Survivor 50 is here! Every week, Parade‘s Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the castaway most recently voted off the island.
“My life philosophy is, if you get some crazy, amazing opportunity and it just lands in your lap, you’re a fool not to take it.”
Mike White provided his north star, sitting atop a rock during a confessional in Survivor 50‘s premiere. And indeed, it was that idea that brought the Emmy winner away from The White Lotus and back to the beaches of Fiji, eager not to miss out on what he referred to as “a high school reunion meets a massacre.” And, as Mike told Parade in the preseason, he wanted to contribute to the murderous fun, feeling their mission was to create an exciting season. He had no idea, however, that he would become the victim of the most exciting move of Survivor 50 so far. Feeling he had everyone in the palm of his hand, he had no idea the little finger of Christian Hubicki was planning a coup against his fellow David vs. Goliath cast member. Fittingly, a crazy, amazing opportunity had fallen in his lap, and he took it.
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Despite some of his fellow cast members having significant reputations, Mike came in with the biggest name on the Survivor 50 cast. And the writer tried to curb that perception immediately, scripting himself as a fun-loving, non-threatening goofball. Indeed, it seemed like his tribe members were either fixated on his quips or his abs rather than the strategy that got him all the way to the end of his previous season. And so, much like Victoria Ratliff, Mike was living anything but an uncomfortable life the first five days of the game.
Even when a tribe swap put him as the only Kalo on a new beach, he was surrounded by incredibly friendly faces. Chief among them was Angelina Keeley, with whom Mike went to the end, built a tight friendship, and even put in a White Lotus cameo. While Mike did have a large hand in voting out Christian on their season, the David had voted for the Goliath on the jury. And, showcasing his Hollywood connections, he had become friends with Ozzy Lusth outside the game. So Mike wound up with a sizable amount of power on the tribe swap, and he immediately put it to good use. While he claimed to Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick he would be voting for her, in actuality, he was plotting behind the scenes to take out Q Burdette. And, in a twist that even a TV showrunner didn’t see coming, the “new era” standout asked Mike to vote for him. So his first vote of the season was an incredibly successful one as, at Tribal Council, he held up his vote for Q, simply saying, “You told me to do this.”
Vatu was now down to a six-pack, and Mike White was flexing. Between his connections and persuasive skills honed from years in the industry, he felt positively “Mike-avellian.” When he was told his number one would be targeted once more, he once again suited up for “Operation Save Angelina.” The victim this time: Emily Flippen, feeling she was a secret beast in the game, and hoping to snuff out the “cougar in the shape of a Ren Faire girl” before she planned to go medieval on his ass. The issue came, however, when he went to Christian, saying Emily was his blind spot by comparing her to his previous number one, Gabby Pascuzzi. Christian spent the rest of the day in that nostalgic David vs. Goliath headspace, as he began to remember how terrifyingly good Mike was at making just the right argument. Before playing, Christian told Parade he wanted to commit “narrative warfare” this season, taking the pen from the ultimate storyteller. And that night, he picked up the pen and did just that. In a wild 3-2-1 vote, half the tribe was left blindsided, as Mike White was told it was time to check out of his far-from-luxurious island vacation.
Now out of the game, Mike talks with Parade about his reaction to Christian’s betrayal, his alliances on his original tribe, and if there was anything from Survivor 50 that he’s bringing into The White Lotus Season 4.
Related: Read our Survivor 50 pre-game interview with Mike White
You seemed surprised to get that first vote against you, let alone three. So what was your expectation of what would happen going into Tribal Council? Did you think your name was on the chopping block at all?
I mean, I was totally shocked. I mean, that Tribal Council was so weird. Emily was giving this kind of Portia in Merchant of Venice speech. Everybody was going around extolling the virtues. I mean, there’s a lot you didn’t see. But it almost felt like it was like a wrap-up, like a kind of Final Tribal that you get at the end of the game or something. I was like, “What? Why?”
Everybody’s thanking each other and telling each other that they love each other. And then she does this performance, which was crazy theatre in the round, like, “I think I’m going home.” And I was like, “This feels bogus. What is she doing?” And I think she was trying to keep me from using my Shot in the Dark, because I didn’t bring anything to Tribal Council except my Shot in the Dark. And I have to hand it to her, the night before, she had done this Lady Macbeth speech about how she has no sympathy for anybody. I mean, an actress prepares! She was ready, so I have to hand it to her. But it wasn’t convincing. But I mean, at the core of it, the thing that I never would have thought was that the Christian would vote me out two days on the same beach. I was had.
Is there anything in retrospect that Christian was doing that flagged he may not have wanted to vote out Emily?
Yes, there were many things! I mean, the thing about Christian is I caught him. Originally, with the whole thing about Emily telling people about the idol that was given, he told me one story, then he changed the story. He was doing a lot of crazy stuff. But the thing about Christian is, to be honest, he’s a little hammy. So sometimes I felt like, “Oh, he’s doing this for attention, for the cameras or something.” Because he’s pratfalling, he’s doing a lot of crazy antics. And so I was like, “Maybe this is just him hamming it up for the cameras or something.” But, at the core of it, I was just like, “He’s not gonna come for me.” I just felt so safe.
