By Andy Sloan

 

Shirin Oskooi faced many obstacles this season. She frequently found herself on the outside of alliances, struggled in challenges and was the target of both jokes and controversial arguments. However, this super fan managed to fight all 29 days in Survivor's 30th season, standing up against those who belittled her. Shirin talks strategy, controversy and her opinion on many of her fellow cast members.

 

Do you feel like the Shirin we saw Day 1 was different from the Shirin we see Day 29?

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Day 1, I was just so excited to be playing Survivor and I let that enthusiasm get the best of me. On Day 29 I was a hustler, getting my hands dirty and seeing the game for exactly what it was. I was exposing alliances, I could tell exactly where everyone's heads were at and what was going on. My eyes were open!

 

Do you think being a Survivor fan helped that?

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Absolutely. Given my background that you got to hear a little bit about on the show, I'm a resilient person. Nothing was going to get me down and that resiliency comes with me being a fan and knowing there's always hope in this game. Sometime the most unlikely people make it to the end and even win. That kept me fighting and going. So yeah being a fan definitely helped in the evolution of my game from Day 1 to Day 29.

 

Speaking of going to the end, last night your argument on staying was that you were NOT going to get any votes. Did you really believe that?

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Absolutely I'd have a chance if I got to the end. That was the tale I was putting out there. Everyone so readily believed I couldn't win because they themselves didn't like me. They weren't opening their eyes and seeing that they jury wasn't THEM. The jury right now was my friends, the no collars.

 

Sierra was also my friend. She and I had a really close relationship. She's an amazing person and she had my back. If she was on the jury she would've voted for me.

 

Same with Mike! Mike and I obviously grew really close out there. He saw what I had to go through and he saw how hard I had to work to get as far as I did. So I had 5 votes out there. That's not a whole lot of wiggle room because I have to be careful about who I'm sitting next to at a final 3 to win. But there was definitely a path.

 

Dan's a hot topic this season. Why weren't you able to convince him to flip sides?

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Because Dan let his personal feelings about people cloud his judgement. He cannot be untrue to himself and his feelings. He just didn't like me so he was never going to work with me.

 

When I talked to Hali a few weeks back, she said "If you want to be good in my book, you just be who you are. Do you." However, she later said this was not the case for Dan. Is there anything different about Dan that we're not seeing?

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Hmm. I'm not even quite sure how to answer that question. I think that what you see on TV is an accurate portrayal of him. He's not rational, logical or calculated. I don't think you have to be true to yourself to win the game. Sometimes you just have to swallow your pride and take some hits to get further. As long as you have the long term game in mind, you have to be able to take a short term hit. Dan doesn't have that capability.

 

Okay, random, awkward side question because I'm curious. We saw you drop your pants a few times on TV. Why was that?

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What you saw on TV was right before sunset. The guys never did any work around camp and I was way down the beach washing the dishes. It was almost nighttime and I didn't want my clothes to get wet because they'd never dry. I didn't want to be cold or uncomfortable and also it would've been unsanitary.

 

To my horror, these guys are walking down toward me. The guys who never do any work around camp. What are the doing? They're invading my space while I'm doing work. I didn't want them to see me bottomless and yet they walked right over to me. I don't know why. Maybe just to see what I was doing.

 

If they were uncomfortable, they should've just left, right? We weren't at camp, we were down at the beach. At that point though I wasn't going to back down and let them make me ashamed for doing what needed to be done in the most practical way possible.

 

People are so surprised that I'd be willing to take my bottoms off, let along in front of people, that they're actually missing the bigger picture here. They came down to my arena and started to judge me.

 

Last night you posed the question about Will's inability to see how his attacks were personal. You said, "is he that dumb or is he that cruel?" Last night you said he was just dumb. What's your answer to that question now?

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It's an incredibly hard question to answer. That same question applies to Dan. During the game, I thought Dan was just dumb, but now that I'm seeing what he says in his confessionals, what airs on TV and the way I'm seeing him behave on social media, I actually think Dan is cruel.

