, completely, this is a terrible lie - and then when he gets up to go to Nico - my heart nearly fell out of my body.
I was so excited. I thought "oh gosh, maybe he does have an idol! He's a genius!" Literally, it was such an awesome moment but then so disappointing. But also very funny.
What was your overall strategy in the game to win and how did it maybe change?
Amy Eliason: I went into Survivor SA and I'm a corporate lawyer, I work in a very tough industry, a very dog-eat-dog industry and I've always been underestimated.
People see this young blonde thing and they think she must be the secretary, or she must be the one bringing the coffee and that's always where I've started from - the position of being underestimated and an undervalued status.
I thought, okay, let me use that to my advantage in the game and it can take me very far in the game.
So, I know I'm a very intelligent, capable person, but I'm not going to let them know that I'm that intelligent, capable person. So that was my strategy.
I actually told everyone that I wasn't a lawyer, I lied about not being a lawyer, I said I was a PA. So that was part of my whole gameplay, to fly under the radar and I was very underestimated in the game by my fellow castaways.
A lot of them only really appreciated my after - now that they're watching - they had no idea that I was doing so much in the background, especially those with who I wasn't in an alliance with.
I guess that towards the end I had to play a bit harder. Once we had lost Marisha and once we were in the merge, flying under the radar wasn't going to work anymore and I had to play a bit harder and being more active.
Ending third in a competition still means you've lost, so standing on the beams for over an hour and then literally falling out second to last basically cost you the game. Yet you did put in an hour and a half of effort and what you get is a leg cramp.
Amy Eliason: Obviously looking back on it, it's devastating. Now that I know we're out it's a case of if I had held on for 10 more minutes - maybe even less - a gust of wind might have come and knocked her off and that would have completely changed the course of the game.
It's something that can drive you nuts to go through that regret and "I should have held on".
In the moment I played as hard as I could. My body just gave in.
At that point, I felt that we still had Anesu on our side and that she was going to swing to our side. So I felt, okay, it's devastating to lose the challenge but even though we don't have immunity we still have a chance in this game. Obviously looking back it's, it's a different story.
Speaking about looking back, you can't be everywhere. What surprised you looking back in terms of how people really were and did that you didn't know about?
Amy Eliason: It's no secret from watching the last few episodes that I really felt that I had a connection with Anesu and I really felt as if we would be able to take the game to the end - the two of us playing together.
I do believe that she felt the same and I think it suited her strategy to take me to the end if she could but I had no idea that she was such an undercover, mafia-like double-agent. I had no idea!
I knew that in Marisha's vote that she been with the OG Vunas and not with the OG Zambas but somehow Anesu is such a great social player, that even when she does something like that and completely blindsides you, you still feel like she's with you.
It's amazing and you still feel like it's fun, it's okay that she did that. It's okay, now we move forward.
Whereas someone like Santoni took a whole lot of flack and abuse for doing essentially the same as what Anesu did. So it was very surprising for me to see Anesu's game play out on TV and see what a double-agent she really was.
How did it feel after you got your torch snuffed because you're not really out the game, and now moving to observer role?
Amy Eliason: I was very lucky that Marisha and Shaun were already in Ponderosa and they were such great friends of mine in the game and such amazing people to spend that time with.
So it was almost as if Renier and I left feeling so devastated and so shaken after what had happened but we went into almost like this family environment where they just welcomed us in.
It was just a great time to have all that stress of wanting to win the game, letting go of all of that. It was a great power shift and I really enjoyed it.
Who didn't you like or do you think stabbed you in the back?
Amy Eliason: I think that's an easy answer, you can probably guess what my answer's going to be but Santoni is a very complex character.
I actually have so much respect for her as a player because look where she's got herself to from being a complete underdog and outsider throughout the game, she's in an absolute power position.
She held our fate in her hands. If Santoni wanted us to stay, we would have stayed, if Santoni wanted us to go - and she did - and we did.
It's very frustrating because we had a lot of ups and downs in our relationship. We went from being very close friends, to being betrayed by her, to thinking she's back with me, to being betrayed by her again.
So it's a complex relationship but I have the utmost respect for her as a player. That's for sure.
What was the Survivor SA experience that you didn't expect it to be once you were in it?
Amy Eliason: How cold it was Thinus! That was very unexpected.
You know, you watch Survivor and you see that sometimes it rains and sometimes the conditions are not great but I really didn't expect that onslaught of endless rain and cold.
The conditions - I wasn't prepared for them at all. It completely ruined me and destroyed me. My personality went from up here to nowhere. I complained all the time.
It was an aspect of Survivor that I didn't expect to be the most challenging aspect of Survivor. You expect the starvation, you expect the paranoia. But the cold. It was insane.
Survivor SA: Immunity Island is on M-Net (DStv 101) on Thursdays at 19:30
