Kamilla Karthigesu Admits She Was 'So Annoyed' to See Former Castmates Kyle Fraser and Joe Hunter on Season 50 (Exclusive)
Kamilla Karthigesu wants to feel special, but the beaches of Fiji are getting a little crowded with familiar faces.
While most players would be thrilled to have "built-in" allies on a returnee season, the Survivor 48 fan favorite admits she was "so annoyed" to see her season's winner (and her closest ally) Kyle Fraser and castmate Joe Hunter on Survivor 50 with her.
"When I got the call for 50 I was like, 'Oh, I'm so special. I'm the one person from 48 who got the call,'" Karthigesu exclusively told Men's Journal on location. "And then there's three of us out here, so it makes you feel less special. And then Kyle being out here is the worst, because everyone just saw us run around like a week ago."
The software engineer, 31, is very much aware that her "undercover" alliance with Fraser is now public knowledge, and she’s already planning to "throw everyone under the bus" to keep the target off her back. That includes potentially leaning into a "secret" relationship with Hunter that viewers never saw on TV.
"Joe being here is actually good. It depends on whether or not Joe hates me, because I did lie to him multiple times last year in 48," she told MJ. "What people didn't see was me and Joe were actually working pretty close together…people don't know that, and I think we can play up the whole like, 'Oh, Joe hates me,' and maybe I can have a secret alliance with him this time."
Below, Karthigesu breaks down her dream of joining a "cult" led by Benjamin "Coach" Wade and how she's wary of Genevieve Mushaluk because there's only room for "one Canadian puzzle-solving liar" on the beach.
Men’s Journal: So, you have Kyle and Joe out here with you. How are you feeling about that?
Kamilla Karthigesu: I know, I was so annoyed when I saw Kyle out here, because I'm like, well, first of all, I was annoyed when I saw both of them, because when I got the call for 50 I was like, "Oh, I'm so special. I'm the one person from 48 who got the call." And then there's three of us out here, so it makes you feel less special. Then Kyle being out here is the worst, because everyone just saw us run around like a week ago. They just saw the finale. They saw Kyle win. They saw the jury say that they would have voted for me to win. It's pretty bad, but they saw us work together undercover, and I think both of us being here puts a target on both of our backs, which is scary. Joe being here is actually good. It depends on whether or not Joe hates me, because I did lie to him multiple times last year in 48 because what people didn't see was me and Joe were actually working pretty close together. So Joe and I were actually working together, but people don't know that, and I think we can play up the whole like, "Oh, Joe hates me," and maybe I can have a secret alliance with him this time.
Men’s Journal: I saw some theories online that Kyle was maybe downplaying your relationship in exit press to prepare for 50. Do you think he was? Were you?
Kamilla Karthigesu: I didn't actually have time to listen to everyone else's exit press, because there were five of us who did exit press the same day. I know for me, I was definitely downplaying everything on my end, because I knew I was going to 50, and I was afraid that the other people on 50 were going to see my exit and think I'm scary. That was smart, because I didn't want people to know. I saw leaked rumored cast lists, and when I saw Jonathan Young and I saw Joe on it, I'm like, those two are for sure locks. You can't have one big man and no one else.
Men’s Journal: How do you plan to navigate the first few votes and avoid being a target?
Kamilla Karthigesu: So I'll do my tried-and-tested method of just throwing other people under the bus. It works well, because me and Kyle seem scary, but also, there are two people here from 49. Nobody's seen 49; they just wrapped up filming two weeks ago, and now they're here to play, so throw those guys under the bus. There's a bunch of players here who are playing for like, what, their fifth or sixth time? Why are they still here? Throw them under the bus. Angelina [Keeley], Christian [Hubicki], and Mike White all played David vs. Goliath together many years ago, and they've had the opportunity to form relationships outside of the game, and those are stronger than relationships formed inside of the game. They've had a lot of time for those bonds; throw them under the bus. I could throw pretty much everyone under the bus.
Men’s Journal: Are we going to see the same Kamilla or something a little different?
