Dante Interview: Survivor SA Return of the outcasts

0:00 Welcome back to the Nullified Take channel here on YouTube. I'm joined today by Dante de Villiers, the second member of the jury here for Survivor South Africa Return of the Outcasts. Dante, how are you doing? Yeah, good. you know, it's been a journey and it's now interesting to kind of reflect back and you know, see where everyone went wrong and where everyone went right. Yeah, you seem like a very, you know, you're like a perfectionist. You're someone that wants to go one better compared to what you did the first time you were out there. You came in with a game plan, quite a few things you wanted to achieve. and you really changed your game up. You took a more proactive approach this season. How do you feel you sort of did and, you know, if we had to see a Dante 3.0, where would you sort of amend, you know, things if you had to go back out there and play again? Yeah, I think, you know, having all the opportunity to play the second time around, everyone comes to right their wrongs from the season first season or their first season.

0:53 And mine was obviously the social game. which is something that I spent a lot of energy and time kind of trying to kind of not necessarily perfect, but just you know, utilize in a way that is more in line with also who I am to a degree. So, yeah, I would love to believe that this time around that you know, it did come through on the edit and I truly believe that you know, I just felt like I mentioned this to someone else. I felt like the first week felt forever just due to the fact that it was a Return of the Outcasts, but the way people were playing from the first day, it was like a All-Stars season. So, you can really, you know, you can kind of write down a game plan as much as you want, but as soon as you get onto the floor mat on day one and you get to see who you're playing against, you know, everything is out of the window and you need to kind of, you know, build complete new game plan.

1:47 So, the idea was just to be more in control this time around. Now, I'm aware that last season you had a podcast, you were recapping or doing live streams for Survivor South Africa Immunity Island with Jac Burger. did that sort of change your outlook on the game, you know, dissecting it to that degree? I know obviously experience of having been out there is way more valuable than dissecting it from a podcasting standpoint, but did that sort of give you a different perspective going into this game as well? Did you take anything from that? Yeah, obviously it was always it's always nice to be able to dissect with Jac cuz I mean you know, he's got a very good grip on the game and I learned a lot, but you know, again, it's very difficult even for someone who's been there before to really understand the dynamics of the game if you are not physically in the game.

2:37 So it's you know, so it makes even more difficult when you've you know, when someone has never played the game and then you know, try to give the game dynamics. So it was a nice kind of you know, way for me just to try and understand different rather it was just a better play kind of place for me to understand some of the other players better. So you know, in case I should ever get them in the game again, but then again, when I me and Jac was discussing season eight, who would have thought that we'll I'll be sitting on the beach next round. So yeah, but at least it did help, I'm sure. Yeah, cuz it to me it felt like maybe a little bit of you dissecting that game with Jac had a little bit to do with the fact that you saw Dino as such a big threat this season. Was that true or was this something that organically happened in the game when you noticed potentially how he was doing in the challenges and how he was sort of being perceived by other players that sort of grow the target or would you say that this sort of added to the target on Dino's back when he came into the season?

3:38 Yeah, listen, I didn't actually hold him accountable for his first season at all. As I got into the game the first day, I saw him on the mat and then I just thought to myself, okay, well, here you've got a guy who literally lives he makes a living off solving puzzles. So, you know, obviously he's one up on me cuz I'm not a puzzler at all. And as the season progressed, it was evident and very clear how he's using the emotional route to gain access to some of the players. And that's obviously something that, you know, I'm kind of cold I'm kind of very cold towards the emotional game. So, it was very clear to me and you know, it was just something that I mean, it's evident on the edit, you know, I was I'm I kept warning people against Dino. And yeah, I believe from seeing him from the first day, I knew that he's going to be a big a threat in the game. And yeah, there he is still in the game.

4:30 And you know, let's see what he pulls out of the hat. Did you feel sometimes while you were out there was a little bit of déjà vu because you did the exact same thing warning people against Rob and telling nobody saw it, you know, he ended up winning that game. Did you kind of feel like you were living the same thing over and over again and that past trauma of trying to convince people to take out a big threat such as Rob sort of come back in this season? Definitely. I think looking back now, I think also what happened was the more I tried to push it, the more frustrated I became. And I just felt that there was a complete disregard for urgency and also a complete lack of situational awareness from those in my alliance. you know, if it was clear to me, I was just hoping that it should be 50% clear or kind of clear for the rest of them, which obviously it wasn't.