 

With Will it's a little bit different. Will always hated me because "I don't have a soul." That is loaded, right? It comes from a dark, dark place for him to not consider me human. I think that is both cruel and ignorant. It's both.

 

You've been through a lot during this whole Survivor experience. How has the reception been at home for you?

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So loving and supportive. Obviously I love my friends, but one of my biggest takeaways from Survivor is seeing what great lengths my friends will go to support me and show me love and stand up for what's right. I think it's really hard to take a stand and make a bold statement. For whatever reason its hard for people to say, "That is wrong. This is right. This person is good."

 

Now we're seeing fans everywhere take that stance. Even in my personal life my friends are really coming to bat for me. It's been wonderful, I love it!

 

When you raised your hand in response to Will asking for his letter, I legit clapped. I don't think I've done that in any season of Survivor. Tell me what was going through your mind at the time.

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So it started off with Will interrupting Jeff and crying. I was so angry because Will didn't deserve to cry. He was in a majority alliance, a winning position in this game and people were incredibly kind to him despite what he did to me and how he attacked me. I was livid. Crying belongs to me in that moment of the game. Nobody else deserved to cry but me.

 

Then Jeff gives us all a moment to think about it after he explains the situation. I'm thinking it through and I'm thinking there's the right life move. The right life move is to raise my hand against him, but is that the right strategic move?

 

First and foremost, I'm thinking about it strategically. I'm thinking these people, the axis of evil, the people who don't like me are never going to vote for me to win anyway. This is not going to change their mind about me and if anything, if I don't raise my hand than they will treat me worse. They'll say, "Of course she didn't raise her hand, she's a nobody. She's nothing." They might take that opportunity to treat me even worse.

 

Then there's the people in the game who were kind and supportive: Jenn, Mike and Sierra. It was an opportunity for me to show them that I will stand up for myself, make moves in this game and alienate myself if I have to. I'll stick my neck out to make a point and make a move. If it makes me more dislikable, which makes me more appealing to take to the end, then fantastic.

 

In fact, by raising my hand, I won over Jenn, Mike and Sierra's jury vote were I to go to the end.

 

Specifically at camp and tribal when you were being attacked, do you think others faced the dilemma of the right life choice vs the right strategic choice?

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Yeah it's definitely exactly the same thing! It's not always true in Survivor that the right life choice and the right strategic choice happen to align. In both of these cases they did. When Will took the attack above and beyond, obviously the right life choice is for people to get him to stop or calm him down. But also strategically, right now the jury has 3 no collars on it, who have hearts. They're passionate people and they're the kind of people that want to see the right thing done. So Mike came out of that situation looking like the hero and everyone else came out of there looking like slime.

 

Even though some people might say that fights are great and they don't want to look bad for getting in the way, the thing is those people were also really close with Will. There was a moment earlier where in that same episode Rodney's blowing up at Mike and Will calms Rodney down. So easily, Tyler or Rodney could've calmed Will down. They could've gotten involved and might have looked like the bigger person. But no, none of them did any of that and they all looked terrible for it.

 

Alright Shirin, last quick question! Why didn't you bid on the advantage at the auction?

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For a couple of reasons. Mike and Sierra specifically told me not to bid for it, otherwise they'd no longer trust me. Remember at that point in the game I was in a final 5 deal with them, including Dan and Jenn. So, it was to maintain a position in that alliance.

 

Also, it was to fit in with my general strategy of making me look nonthreatening in every single way. I just assumed it'd be an immunity idol clue and a clue is not an idol. Even if it was an advantage at the challenge, I'm already sucking at them. If I get 1 stage further that doesn't mean I'm going to actually win.

 

All it would do would paint a target on my back. At that point in the game, my only strategy was to look like a useful piece of crap.

 

Haha alright! What a note to end on! Thank you so much Shirin and I look forward to seeing your final jury speech on finale night!

Have a thought on how Shirin played the game? Drop a comment below!

 

Survivor airs on Wednesdays at 8pm ET on CBS

 

Photo credit: CBS