Kamilla Karthigesu: Maybe like that—that is my fallback. But if I have the opportunity to be a bit more creative, we'll see how it goes. We'll see who wants to work with me and play it by ear. I'm a big fan of Coach, and if he reaches out and says he wants to form a little cult together, I'll join him.
Men’s Journal: I would love to see a Kamilla and Coach alliance.
Kamilla Karthigesu: He is my favorite Survivor player of all time.
Men’s Journal: Are you picking up vibes at Ponderosa?
Kamilla Karthigesu: It's possible that this is in my head, but I'm pretty sure—maybe I'm just imagining because I want to see it—but I'm pretty sure Coach has smiled and winked at me a couple of times. The guy from 49 barely smiles. The girl from 49 smiles a lot; we've smiled a bunch at each other. Chrissy [Hofbeck] is just smiling all the time. I like Chrissy.
Men’s Journal: And what do we think about Q [Burdette]?
Kamilla Karthigesu: I don't want to work with Q. Q is actually my third most favorite Survivor player. I enjoy watching him on TV, but I don't want to play with him. I don't want to accidentally say the wrong answer to a question that he asks thinking it's an innocent question, have him think that I'm a threat, and I need to go just because I said—I don't know. I have no idea. He's unpredictable.
Men’s Journal: Who was your second favorite then?
Kamilla Karthigesu: Phillip Sheppard.
Men’s Journal: Who do you want and not want on your starting tribe?
Kamilla Karthigesu: I want Jonathan, because the guy is massive. And I'm pretty sure he swam in college; he's a good swimmer. I might be the weakest swimmer out here, and I've seen that man in 42 throw his tribe across the ocean. I want that to happen again. I would like to be tossed across the ocean by Jonathan. Definitely want him. I don't want Genevieve, because we saw 47 and she was a pretty good liar, it seemed. She also flip-flopped a lot; she would align with someone one day and then go against them the next day, which is scary. I didn't have to play with that on 48. I don't know how to play around that. I'll probably learn how to play around that while I'm out here, but it's scary to have on Day 1. Also, I'm pretty sure she's good at puzzles, and I need to be the one puzzler on the tribe. Keep me around. I don't want someone else who can take my spot. Definitely don't want Kyle.
Men’s Journal: Do you think they're going to split you, Kyle, and Joe?
Kamilla Karthigesu: I think so. There's no way... if anything, they might put me and Joe together, because I have the least perceived connection between the three of us. But there's no way Kyle and Joe are together. There's no way Kyle and I are together. If they put me and Kyle together, they're pretty crazy. They just want one of us to be the first boot.
Men’s Journal: Any of the other old school players that you're excited to work with?
Kamilla Karthigesu: Coach, of course. Ozzy [Lusth], Colby [Donaldson]. I think Colby would be interesting, because something that I wanted for 48 was to get into an alliance with someone who no one would expect that we would be in an alliance together. Initially, that person for me was David [Kinne], but then he started to freak out and stuff, so that didn't work out. But I think Colby is my polar opposite. I don't think we have anything in common at all, and so I don't think people would expect us to be working together. I don't know if he would want to work with me, though. I don't know if he sees the game the same way, but I think we could be useful to each other.
Men’s Journal: What do you think about the winners?
Kamilla Karthigesu: There are two confirmed winners. I'm pretty sure one of the people from 49 also won the game, and I think they're going to have one winner on each tribe. And if anyone from 49 is on a tribe without Dee [Valladares] or Kyle, I'm just going to tell everyone that person won the game.
Men’s Journal: Which one do you think it is?
Kamilla Karthigesu: I think it's Savannah [Louie], because she looks a little more beat up than Rizo [Velovic]. I will say they're not as scratched up as we were coming back from filming. So I wonder if maybe their last couple of challenges weren't as—in my head, I think their last couple of challenges were maybe balance or something where you wouldn't get all banged up. And Savannah is shorter than me, that's crazy, so I think maybe she'd be good at that balancing sort of stuff.
Men’s Journal: We just saw your Survivor journey play out on TV. What was it like watching it back and were you surprised by how popular you were with fans?
