‘Survivor 51’: Ana Sani Reveals What Rob Teased About Voting for Himself

We’re two episodes into Survivor 51, and already every single player — save for Lewis Kelly, who was in Exile in the first episode and on the immune tribe in the second — has been to Tribal Council. And both episodes featured a live Tribal that threw the voting process into chaos. Ana Sani, a voice and screen actor from Toronto whose credits include The Boys, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, and more, knew how to make things dramatic for the cameras, using chaos as an agent of control until she lost control.

Ana made strong allies early in the game, telling TV Insider that midwesterner Carter Krull was her closest ally and that they were closer than the episodes revealed. She also aligned herself with Rhode Islander Rob Antonson and fellow Iranian Alexis Levine.

Her scheme to betray Alexis was accidentally revealed when Ana spoke too loudly at camp and was caught plotting. To cover her tracks, she said they were talking about popcorn. They were very clearly not talking about popcorn.

Ana had thrown out Linnea Capobianco and Sharonda Cox’s names as voting options, and even her own name. Once she was caught scheming, the tide turned on her. Still, the Savu tribe seemed to agree to vote out Eric Macksoud, whose only crime was being “annoying,” for most of the pre-Tribal deliberations. Rob, after leading the charge on voting Eric out, concocted a wild scheme to save him instead. Rob would take Eric’s Shot in the Dark, play his immunity idol on Eric so the should-be unanimous vote against him would be void, and then Rob’s singular vote would decide who went home. Shockingly, he wanted it to be him.

Rob voted for himself at first, but you can’t vote for yourself in Survivor, so a producer piped in and made him vote again. Rob, shocked and panicked, realized his “historic” plan was ruined. He voted for Eric, but unbeknownst to him, Sharonda and Linnea flipped the vote onto Ana, leading to her blindside.

Here, Ana breaks down her elimination with TV Insider, revealing that Rob only teased what he did in the voting booth after filming. She shares how she reacted to Rob’s wild move, her breakdown after the popcorn scene that you didn’t see, and a deleted scene where she tried to make amends with Alexis before Tribal. Plus, she shares what the other tribe didn’t know about Brady Booker’s chopped off thumb and her reaction to seeing the severed piece in closeup in the episode.

What was the thought process behind the popcorn?

Ana Sani: No, listen, I’ve been saying this in all the other interviews. If we rewatch it, Carter was the one talking smack about Alexis. Alexis walks in, Carter’s just done talking smack. Alexis is looking at the three of us and the two boys next to me are completely dead silent like crickets. And I’m like, “Guess, it’s on me!” I don’t know. Popcorn was in my head and I just said it and it was really derpy, but I went with it and the boys did not back me up. They completely cut out my crash-out afterward because once she left, I was like, “You two are useless!” They didn’t say anything to help save me in any way. But I mean, it was my bad. Why bring up popcorn? That was me trying to save Carter.

And then the decoy vote, which was the other dumb thing that I did, was me trying to save my… I was hungry, I was tired. And I thought in my brain, I was like, “Guys, this is so obvious. Kristin [Flickinger] has the foot issue. Let’s just put her in.” The moment I said that, everyone’s looking at me like I was a demon. I was like, “Oh, oh, oh, you girl’s in trouble. I have to do something.” And I didn’t know what to do. I was completely spiraling. So, I was like, “OK, yeah, put me in.”

All these things said, how much did you really expect to get votes at Tribal Council? Because you looked blindsided.

I was completely blindsided. What they didn’t show was, I got an inkling from somebody that someone was spreading information that me and Sharonda had beef.

I was like, “Well, the only person that the name Sharonda was brought up was Alexis.” So, I actually pulled Alexis aside and I tried to make amends with her. I was like, “Girl, let’s work together. I really want to work with you. I’m coming to you telling you that I know you’re talking about me, but I still want to work with you, so can we make it work?” Because I was like, “This is probably my only saving grace here.” Because if we watch that clip back of us talking about Sharonda, Alexis was the one who brought up Sharonda, not me. And she just spun it and took that. I was like, “But why? I want to work with you.” And yeah, so I was scrambling.

I was trying to talk to everybody, but it was too late and I didn’t know that. I had also, before going into Tribal, had multiple conversations with Carter and Rob, and I was like, “Are we good guys? Is this happening? Are we good?” And they were like, “We’re good. We’re good. We have the numbers. We’re good. We’re good.” So, I felt confident. I was completely blindsided.

Did anyone have any idea what Rob was planning on his own, his vote for himself?

Not really. He had mentioned to me something about a Shot in the Dark, but not that he wanted to put his own name down. That was never ever mentioned. Watching that, I was completely shook.

Did you learn it in the episode last night?

Well, he said that a big thing happened, but I didn’t know what. So, seeing that I was like, “Wait, what?” And it made sense because he was in there for such a long time, Kelli. I was like, “What are we doing? Are we on the same page or not?” But he came out and he gave me a wink like, “We’re good,” which, in his brain, he thought, “Yeah, Eric’s gone.” But now thinking about it, I’m like, “Dude, if your plan worked, I would’ve still gone home.” Then he would’ve been doubly crossed. So, it was wild.

It’s so confusing. Was he trying to get himself out of the game to save Eric?

I think that was the plan.

Let me sacrifice myself for Eric. Why? It’s a question for him, of course, but it happened in your episode.

Yeah. I don’t know why. I feel like with Rob, he missed his family. He was, I guess, going through some stuff. I think he just really wanted to… I don’t know.

How long was he in the voting booth? Because it only takes a couple of seconds to write down someone’s name and say your line about why you’re doing it.