5:23 So, yeah, so it made me look like a madman. But you know, I was I was on the money the first time around. And my gut feel and read on people, I would like to believe, you know, is the one thing that I use as a superpower in the game. So, right or wrong, we'll see in if this when the season is done. But you know, it didn't fail me the first time, so I couldn't see why it would fail me season 9. Yeah, and I was sort of interested to know you obviously you had a very close alliance with Meryl the first time you went out there to play. You come back this season, you've got Meryl there, you've got someone that it seems like you've got a friendship with him outside of the game Felix in the game. And you also had Steffi from your season there as well. Do you feel like it hindered your game or it helped your game going back this time with people that you knew? Yeah, listen, getting back to the game with these people and standing next to me, it's you know, you it will automatically a disadvantage, but you are there, they are there, you can might as well use it to your advantage.

6:23 So that was the game I was trying to play all the way through is, you know, me and Meryl is seen as a as a deer, we seen as a threat together, but regardless of what you want to do with it, we can might as well just make the best of it. So that's why I never tried to kind of remove anyone from the breakfast club besides the Chappies vote just due to the fact that it felt to me that it could have been my season quite easily or one of us could have been quite easily sitting at the end this being voted up until now just due to the fact that we had each other. You know, I had Steffi had me, I had Meryl had me. You know, I had my relationship with Felix who's still in the game. So there was just so much goodness that I was that I was surrounded by, I just felt that if everyone kept their cool and just kind of you know, try to see what I was seeing, we could kind of it should be a steam roll to a certain point where we then can decide okay, you know, what happens forward, but until then I just felt like you know, until this final six, final seven, it should have been quite straightforward.

7:28 You mentioned the Chappies vote as someone there that you took out early in the breakfast club. He sort of came to you day one said hey listen, we're the two aqua men, you know, and you sort of try to give him that title rather than have it yourself, but you know, he's someone that seemed like he wanted to work with you. Obviously, he looked for idols at night time. You later on do find an idol at night time quite ironically as well, which was a funny scene to see on the TV show, but what is it that ultimately was that the main thing is just you didn't want to stay up looking you know, over this guy's shoulder making sure he doesn't pull tricks out of his hat or what was the main reason here that you ultimately got rid of him so early on? Well, you know, only the Chappies vote is a black gods by itself, but in essence you know, I gave our lines or I gave I gave my work to Chappies the first day. and then for the next day and a half, each time I approached him, I got very empty kind of surface-like answers from Chappies and I couldn't really place him, you know, it was always like yeah, we've got a good thing going, but I was never getting any information from him.

8:27 So, at the same time with PK approached me, PK told me the same thing, listen, let's do this undercover thing. So, I thought, okay, well, I'm in with Chappies, I'm in with PK, but then, you know, the Chappies digging at night it was a pivotal a kind of place in the game for me cuz I that was where I realized like, okay, well, I can wake up and go dig with him or I can utilize it against him and you know, having been the most successful, the most well-known, the most loved, the most experienced player in season 9, what better way to try and blindside someone like this and kick off the season with a bang and open my account for my final speech, you know, so there was so much that went into play, you know, and the Chappies vote going to PK vote, like I said, that's a half an hour conversation just on itself. Yeah. So talk through the Breakfast Club and how you came together with some of those members you didn't know beforehand or I don't know if you knew them beforehand, but I assume you didn't.

9:25 People like Maryanne and Shane who was in that alliance as well. What sort of gravitated you towards both of them and wanting to work with those two in the Breakfast Club? Yeah, so obviously in the post or in my suit, everyone had their coupling, you know, me and Meryl Shane and Marion, Stephy and Jeffy's. so, it was clear to me, you know, like Marion has always been a fan of my of me outside of the game, you know, when it was our season. So, there was this beautiful love that I received from Marion you know, without having even met her which I did I think at our reunion party. But anyway, and then with Shane, it took me a while to kind of settle with him. but there was obviously a lot of off-screen bonding that we did. you know, so although he was very difficult to trust, I knew that as long as he's with Marion, you know, he's a number.

