‘Survivor 43’: Nneka Talks Struggling in That Challenge, Bonding With Cody, and More
Not everyone is great at challenges on Survivor 43. But hopefully their social games make up for it. Showbiz Cheat Sheet talked to Nneka Ejere about her struggle with puzzles and being Cody Assenmacher’s ally on Zoom on Oct. 6.
[SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers ahead for the Survivor 43 Episode 3.]
Nneka talks about keeping the tribe strong strategy on ‘Survivor 43’
Q: How did you feel watching the first episode where Morriah was sent home to keep your tribe strong, knowing your experience was coming up not too long after?
Nneka: I mean, it was first of all, it’s a very weird feeling watching yourself on TV. You know, I was surprised overall at it, even when I knew what happened. I was surprised overall at how emotional that made me. Like that was a shocker. But it was not like a surprise. The whole keeping the tribe strong was not like it was not a surprise to hear because it’s a conversation that keeps going on, you know, in the tribe, you know, even when we went for our first tribal council, that was their argument. Hey, what’s the move here? How do we keep the tribe strong?
Q: Why was it surprising? I think you said it for you when it comes to Morriah. Because I think I think a lot of fans were like she actually did pretty well with that in that. So what was the line of thinking there? I’m wondering from you as another Black woman in this experience that also watch it? What was your line of thinking?
Nneka: No one exactly was saying, ‘Hey, did she do well in the challenges?’ I thought that she did well in the challenges. She did well, you know, like encouraging and keeping her tribe morale high. So, like, where do we start defining strength? Is strength only physical? There are all kinds of strengths. And I feel like she demonstrated different kinds of strengths.
You know, do I also understand that many times when that term is used is referring to physical strength? You know, I get that. And maybe that’s something that we need to all kind of go back and explore further. But I would say just, you know, being like saying I was surprised that my emotional reaction is, first of all, like, it’s a weird feeling being on TV, you kind of just see it play out. I did not see that part. It was it was my first time watching it. I would say just seeing it play out and, you know, it just hit me, you know, differently. But yes, in some ways I get it. In some ways I don’t agree.
Nneka admits her performance in that challenge was ‘worse on screen’
Q: How did you feel watching your performance back in last week’s challenge?
Nneka: Last week’s challenge, that was hard to watch. Oh, goodness. I personally knew I sucked at that challenge, but I think that it was even worse on screen. But it was, you know, just we were coming from a place of where we had just been depleted strength and energy wise, I’m still proud of like what I did in that challenge.
I learned to swim to come on Survivor, you know, me jumping off a platform. The very first time I ever did that was day before I left for Survivor. So jumping off into the ocean, swimming into a cage. Yet now I’m like, while yes from a performance physical standpoint, I was behind my tribe. I’m still very proud of that because, you know, I did like things I had never done before and got through.
How Nneka and Cody’s relationship formed
Q: I think one way that you could definitely be proud of is your social game. So you were on you were in trouble basically last week. And what saved you was your social game. Cody was like ‘Her performance was atrocious. She’s one of us.’ I wanna know how your relationship with Cody formed first of all. Because what he said that I was like, ‘What?’
Nneka: I think we’re very different people on paper. In terms of how we live our life, but we’re very similar on paper in terms of how well we want to live life. You know, I believe life should be lived well, and Cody lives it wild. I believe I live it strong, you know.
So it depends on how we choose to define that. But, you know, we come together in this tribe with people you have no idea where they’re coming from. But there are commonalities and just things that attract you and cause you to bring that build those strong bonds. So, you know, Cody and I, we–I loved how just Cody was a party from when he wakes up in the morning. Like on a good day, that’s me. You know, like that was–we definitely clicked on that.
He was closest to me in age and the tribe as well. And then, you know, he was a hard worker like, you know, trying to get from a camp life standpoint, getting things going and keeping things going, you know, running well. You know, we got to do a whole lot together. And I would say we’re also like morning people.
I was kind of got up early, you know, go on the beach, kind of have, you know, just a quiet time. And, you know, Cody will also like was always like on the other side of the beach, kind of doing his own thing. Like he was a very contemplated person at that time. And then we always like had a lot more of the conversations like afterward. So that was kind of how that built and went on there. But is also play easy to see the other relationships that kind of paired off, and you want to look at yourself and be like you–you want to build these relationships from day one. You know, make this notes and start working on it. And that was something that happened.
Like it was easy to see that the girls had clicked off. I was not going to try to break down that door, especially if there are locks on it, you know, why wouldn’t I go through the open doors that were available and maximize the heck out of it?
Q: You seemed pretty certain that you were going home once you returned to camp after that next challenge. But did you try to put up any kind of fight?
Nneka: So after the challenge, like I was, you know, and, you know, that’s kind of watching it. Is it a personality flaw in the game of Survivor? Yes. You don’t come and take full accountability like that. You know, everybody tries to shift blame to someone else.
But in real life, you know, is that a personality trait or strength as far as accountability? It’s a value in real life. You know, and that was it showing for there, you know, to say, ‘Dang it, I, I really felt bad because I felt like I let my tribe down, and I could see why that would be the response from the tribe.’
Now, you know, at the time Noel was away on the journey, you know, the consensus was the tribe was like, Hey, we’re sending Noel home. And everybody I remember, you know, sitting back to think, ‘OK, this is too easy, but why fight it?’ Like, you know, you don’t want to go, and your tribe tells you, ‘OK, yes, you’re doing this now.’ You don’t want to go. You know, as much as I didn’t want to come back and question loyalties again, they had shown themselves true. I was like, OK, fine, let’s go with it. Even though I knew there was a nagging doubt in my mind that this is not right.
This interview has been condensed for this article.
Other Exit Interviews:
‘Survivor 43’: Justine Says ‘Hats off!’ to Cody for Clever Idol Hat, Shares What the Edit Left Out
Morriah on Disappointing the Dad of ‘Survivor 43’ and Not Believing Gabler
