Contestant Bruce Perreault chats with EW about exiting 'Survivor 45'.
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00:00 (soft music)
00:02 - All right, Bruce, I think the first question
00:05 we all wanna know is,
00:07 how close were you to playing that immunity idol
00:11 at tribal council?
00:11 They played it out on TV,
00:13 they let us squirm wondering
00:15 what was going through your head.
00:16 - You know, I was very close to playing it.
00:19 You know, and Drew's comments were the ones
00:21 that made me wanna play it the most.
00:23 But, you know, when you're around
00:26 a bunch of sophisticated people
00:27 and they can kinda look you in the eye
00:29 and not tell you the truth,
00:31 you feel this sense of, you know, warmth.
00:35 (laughing)
00:36 And I guess it was ice cold and they were good at it.
00:38 - As I've been watching the past few weeks,
00:40 this Bellow tribe, it just seemed like
00:42 everyone was turning on everyone
00:44 at some point after the merge
00:45 and Reba's just kinda sitting back eating their popcorn.
00:48 So what happened?
00:49 - Yeah, we're the Bellow hot mess tribe,
00:51 which is perfectly fine.
00:52 Listen, we're gonna be known for something,
00:53 we're known for that.
00:54 I think that our conversations about eliminating people
00:58 took place way too early.
00:59 I think it happened like right after we won
01:02 the first challenge, the first immunity,
01:03 we went back to the beach
01:05 and there were conversations about
01:07 who was gonna get voted off.
01:08 And then I think personally,
01:10 it didn't need to happen that early,
01:11 but it did start happening.
01:12 So no gelling in my eyes really took place.
01:16 But in listening and watching everything back,
01:19 there were a couple little alliances that took place,
01:22 but there were too many small alliances
01:24 as opposed to just one really good solid one.
01:26 - Yeah, when I watch Survivor,
01:28 sometimes it feels like I'm watching a horror movie, right?
01:30 'Cause you know things that like the characters don't
01:32 and you're screaming at the TV.
01:33 So, we watch you bring Keturah of all people
01:37 in on your plan to lie about giving your idol to Kelly.
01:41 Why do that at that juncture?
01:43 'Cause even you knew, we saw you say on the show,
01:45 like, "Yeah, she's not feeling me, I can sense this."
01:48 - Yeah, and it's one of those things
01:50 that you take a look back
01:51 and we only get to see so much, we all know that.
01:53 But in my estimation,
01:56 with the conversations that had happened prior to
01:59 with Keturah, I felt as if,
02:02 we were kind of getting our footing
02:04 and establishing something
02:06 that could have very well worked out.
02:08 I did, to kind of jump back to when I had a conversation
02:11 with Jake and I was using my fingers,
02:12 I was doing the math,
02:15 and I wasn't doing it to Jake in a way
02:16 that he wouldn't be able to understand it.
02:18 I was figuring it out myself.
02:19 And I'm like, "This one, this one, this one,
02:20 if we do this."
02:21 Like all those things when he said,
02:23 so talking to Keturah, I really thought that,
02:26 she would have sort of kind of went with the plan
02:28 and did something that I haven't done
02:30 until that point in time was actually look and see
02:34 myself with other people going to the final four.
02:36 Like I never looked further than the day that I was in
02:39 and that was the time that I did it.
02:40 And, you know, that was my downfall, I guess.
02:42 - You had such a unique, well, maybe it's not unique
02:45 'cause everyone I think has highs and lows
02:47 and rollercoaster, but you had some extreme highs
02:49 and maybe some extreme lows.
02:51 What was it like, Bruce, watching the show play back on TV
02:54 and seeing how Keturah really felt about you,
02:57 which obviously was not great?
02:58 - You know, the first two weeks or so, I was like,
03:01 "Oh, yeah, I annoyed Keturah."
03:03 And then all of a sudden it was, you know, week three,
03:06 week four, week five.
03:07 And I'm just like, I'm not even mad at her
03:11 at this point in time.
03:12 I'm just mad at the scenario, mad at the situation.
03:15 And it's like, man, I want my game to be represented
03:18 in a different way.
03:19 And I want Keturah's game to be represented
03:21 in a different way.
03:22 For us to be able to sit there and be tied together,
03:25 Keturah hates Bruce, Bruce has no idea,
03:27 Bruce is a dumbass and gets voted out.
03:28 Like, that's not the arc that I saw it going
03:32 'cause I feel that both of us contributed a lot more
03:35 to the game.
03:35 You know, you're at the mercy of the edit
03:37 and, you know, I guess things happen for a reason.
03:39 She got me.
03:40 (laughing)
03:41 - Well, I mean, it's one thing when someone that you know
03:43 isn't crazy about you also saying those things,
03:45 but, you know, what about when you had to sit there
03:47 and watch Kelly, who you thought was your number one?
03:49 Talk about what a drag you were on her game
03:52 and how annoyed she was, how much she wanted you out.
03:54 You caught wind of that after she was voted out
03:57 and then you watch it play back on TV.
03:58 That, I imagine, was difficult.
04:00 - Yeah, that was very difficult.
04:03 It was very difficult because I've had multiple conversations
04:07 with Kelly outside of the game and things like that.