10:21 So, with like with those two with me and Meryl and with Stephy, I just felt like it was a quite a solid alliance to go as deep as possible, you know. So, for me or you know, for So, for the Breakfast Club to stop eating at itself was a difficult thing to kind of grasp, but I yeah, that's the game, I guess. Yeah, it was interesting when you obviously get to the merge, a lot of the Breakfast Club started cannibalizing each other, and we've seen how that's played out throughout the week with more Breakfast Club members leaving one after the other. and you had the advantage going into there. Was there specific promises that you guys gave each other before you went out there for the likes of yourself and say like a Meryl or a Felix to look out for each other? was there something that you sort of wanted to hold them by when you went into the game? Were you shocked that they were willing to sort of turn their back on you so early in the merge?

11:13 So, no. So, the one thing that I'm really against is although, you know, things change, but every any pre-gaming is like for me, it just takes away so much of the game. So, that was the one thing I even with the close the people I was closest with, I didn't even you know, communicate with anyone. So, it was all new to me that first day we got onto the mat and from there on that is the game I wanted to play. So, with Meryl, she came in she came I think the second or third day she told me, "Listen, let's write this trail until merge and then I'm going to cut you." And you know, it was kind of straight that was how I got the message from Meryl. So, it was very clear that we'll be together until merge and then it's all for themselves. with Felix, I knew I didn't have to speak to this guy. He will have my back regardless.

12:03 So, getting to where I got it wasn't surprising that Meryl kind of, you know, did what she did. and again, you know, it's also part of the game. Everyone's playing for 2 million and the title, but I think I would love to believe what we've seen now in the last two episodes with Steffi and Meryl, I do believe Felix had a hand in that due to the fact that I got voted out. So, I would love to believe and I'm looking forward to hearing Felix's take on this, but I do believe that was him kind of going on a mad hunt to hunt down those that got me out of the game too early. It's interesting you mention that because we definitely have seen Felix go from being more of a backseat driver in the post-merge game to taking more of an you know, a front stance when it comes to the direction that votes have gone in and I think that you're right, there was definitely a very much a driven force behind those votes and Felix was very involved with that with the No BS alliance, which is a bit under cover.

13:02 Were you surprised by this No BS alliance or was this something that you could see develop out there between Felix, Phillip and Dino on the island? Yeah, so obviously me and Felix had plenty of conversations. It was very clear. He gave me the breakdown of the inner workings of the three, you know, and the idea was to kind of try and keep our friendship relationship alliance, whatever, kind of in the dark as long as we could and then see how because he really wanted you know for me not to try and go for Phil. For Dino as well seeing that's his trio. But I do believe that you know if it got to a point where he had to choose I would still believe that Felix you know would have gone with me but regardless of the fact you know no hard feelings towards Merrell or Felix. Again we are all there to win the prize and the and the and the and the and the money or the title that goes with it and you know it does sting what you re-watching it but then you know a few days later you kind of get to relax and you realize that perhaps it's the ego that is the one that kind of you know took it to heart.

14:05 I do want to go back to that question I asked earlier because I think it's sort of an appropriate point to bring it back in I don't think I fully got an answer from you and it's okay if you if you want to give it or not I don't know if you're going to be out there anytime soon but you know if you looked at it you played a very proactive game this time very much a driving force in regards to where votes went and a lot of it went your way in the pre-merge part of the game. Last time you didn't necessarily play that aggressive of a game and maybe when it was too late you started sort of upping the ante at the merge but then you didn't have the soldiers to sort of make those moves. Where do you think the balance should be in a perfect game for yourself like where do you think you sort of lost it in this game if you had to dissect your own game? Yeah so you know I do I do come across quite abrasive this season it would seem or rather but you know again that's three days compressed into 45 minutes so there is a lot of me that you know does make a lot of sense with you know where I kind of talk with a clear head but you know looking back now the only thing that I could really pinpoint is I should have gotten my idol to Felix.

15:15 He should have played it for either him or Teresa and then seen you know from that angle would have seen where the game would have taken us. Seamus, you know, Seamus was winking and hugging me from the first day of the challenges. So, I had Seamus kind of, you know, never met this guy, but he gave me a clear indication he's willing to work with me. So, we had this thing going where we were kind of communicating, you know, after challenges just through a hug or whatever the case might be. And so, you know, if Seamus was still in the game, if the idol was played for Felix, I think we could have gotten a different result up until now. you know, Teresa is someone I also, I think I really wanted to work with. And I think someone who like Palessa is individuals who can remove their emotions and vote very logically.