Kamilla Karthigesu: I didn't expect that at all. It's funny, because going into it, I was like, "I know I'm going to be hated online because I like to complain." Complaining is one of my favorite pastimes, and so people might think pretty negatively of me as someone who just complains and hates everyone. And also, just how things are on the internet: if you're a woman, you get a lot of hate. You look like me—my skin color—you probably get more hate than other people. And so I expected to get a lot of hate going into this, and then at the end of the season, I was just like, "What on earth is happening?" My Instagram DMs were blowing up. All these people were reaching out, and they all felt inspired by seeing me have all the negative self-talk in the beginning and then being able to reframe it towards the end of the game. I never expected that I would have that impact on so many people. I put this limit on myself before I went out there; I’m like, "I'm going to try and be good representation for brown girls like me." We didn't have much representation growing up, and that was like a limit on myself. I thought only brown girls will really relate, and then so many people relate to me—all genders, all ages, all races. It was crazy.
Men’s Journal: What did your friends and family think?
Kamilla Karthigesu: The only thing was, they were like, "Wow, you spoke like a normal person." I tend to use a lot of gamer lingo when I speak, and I tried to eliminate that because I didn't want people to know I was too weird in the beginning. So they're like, "I can't believe you didn't say 'poggers' the entire time you were there." I know, it was very hard for me! But other than that, they were like, "That's you. The person who is in real life is the same person on TV."
Men’s Journal: How do you prep for a returning player season?
Kamilla Karthigesu: I didn't actually rewatch any of the seasons. I didn't have the patience to sit through 47 seasons of Survivor, maybe 40, because the most recent ones are fresh in my mind. What I did prepare was I went and made fire a bunch. At 11:00 p.m. the night before I flew out, I was in bed and my husband woke me up and he's like, "You need to make fire one last time." So he went out, made fire, and we're all good. Felt a lot better about it. And then fire, did a bit of swimming, but I still feel not great in the water. I feel like I just move slow. And then went back to the gym. I actually didn't stop going to the gym since coming back from 48. I stopped all the cardio, but I kept doing the weights.
Men’s Journal: Anyone you're definitely targeting? Who are you throwing under the bus?
Kamilla Karthigesu: Genevieve. Genevieve. Genevieve. The people from 49 probably, unless they really want to work with me for some reason. We have to feel out the whole tribe first, but I'm leaning towards throwing those people under the bus.
Men’s Journal: So you're targeting the other Canadian on the cast?
Kamilla Karthigesu: Yes. There's only room for one Canadian here. One Canadian puzzle-solving liar. All these people who I say I'm gonna throw under the bus—I'm 100 percent down to work with them as well. It's just if they like me! Like, Genevieve comes up to me...and that's the thing with her, is I can't tell if she's lying or not, which is scary.
Men’s Journal: What about the people from the 30s? They played 39 days—where do you think they go?
Kamilla Karthigesu: I think they're in a really good position, because a lot of them are one-time players. They could be like, "Hey, we're one-time players like you, let's get all the people who played multiple times." They could come towards our end of the Old School versus New School, or they could shift to the other side and be like, "We're not part of the New Era." They're in the middle. They could play it really well.
Men’s Journal: Anyone you wish was out here that you don't see?
Kamilla Karthigesu: Other than Phillip Sheppard? When I got the call, I immediately thought of who I would be excited to play with. The first person that came to mind was Davey Rickenbacker from David versus Goliath. And then I got here, and I'm like, there's three people from David versus Goliath and none of them are Davey. I just really like Davey.
Men’s Journal: If you don't win, what do you hope to get out of this experience? Will you have any regrets?
Kamilla Karthigesu: Even just today, I'm happy because I'm so proud of what I did on 48. Nothing that happens on 50 can take away from that, even if I'm the first boot, which, honestly, first boot in 50 is a huge compliment because it means everyone's scared of you. I don't think I'm going to regret anything out here, as long as I remember I'm playing for me and I'm not playing for a perception that people have of me online. I think there's a lot of people here who might feel like they need to prove to other people why they deserve to be on 50, and then there's going to be the other half of people who are like, "I have this reputation to maintain, and I don't want to tarnish it." If you start thinking about that, it'll cause you to not play the game properly.
The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.