Aubry Bracco played the form of Survivor 50 game you’d expect of a winner for a season defined by the theme of rebirth: Informed by her decade of past gameplay, adaptable and patient, willing and capable of roar to the front of the pack within the competition’s final act. She subtly engineered big moves, just like the blindsiding of legends Ozzy Lusth and Cirie Fields, and rigorously determined — and executed — her ideal final three to return out on top, winning her first season after losing the previous 3 times.
In conversation with The Hollywood Reporter below, lower than 24 hours after she officially won the blockbuster $2 million prize, Bracco admits to feeling “exhausted,” and starts to cry at several points. There’s a sense of tremendous release, as she confirms she’s going to not be playing again — thereby closing the chapter on this epic, tumultuous, very public period of her life. But she also shows up willing to get into all of it: the important thing moments that determined her fate, how she studied to organize herself for her biggest season ever, what the web needed to say about her gameplay, the betting markets apparently spoiling the season months upfront, and so way more.
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Over the past 24 hours, has any theme come up for you in conversations you’ve had with folks that’s surprised you about reactions to your win or your gameplay?
For a whole lot of people, it’s been like a ten 12 months journey — for those folks who were watching Survivor pre-COVID it’s like, “I can’t imagine that’s been 10 years of this.” It seems like a really satisfying cap on my story.
One thing I’ve all the time appreciated about you as a player is that you simply tell your story so beautifully in real time. I believe that’s very hard to do on the market. What was it like to observe it back, seeing that arc unfold as you, yourself, outlined it?
It was wild watching it back. I had different phases of my game. I couldn’t get my footing within the pre-merge. Then I hit the merge and I didn’t really have any strong alliances; I didn’t really have that social equity. I had to start out from scratch, nevertheless it was also a blessing that I used to be starting fresh on the merge when people already had these in-game relationships. There have been phases to it. It was really interesting to observe. Different elements of Survivor: Kaoh Rong, Game Changers or Fringe of Extinction would crop up, and I used to be taking lessons along the best way and attempting to weave them into the experience I used to be having in real time. I used to be so lucky that I’d had the experience of knowing what it seems like to taste the win. Being in a scrappy position and attending to the ultimate five; I needed to scrape for each vote in Game Changers; after which getting blindsided in Fringe of Extinction. I used to be pulling in any respect the threads of my experiences.
How were you assessing the jury during that final tribal council? Were you doing math in your head? I figured Chrissy, Stephenie and Coach were voting for Jonathan — and the remaining of the jury wound up going your way.
Yes, I of course thought Chrissy, Stephenie and possibly Coach, were going for Jonathan before we got there. It’s an enormous reason why I wanted Joe sitting next to me and never Rizo. There was potential that we could split the votes; I didn’t wish to bring that element into it. He played a really Recent Era game. I wasn’t sure where Dee would go. Dee is a badass player and he or she had some more time with Rizo; she had barely any time with me. But during that final tribal, I used to be elated after I saw Ozzy and Tiffany fighting for me. They’d advocate for me. Chrissy and Stephenie would advocate for Jonathan. It was very much a forwards and backwards, and he really was a formidable competitor. Jonathan played an important game, a more overt game than I did, and that jury was tough.
Aubry Bracco and Jeff Probst on Survivor 50.
Robert Voets/CBS
What did you make of that moment where Stephanie made, I’d say, some comments about Jonathan, and Tiffany challenged her to ask a matter.
I forgot that Tiffany asked, “Was that a matter?” (Laughs.) Everybody has their very own criteria for what makes a Survivor winner. Stephenie made hers very clear. I just think that dynamic showed that there was so much occurring at Ponderosa, too.
You made such a robust, emotional final pitch at the top with this very personal story. Did you intend to deliver that in that way?
I used to be so grateful Christian asked for that story. I began my profession as a newspaper reporter. [Starts crying] Sorry, it makes me emotional. I’m a marketer who tells stories. I just sat so long and thought in regards to the undeniable fact that I believed End of Extinction was the top of my run. Once I was called for season 50, I used to be so honored that I believed the conclusion was written to my Survivor book. I’m like, “There’s 751 players. There’s no way they call me.” After which Jeff was willing to have me back and I got to rewrite my story. All of us fantasize about things we’d do in a different way, and I actually got that chance. Christian just served me up the space to carry that space and asked that query.
It still sounds very present for you.