16:10 So, yeah, it would have been great to kind of, you know, how if how to see how that would have panned out. Do you believe that sort of bridge was burned between yourself and Dino because you targeted him so much? So, by the time you got to the merge, there was no way for you to jump ship to the Felix Dino full side of the vote. Do you believe that was just, you know, especially with knowing Meryl was going to cut you at some point? Did you sort of explore that a little bit or was it just there's just no way I can sort of mend this? No, definitely. Dino came to me multiple times, you know, offering his half of his food portions. You know, he came with a whole list of ideas and things that he wanted to run past me. But I just knew that I felt rather that he had a view on the game that perhaps I'm not seeing the whole picture or the clear picture.

17:00 And it would have killed me if I'd given him the trust just to get voted out by the guy who I give all my trust to. And so, I basically decided, as with season 7, I would rather go up against him than be blindsided by the person that I keep warning people about. So, you know, it's rather, you know, voting out being voted out standing than playing the game on my knees. so, yeah, so that's how that panned out. So, obviously, you know, looking back I doubt if Dino, you know, even if we did align to a degree, I doubt if that would have lasted very long until, you know, they turned on me anyway. That's fair. And there was that challenge that everybody was blindfolded on, and I picked up Dino thanking you for not throwing that challenge. Was there ever sort of a consideration to throw a challenge to get Dino out, or was that just something that does not sit with within you? It is about playing hard and playing fair in the game of Survivor.

17:52 Yeah, so what happened was I don't think we mentioned it, but obviously that's it's something that I doubt would have happened. But with the Shona vote, you know, I went to Phil, I went to Dino. I told him exactly what the where the votes are going. and then I think with the vote after with the Palesa vote, I actually went to Phil. I told him, "Listen, this is what we've got in mind. you know, decide for yourself, but you know, let's let's see what we can do and if there's something that we can just at least form a voting block or whatever the case might be. So, obviously, none of those went through. And again, that's why, you know, I tried to, you know, continuously obsess about this the Dino vote, which never went through, but you know, now we look back and now all of the Breakfast Club is gone because of that.

18:46 So, yeah, I don't see the benefit in the in not listening to kind of the proposal that I had in mind. Yeah, it's going to be interesting recap. Obviously, myself, Zoe, and Richard would recap that towards the end of the week. I've got my own strong opinions about the moves that were made by the Breakfast Club this week, but looking at it, you know, if we've got new players coming out there, obviously, this brand we want to continue to build it in South Africa. We want there to be many more seasons now. For season 10 players, the newbies that are going to go out there, what would be your advice for players that were going to go out there and play this game in the future now that you've played two seasons and you're a veteran of this game? you know, I don't think there's a mold, a survivor mold. There's no personality that you can say, you know, what that guy walking down the road, that's the that's the type of guy that will win or gold that will win this person that will win survivor. I think you know, if you are happy with not liv- living under the conditions that we do, you've got half a social game where you kind of, you know, you've got a kind of good read on how people interact, how people communicate, and you know, the physical game is not even that important.

19:49 We've seen that multiple times over, you know, across right across diff- franchises around the world. So, I think, you know, if it's something that you want to tick off, you know, and if you're not a quitter, I think that's the best thing that you can do for yourself, you know, you learn so much about not the game necessarily as well, but about yourself and your limits that yeah, it's a beautiful it's a beautiful environment to take yourself and then elevate your skills. Now, I know this is probably a dumb question to ask, but I always like to ask it and people who listen to these podcasts always want to know. If you were asked to go out there again, would you say yes? I'm assuming it's going to be a yes. If it is a yes, what theme would you like to be on? Would it be a heroes versus villains, a blood versus water, fans versus favorites? What would your all sort of ideal theme be if you were to go back?

20:40 Yeah, you know, it takes a while to kind of decide if you want to go back. After the first season, I said, "Not now." And then after a few months, you said, "Okay, cool. I'm ready." As soon as I got as I got back to this back home after this game, I said, "Okay, I'm done. I played a good game good enough game for me to be content with." But you know, now you wake up. Now you that fire slowly you know, starting up again. So, I think for season 3, firstly, I would love international crossover season, you know, something like a tri-nations, us versus New Zealand versus Australia, or maybe like a world domination, the USA versus Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa as one tribe. or perhaps, you know, something more towards the Australian season where it's a little bit more like a like a Survivor Gladiator to a to a degree, you know, like almost nothing to limited supplies and food, even less than we had this season, much more a physical kind of manifestation of the of the game.