Let’s go to the beginning of the game. You talked with me and on the show about wanting to curb your perception that may be linked with your success from The White Lotus, presenting as the goofy guy who just wanted to make a fun season. Do you feel like you were successfully able to curb that perception?
I felt like it went pretty well. I felt like I did well when it was just people that I didn’t know and they didn’t know me. I feel like that was that was easy. And then when I got transferred to the tribe with all of the people that I did know, it was like, “Okay, this is good, because these people know me, and I’m actually friends with all these people. So this should be fine.” But I did have this uneasy feeling. There was just something was in the air. I was straddling too many things. I knew Angelina and Christian didn’t really get along. So I was just like, “Maybe this is actually gonna be harder than I thought.”
Who were you aligned with primarily on Kalo?
I mean, I really liked everybody. I feel like I was kind of in the middle. It felt like there was a Coach, Chrissy, Jonathan thing going on, and then there was a Dee, Tiffany, Kamilla thing going on, and Charlie and I were kind of riding the middle. And Charlie was definitely the person I talked to the most. And I was like, “If we go deep, I’ll play with him.” But I feel like if push had come to shove, I probably would have gone with the girls. If there was a vote, I think Charlie probably would have too.
So would it have been Chrissy, as Coach had told her?
I mean, I think that’s what I see that as being what would have happened. You never know, because in the last minutes, these people start getting excited and they want to do something exciting. But that would have been the easiest vote, I think.
What was it like getting to reunite the David vs. Goliath trio? Did you sense that tension between Christian and Angelina, as you mentioned earlier?
I was worried, just because Q and Stephenie were on the original tribe with Angelina, and they were gung-ho [to boot] Angelina. And I was like, “This isn’t good.” I just didn’t know it was gonna be such a sell job. But there was no way I wasn’t gonna be able to [do that]. I had to fight for Angelina. She’s a good friend of mine. And also it was so meaningful to be back on the Goliath beach with Angelina. I was like, “How do we keep the band together?”
Well it seems like someone you wanted included in that band was Ozzy. You had a relationship with him outside of the game from when he was a restaurant manager in L.A. So what was it like getting to work with him?
I mean, I’ve known Ozzy probably longer than Angelina and Christian. I’ve known him for a long time. I would consider him a friend. The only pre-gaming I did was talking to Ozzy and Christian and Angelina, and they were all there. So I was excited.
But I never felt Ozzy was [committed]. He never told me he had an idol. I mean, I think Ozzy was so scared of playing the game wrong or something that. He just didn’t fully commit to me out there. I think it was me fighting for Angelina. I’m not sure exactly why. Christian and Emily, he came with them. And I felt a little bit like he’s the jock, and they’re the nerds who are going to do his homework for him or something. He felt like he needed to keep that connection stronger than to just jump in with me and figure out how to play the game with me.
What was your reaction when you heard him say in the episode that he wanted to “peel off” Angelina to get to you? Would that have happened if Angelina left?
I mean, I understand it. I mean, you want to be somebody’s number one. You don’t want to be that person to have a bunch of number ones. I mean, that’s a classic mistake. But I can’t hide my friendship. It is what it is. On David vs. Goliath, you can be cagey, or you wait for other people to make the move, and then you do the counter move, or whatever. And this one, I felt like, “I have this relationship with these guys. I’m just gonna say what I think.” And so I did. Which led to my demise.
You do end up making a move at your very first Tribal Council, deciding to say publicly you’re voting Stephenie when you actually organized a blindside on Q. How and why did that end up coming together?
Well, my job was to keep Angelina in the game. So Q and Stephenie were both coming for Angelina, so it was natural for me to try to take one of them out. Q was very intense. I really like Q. I really like him as a person, and I am sad that things shook out the way they did. You see the comedy side of Q, but there’s also a very intense kind of intimidating side of him too. I’d sleep in the canoe, and he’d sit over and watch me sleeping. [Stares intensely.]
So it felt like Q seemed like the more formidable person to maybe target. And so I went with that. When I said Stephenie, I don’t know what I was thinking, because it was bad. Because ultimately, Stephenie, when she was being enlisted by them, I had already put her name out there. So, yeah, it didn’t help solidify a trusting relationship.
Of course, it’s been talked about to death about how your time on Survivor helped inspire the creation of The White Lotus. Was there anything that you took away from this time around — a person, an event, a theme — that you’re bringing into Season 4?
[Pause.] What I really took away is, after I got eliminated, I had a good three weeks where nobody was bothering me, and everybody thought I was busy. So I was able to come up with the whole season. So I don’t know if it was inspired by what happened. But it all happened because I got eliminated. You know what I mean? So, in a way, it was like a godsend, because my well had run dry. So it was nice to feel like, “Oh, okay, I can do this!”
Related: ‘Survivor 50’s Q Burdette Reveals the Wild Plan Behind Asking Mike White to Vote Him Out (Exclusive)