Also, I’m exhausted. And I’ll all the time cry — that’s my thing. (Laughs.) However it’s so present. Once I first began playing season 50, I had such a bodily response. I asked the show’s therapist at one point, “Do other people feel it?” She goes, “Yes, but you might have probably the most bodily response to it.” I just do. And to see the finale, I got to see a lot of the in-between moments — there was extra space for our stories on the screen and I could feel every little thing. I could feel the moment, it felt so like I used to be there, the emotional texture of it, it’s excellent on the surface. Waiting nine months to see this, 10 months, whatever it’s been since July — and it’s all right there.
A very pivotal moment on your game is the Cirie vote-out. Was she as dominant because it looked as if it would us watching until that time?
Cirie was so dominant. I don’t wish to speak for Joe, but Joe said something beautifully in the sport. He was like, “It’s like Cirie is in a garden and hastily there’s a whisper and the whisper is the name, after which the tulips start talking to the daisies and the daisies seek advice from the birds and so they all talk and everybody’s out.” It really had this magic quality to it. She’s magnetic, she’s charismatic, she’s grounded. She fully stood in her power as a player this season. She had just come off of Australian [Survivor]. She was just so strong in every sense of the word. She was the dominant player of the season for sure. I knew before the sport she needed to go.
Had you been interested by it in the times leading as much as that tribal council? Suddenly a chance presents itself very clearly. Because you knew you needed to get her out, where was the extent of panic before that?
I knew before I went on the market — I used to be like, “I would like to play with Cirie until [final] six.” I talked to my sister after I was still in casting, within the running, like, “I’d play it with Cirie to a degree, but then she has to go.” She almost drew dead with the number she had on the board. When Ozzy went … I knew the people I could beat at the top and I couldn’t beat Devins, Cirie and possibly Tiffany. It was a number thing.
How have you ever, over the times that you simply’ve played, learned to balance or navigate personal relationships versus game relationships? It was lovely to see the degree of respect you and Cirie clearly had for one another before, during and after her elimination. However it’s complicated, right?
It truly is. I believed I played a really social game in Kaoh Rong, but I learned that you would be able to get very near people and it will probably be very hurtful. I’ve learned how you can have all different sorts of relationships — my relationship with Cirie, we have now a connection. It’s this intuitive, strong connection, but in the sport, it’s respect. You compartmentalize it. I actually have a lot love for Cirie. I actually have heart relationships, head relationships, intuitive relationships where I’m just on the identical wavelength as people after which there’s just pure game ones I share. [Cirie and I] are built similarly in that we’re capable of compartmentalize it. That’s why I actually have a lot respect for her. She’s an authority at these games and I feel like I understand how she moves and he or she understands how I move.
Aubry Bracco on Survivor 50.
Robert Voets/CBS
I heard you say last night that you simply’d actually been at one point cut from the forged list. Is that right?
Yeah, I used to be never an alternate. I do know the web thinks they know every little thing. But I used to be cut in March. I used to be called back in April.
What was that month in between like?
Once I was told I didn’t make the forged, I felt for the person on the opposite line — I do know them thoroughly and I said, “That is going to be the best call you make today. I understand it’s a business decision and I’m so honored you’d even consider me.” Then I let it go. This isn’t my time. I’ve learned losing Survivor 3 times that sometimes it’s just not your time and it’s so hard to win this game. It’s so hard to get on this game. Then they called me back and it was almost good because I didn’t spend the time interested by it as much. I got a break from considering — I used to be studying and overthinking it, after which it popped up out of nowhere.
What does that studying appear to be exactly?
I did take a break from Survivor after [season] 38, so after I was first called, I began watching newer seasons — I hadn’t watched a bunch of them. When the forged list got here out, I began studying everyone’s exit interviews, determining what their wounds were, what they were going to attempt to undo, what their style was, attempting to determine people’s relationships based on activity online like a stalker (Laughs). There’s a podcast called Game of Roses about The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, and so they speak about how there are different audiences: There’s the lead, there’s the opposite players, there’s production. I made a commitment to myself that if I went on Survivor, I desired to win — and to win, your primary audience must be the players.
So I made a promise to myself: I used to be only going to play for the players. I checked out game theory. There’s a man named Nick Metzler and he was on the show, Got to Get Out. I believe he’s a game designer. He talked so much about different facets of the sport, when you have to be considering moves, when you have to be lying low, what your primary objective is to get to the subsequent phase. It was really helpful for me to zoom out and take a look at the sport that way.