Yeah, which is why I started to get a little bit nervous. And during Tribal as well, when everyone was talking, I was like, “Oh my gosh, should I play my Shot in the Dark?” I had this deep guttural feeling that something bad was going to happen. If you look at my expression in the episode, I’m looking at my bag because I’m like, “Do I play it?” But I turned to Sharonda when the whole live Tribal was happening and I was like, “Are we good?” And she was like, “We’re good.” And then I went to Carter. Carter and I had a very close relationship, so he was just like, “We’re good. Stop asking me.” And I was like, “OK.”

And you didn’t end up playing your Shot in the Dark, so Sharonda and Carter comforted you into not playing it?

Yeah, and Cristian [Chavez] actually. Cristian leaned over and was like, “You look scared. Are you good?” And I’m like, “Yeah,” but I was scared. I was definitely scared. And then when it all fell apart, I was completely shook because I really thought that I had my friends out there, but they were villainous.

So, you learned about Rob voting for himself watching the episode. Did you learn anything else that you didn’t know while watching the episode last night?

The crab conversation. What the heck was that? Oh gosh. Carter could have phrased that in so many different ways, but also Linnea’s so funny. And especially because she was there for the first time that he brought up the crabs and then he said it again, but then this time she misinterpreted it. I think all of us were just so hungry out there, Kelli. We were all a little bit delusional.

That crab that Cristian caught in the beginning, that was our meal for the whole day shared between the 10 of us. And there were a bunch of people out there who couldn’t eat coconut; it didn’t go down well for them. And also finding fresh coconut and good coconut was difficult. So, I don’t know, I don’t blame anybody for anything. It was really fun. I just wish I was out there longer.

You were really fun to watch, so I wish you were out there longer, too. Hopefully you can come back.

That is very kind. Thank you. At least I’m entertaining for all of my dumb moves.

People think you’re fun. You made an impression in the first two episodes. This cast in general has been very entertaining. The first two episodes were more lively early on than in recent previous seasons. Survivor 50 had a fun start as well, but the Open Era is really hitting.

Oh, I think we’re a fabulous cast, and I love all of them. There’s no bad blood at all. I respect the gameplay. I even respect Alexis doing what she had to do. She saw an opportunity. Maybe she thought she was at the bottom and she was like, “I’ve got to do something about this.” The whole popcorn conversation didn’t help, but yeah, she went after me and it worked. Good on her.

How aware were you of Sharonda’s goal to get you out?

Not super aware of it. I did hear, someone came to me and said, “Oh, people are saying that you and Sharonda have beef.” I had gone to Sharonda and I was like, “People are saying this about us. How do you feel about it?” And she was like, “Isn’t that so weird?” She was lying to my face the whole time she wanted me out, but I find it curious that she didn’t want to properly talk it out with me. She just didn’t trust me, which I mean to her benefit, let’s be honest. I did want to play a more cutthroat game later on if I had gotten further along. Maybe she got that read and was like, “We’ve got to get her out now.”

Is there anything that was cut from these two episodes that you wish fans could have seen other than what you already mentioned?

Did I mention the conversation I had with Alexis?

Yes.

I wish they showed that. And I really wish they showed me and Carter’s bond a little bit more. We were true number ones out there for a long while. He was very close with Rob as well, but Carter and I had a really fun relationship. It was very sibling rivalry kind of thing, which was very fun. We saw a little snippet of it when he was yelling at me about popcorn, but I really loved playing with him. I though it was really great.

I wish [the episodes] could be a three-hour thing. You could see all the conversations and really dissect what happened out there because as much as I looked like I was scrambling, which I was, it was for good reason. It was because I really wanted to get myself out of the hole that I was digging, but Alexis handed me that shovel.

Again, just because it happened in your episode, do you know what happened with the chunk of Brady’s thumb?! How did you learn about the thumb? Did word spread around at camp about the injury after he chopped off his thumb?

No! I learned about the thumb in Ponderosa! I was so shook. I was completely shook. I was like, “What?!” It was crazy. It was absolutely crazy.

 

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Did they put the severed piece in a cooler and reattach it later? I looked back at my footage from the premiere the other week to check if he had two full thumbs in the video. And he does, so it got fixed.

It got fixed. I don’t know. I was just mortified. I can’t believe they showed the thing. I was so shocked by that. Unbelievable.

The blood I could tolerate more than seeing the thumb on the machete.

Than seeing the actual thumb! I’m like, “Is that a nail?! What?!”

I guess so! It looked like he chopped it off the top at an angle.

Unbelievable.

I guess they just reattached it.

I guess so. Honestly, I don’t know. I have no clue, but good for him. That was completely insane. I love that he was like, “My thumb is gone, but can I stay in the game?” Wow. OK, Brady. It respect it.

And I also just want to say before getting off, I want to really shout out my girl, Aaliyah [Puglia, first boot], who really held it down for me in Ponderosa because I was an absolute disastrous mess when I got back. I really wanted to play. I wanted to be out there.

I left a lot of my life behind hoping that this was going to change a lot of things for me and to be ripped out of the game so quickly, and especially because I just wasn’t trusted from the get-go, I was hurt by that. That was very difficult for me. Aaliyah really held it down. I want to give her kudos. She’s a very remarkable woman.

Well, I’m sorry you didn’t get to have more time on the island like you wanted. It was really fun to watch you though, and these episodes have been memorable.

That’s really kind. Thank you. I’m glad I could be entertaining. I feel like in that way, I feel like I did a little bit of my job out there because I want to bring the fun, I wanted to bring some chaos, and I did it even though it wasn’t entirely how I planned it.

Hopefully, you get a second chance.

Oh, I would be there in an instant. I would love that. That’d be awesome.

Survivor, Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS