Read on for my interview with Xander, and make sure to check in with Parade.com every day for interviews with this season’s contestants and other tidbits. Survivor 41 premieres on September 22 with a special two-hour episode on CBS. What’s your history with watching Survivor? My dad was in the Navy, and he would leave early and come home late. But the time that we got with him, the staple of our family time, was always Survivor. He would come home late at night, and we would all sit around the couch and watch. It was so great for someone like me, who, when I was younger, I wasn’t really proud of myself. I wasn’t confident in who I was. And to see people like Malcolm and Ozzy on TV, these guys who were so sure of themselves and such determined challenge beasts, I wanted that. What’s one life experience you feel has prepared you most for the game? Definitely my running background. When I started running, I was chubby. I was hobbling around. Nobody expected that I would really be anything, and I wanted to show them. I started running because they needed new runners, and my ninth-grade English teacher was asking around. And he was asking all the guys to come out and run, and he didn’t ask me. I was like, “I don’t look like a runner. But I know I’ve got the heart.” So I went out, and I showed them. After every practice, I was throwing up, down on my knees, exhausted. But I kept pushing through, and by my third race, I was top 50 on the board, knocking off players who had been running for years. It just totally clicked, and I’ve forever had this iron will to fight through pain since that. What do you think people will perceive you as? I mean, I know from experience! I have the luxury of people telling me that a lot of people tend to think I’m like this hollow-headed tool. I’ll have just been at this lab for astrophysics, where we figured out the resolution of the human eye using two dots on a piece of paper. And then I’ll go to a party and people will come up to me, and they’re like, “What?! I was told you were a total douche! I thought you were a tool.” And it’s always so shocking to me. I grew up being the nerdy guy, the chubby guy. So for people to tell me that they think I’m some dumb jock is really interesting to me. I want to be someone who’s young, and people assume is naive and inexperienced. All those things that go along with being young. Youth could be my camouflage. I’m 20; nobody would assume that I’m good at a lot of stuff and that I’m going to come out guns blazing and try to absolutely upset the game. What do you desire in an alliance partner? I want to find someone that doesn’t necessarily need control. Because I’m not a controlling person. I don’t want to, you know, tell people what to do. I think that’s when you get your head chopped off. But I don’t want someone who is trying to tell me what to do. I want someone who I can talk with, someone who we can bounce ideas off each other. We can really talk about the show in a geeky fan sort of way and apply it to how we’re playing. What’s your current game plan for when you touch down on the beach? I know from experience that I tend to be intimidating to people. So I really want to be my bubbly, energetic self when meeting everybody. I want to give them spoonfuls of sugar, really compliment people, and be flattering. (Laughs.) It would make relationships a lot easier for me. If I go stoic and I don’t say much, a lot of people assume that I’m going to be this scary big athletic guy. So I really want to make sure people understand that I am someone warm and friendly that they can come up to and talk to and maybe strategize with. What will people underestimate in you the most on Survivor? Definitely intelligence. I really have this ferocity for learning. I love learning; I love knowledge. It’s so incredible that we can learn things from other people without ever doing them. I don’t have to learn that things fall because of gravity from experience. The apple doesn’t have to hit me on the head. I can read that Isaac Newton experienced that. You can’t do everything in life, but you can gather experience and knowledge from other people, which is fantastic. So I’ve always had a huge appetite for learning and knowledge. I love being a nerd. I love being an intellectual. So I think many people are going to overlook the fact that I’m not some hollow-headed guy. How much authenticity do you plan on bringing into the game? I plan on being completely authentic. You know, maybe a couple lies here and there, refraining from telling people that I started my own company. I’m one of the youngest Flutter developers in the world. I speak fluent Mandarin. I’ve traveled the world. I’ve done art, poetry, and journalism. I don’t want to be completely forthcoming with everything. I don’t want to brag. But I do want to be authentic. Because if you win as someone else, then was it really a win for you? You wouldn’t want to pretend to be someone else to date someone, because then they’re not dating you. They’re dating someone else. So I do want to be myself. I think it would invalidate a win if you weren’t yourself playing the game. Which is more important to your game: Strategy or social? I think strategy is going to be more important to my game. As much as I want to push for social control, as much as I want to be best friends with everyone out there, I know, at some point, they’re going to come from me, and they’re going to try and stab me in the back. So I’m going to put a pin in social and say, “Lock it down, be friends with everyone.” But understand that at some point, I’m going to be Caesar, and it’s going to be “e tu Brute.” I gotta focus on strategy, always. When you’re at your lowest moment in the game, what’s one happy memory you’ll pull from in your time of need? There was this morning, in Estes Park in Rocky Mountain National Park. All my teammates who went on this huge road trip woke up at 3:30 in the morning and drove up the mountain to the top of Rocky Mountain National Park. We’ve got the windows down, playing soft music. There’s reindeer running around and reaching out to the car. We climb the highest peak. And right as we get to the top, we’re freezing, huddling together, and the sun crested over the horizon. The warmth is just something I’ll never forget. It was something that I know so few people will experience in life. And it’s something that I always remember in times of struggle. There is always going to be that warmth. The sun will come up, and I can make it through. What celebrity or fictional character would you want to come out for a Loved Ones visit? Oh, definitely Coop from Interstellar. That is one of my favorite movies. My pre-race ritual is always either watching Interstellar or Surf’s Up. So maybe Big Z could come out too and give me some advice. (Laughs.) That would be fantastic. But there’s a moment in Interstellar where Cooper’s talking to TARS, and he’s like, “We got to go for it; analyze the endurance spin.” TARS says that’s impossible. And Cooper says, “No, it’s necessary.” And then Hans Zimmer starts playing; the piano is going. And that’s such a touching moment for me. I always think of it during races, and then I just take off. (Laughs.) You get the opportunity to use magic once while playing the game of Survivor. What do you use it for? I’m gonna have to go with flight. I would love to just fly above the islands and get a bird’s eye view of everything. I think that this is such a beautiful place, one of the most incredible places in the world. And I want to survey the area and take it all in. Next, check out our interview with Survivor 41 contestant Tiffany Seely.