Then my friend Mark Moses, all the time says, “What do you wish? What could get in the best way? How will you get there? How do you hold yourself accountable?” I took ownership of myself. People all the time say a whole lot of Survivor is about luck. I actually have one other friend, Chris Savage, and he all the time says, “The recipe for luck is persistence and the idea that good things can occur.” So I bring up those two examples because yeah, I studied the players, I studied the sport theory, but then I also had these mantras for myself of: If I hit an obstacle, how would I overcome it? How would I hold myself accountable? How would I take into consideration luck within the Recent Era? You’ll be able to complain about luck or you may manage luck to the perfect of your ability. I believe that was certainly one of my strengths.
Did anything in regards to the Recent Era gameplay strike you as you caught up on it?
I voted out Debbie in Kaoh Rong, and he or she was a detailed ally on the time. Plenty of people said, “Why’d you try this? That was too soon.” That was a little bit Recent Era coded, I feel — meaning that the Recent Era doesn’t feel as tight on a regular basis with certain alliances, sometimes. It’s a little bit more fluid. I noticed that you simply needed to be more fluid. You had to maintain the doors open. The board form of resets every move.
Did you are feeling more suited to it?
In a whole lot of ways. It does lend itself to a faster kind of gameplay, which is sweet for me in that it prevents me from overthinking. There’s less downtime in that I’m a lot better at failing fast and pivoting now that I form of have this more entrepreneurial aspect of my personality. It was the precise season for me.
Perhaps an odd query for a winner, but what would you say was your biggest mistake in the sport?
I had really gotten off on the unsuitable foot [at the beginning] on Vatu. If I could return, I probably would’ve made Stephenie feel more comfortable with me. She was form of a really stable player that I saw myself working with, and I believe in my desire to stay open, I didn’t make her feel comfortable.
You mentioned the web earlier. How much were you reading the web because the season was airing?
Oh yeah, I concentrate. I see all of it. It’s okay. I can take all of it. People love me. People hate my face. I’m a flop. It’s nice. You’ll be able to call me whatever you wish at this point. Your 82-year-old mom can leave a voice memo pissed about me. I appreciate the love. I appreciate the not love. Should you’re going to take the great, you’ve got to take the bad. It’s the wild west. It’s super interesting, having people speculate and speak about you such as you’re not even within the room. I learned an extended time ago when Michele and I were going through all that, that folks are going to inform me how I felt and speak about me even when I were dead and wouldn’t care if I had an opinion. When I noticed I didn’t even care or give a shit if I used to be within the room, I just was like, “Whatever. It’s nice. Go have a fight about me.”
Were you aware of the entire betting market situation on Kalshi? You were pegged because the very heavy favorite to win for months, with tens of millions of dollars within the pool.
Yeah, I’m so curious what happened with that and what happens with that in the longer term. It seems so wild. I’d have people sending me that stuff all season and I just could be like, “Okay.” Or, “Oh, interesting.” You see there are articles about Kalshi and your name is in The Recent York Times. It was so strange. What an odd cultural moment for all of us, where my name is the instance and stuff. It’s bizarre. I ponder what’s going to occur with it.
How surprised were you by the actual vote totals?
Oh my gosh. Christian, Emily and Devens were tightlipped. I used to be hoping I’d have them. I didn’t know. I used to be honored and surprised that I had all three of them. (Crying) There’s the emotion again. You wait nine months for this! I didn’t know. Jonathan didn’t know. We’ve talked about it. I feel for Jonathan, I believe he played a very good game and Joe is probably the most wonderful human being ever. So it’s hard. It’s hard to take a seat in the ultimate three. It’s the second time I’ve been there.
Yeah, I can imagine. Was there something about that trio that felt particularly meaningful to you that all of them went in your direction? Obviously you might have a history with Devens on Fringe of Extinction.
I just feel really, really comfortable with them. They’re the nerds. I’m comfortable among the many nerds. Yesterday we were within the green room, we’re all form of the identical height — all of us form of match. It just meant so much to me that they saw my game.
As that is your last time playing, as you say — beyond the win, what does it feel prefer to exit in a season alongside Ozzy, Cirie, and so many others for whom, like yourself, this has been a significant a part of their life for therefore a few years?
It’s amazing. I feel so honored to play with them again. It’s been such an enormous a part of our lives. Ozzy and I talked so much in regards to the personal work we’ve done to grow through the years. Cirie and I get one another and I really like her. She’s wonderful. Her family is wonderful. It’s just so special. It’s very personal.
Follow together with THR‘s Survivor 50 finale coverage here.