21:43 Less puzzles cuz obviously, you know, this is definitely not my forte. And then, yeah, I think that's something that could be quite cool, you know. I don't know what I kind of just tend to gravitate towards the worst the conditions, the better. You know, I don't know. Maybe that's just the the monkey brain in me. Yeah. what about a rival season, you know, Dante versus Rob Bentele, or Dante versus Chappies season, the battle of the aqua men? Would that be something that you'd be interested in? Yeah, I think that actually fits quite well into the Survivor the Gladiator theme, you know, for all the guys to go out, and then we make it a prerequisite for everyone to wear Speedo, and you know, we can even make a Speedo season, you know, Survivor Speedo. Faf de Klerk. Faf de Klerk as he's one of the captains. For those who don't know, Faf de Klerk is he's a Springbok rugby player, and he's very famous for wearing a Speedo, and he's got long blonde hair like you had in your first season, right?

22:38 Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, so I think there's enough Speedo-wearing guys and girls out there in South Africa to put together a good season, you know. Yeah. lastly, also, just wanted to sort of wanted to know, you know, you had two different places that you played. you had the Pacific Islands that you were out the first time, and this time in your own backyard there in South Africa. Can you talk a little bit about the differences in the conditions there between the two, and you know, which one do you believe was physically more tough to actually survive in? so, Samoa, I think it would be very difficult to top it just due to the fact that we were stuck in a month in the monsoon season. you know, the first week, if I remember correctly, we barely ate anything. We didn't have wood, we didn't have a flint. we didn't sleep. you know, the downpour was just so intense. This time around, and then also, you know, the good thing about the Pacific is the conditions again in the during the daytime when there is a little bit sun, although it's super humid, things dry quick.

23:38 You get to swim and wash yourself more often. This time around, you know, the Sunshine Coast, the water was freezing. I think we had a lot of rain just before the game started, which meant that all the rivers kind of mouth out in the ocean, so the water was very cold. It was very dirty and murky, so we couldn't really spearfish or freedive for that matter, which made things very difficult. It made washing very difficult just for the fact that you need to kind of find a low a low tide pool just to you just to wash yourself. And then, you know, obviously with that, foraging was a little bit more tough or difficult. And overall, no one mentioned this, but if you look at the amount of supplies that we got in the beginning of this game, we there wasn't enough bamboo to build a proper shelter. So, for once, for entire season, we were literally sleeping amongst these black scorpions that people used to wake up and flick off from being overly tired and you know, exhausted that people don't even care about these things anymore.

24:36 So, yeah, so not even having a proper shelter throughout the whole season, sleeping in the in the, you know, in the rooikrans bush, with ticks, you know, is obviously an issue and that's something I experienced after the game, getting a tick fever. so, yeah, like it's different conditions, but the nights in season was just absolutely impossibly cold. And if it wasn't This is something I mentioned to Meryl, I think. If it was not for Shane, no one would have survived this season. And that I think anyone in the season will agree with. Shane literally looked after the cast of season 9 by waking up every half an hour throughout the night to add wood to that fire. I helped as much as I could, but each time I woke up, Shane was up already adding fire to the fire.

25:26 So, if it wasn't for Shane and then just before we finish like this is one thing I mentioned pre-game and there's something I think always comes across so dumb to a degree is someone asked me, "What type of player do you want in the game and what a player do you not want in the game?" And the player that I said I really want this season was someone who just adds a little bit to the camp life because making camp life more comfortable makes a world of a difference for the camp morale, for everyone struggling under the same conditions. And for this season, if there's a crown for someone who looked after 19 people, it's Shane without a doubt. It's interesting you mentioned that cuz I haven't even thought of that because it's such an old-school mindset, right? Because these days everybody is so game body. It's all about going out there, doing the strategy, blindsiding. But Shane is still in the game right now and he's looking after people at camp. So, that's also a little bit of a game strategy in itself and it's great to see that still has a place even in modern-day Survivor.

26:22 Dante, it's been great talking to you here on the podcast. You know, I know you've got a lot of other interviews to do today as well. Thank you very much for joining me today. You're welcome.