04:10 And I love who she is and she loves and respects
04:12 who I am as a person outside of the game.
04:14 I'm not everybody's cup of tea.
04:16 I understand that.
04:17 You know, I'm a 70s baby.
04:19 It is what it is.
04:20 But to see it play back on television,
04:24 even after already knowing that it was said,
04:26 to see it back on television, you know,
04:30 I'm not the kind of person that likes to have anybody upset
04:33 with them.
04:34 For me to see that and think that I was potentially
04:37 the thought process of someone's game being dragged down,
04:40 that kind of hurts, you know, but it's something
04:42 that you kind of brush shoulders a little bit
04:44 and you move on and go from there.
04:46 But, you know, Kelly and I are awesome right now.
04:48 We're great.
04:49 Like it was gameplay and that's how I look at it.
04:52 And she has said the same thing on her end as well.
04:55 But, you know, we saw you have a really introspective moment
04:57 out there.
04:57 So I want to dig into that a little bit.
04:59 You get voted out, you go to Ponderosa.
05:01 Obviously, Kelly's there.
05:02 And I know you, Bruce, I'm sure it's on your mind.
05:04 And you want to talk to her about this in a game sense,
05:07 but probably even more so in a personal sense.
05:09 So what was that like when you got to Ponderosa
05:11 and got a chance to chat with her?
05:13 Ponderosa was tough.
05:14 Ponderosa was tough because, you know,
05:16 Kelly was just voted off a couple of days before me.
05:19 And so was Caleb and so was Kendra.
05:21 And everybody's emotions are very high.
05:24 And especially with Kelly, she felt some kind of way.
05:28 And I remember saying something to her and being like,
05:32 "Yo, I'm sorry that this happened the way that it happened."
05:35 And she was very, very receptive to it.
05:38 But that's really all that you can do at this point in time
05:42 is just kind of talk about the elephant in the room and run.
05:46 But as far as for the Ponderosa experience overall,
05:49 you know, for myself, it wasn't kind of what I thought it was going to be
05:52 because at that point in time, it was led on to me that,
05:54 you know, no one was willing to work with me.
05:57 So now taking a look at the show last night and the,
06:01 "Yeah!"
06:02 And the clap, clap, clap, Bruce is gone.
06:05 It's like, it's two sides of the coin.
06:07 It's like, you feel good that people looked at you
06:11 as much as a threat to want to vote you out
06:13 and they're happy that you're gone.
06:15 But then it's also like, "Okay, so what part of that
06:18 is we just want Bruce the hell out of here?"
06:22 As opposed to it being gameplay.
06:24 So you kind of think about those things
06:25 and that kind of carried into Ponderosa as well.
06:27 And then with the conversations that were had after the game.
06:30 So it was interesting.
06:32 Well, and we have an exclusive deleted scene that just went up on EW
06:36 where before the challenge where Austin is saying,
06:40 to your point, the threat level, Bruce, where Austin is going on.
06:43 I'm like, "God, I don't know if I can beat this guy.
06:45 This guy is like all the training.
06:46 He's really good.
06:47 He's like, he's worked hard.
06:49 He's mentally strong."
06:50 So that definitely was a big part of that clapping, I think, Bruce.
06:54 You had that really introspective moment
06:57 after you found out about Kelly,
06:59 you know, what she had said about you,
07:00 where you said, "Hey, I got to ask my daughter.
07:03 Is this the way I talk to her?
07:04 I might have to make some changes."
07:05 Did you ever have that conversation with your family?
07:08 And if so, how did that go?
07:09 You know, it's, the conversation was not had.
07:13 But what was had was when I came home,
07:17 there were, there was a different level of conversation,
07:22 meaning that I actively made sure that
07:25 I was listening more than I wanted to talk.
07:27 You know, I say it all the time,
07:29 two ears, one mouth, which one wins?
07:31 The two ears, you know,
07:33 and I actively kind of put that into play as much as I could.
07:38 You know, you can't change, you know, a tiger's stripes.
07:41 It just kind of is what is, we can adjust as necessary.
07:44 And I think that I did do that
07:46 because my daughter and I have never been closer.
07:48 She's away in college right now.
07:50 She calls me every single day.
07:51 She called me last night.
07:52 She was crying because I was not on any longer.
07:55 And you know, that was, that's just kind of a
07:58 a little bit of a testament to the relationship
08:00 that she and I have.
08:01 So as much as in that moment, I was like,
08:04 "Yes, I got to go back and I got to talk to my daughter
08:06 and I got to have this conversation with her."
08:08 I knew that all that I really needed to do
08:11 was kind of check myself and not bring that up
08:15 because if I know my daughter's gonna ask me
08:17 a ton of questions in regards to why I'm asking all this.
08:19 But just change myself in the way that I look at how I,
08:23 you know, converse it with my daughter, with my wife
08:25 and with friends in general.
08:26 You know, it was funny to come back and see my friends
08:30 and just the amount of active listening that I was doing
08:33 with my daughter, with my friends
08:35 and everybody else around me was kind of eye-opening.
08:38 People should do it more often.
08:39 I'll tell you, my daughter's a college
08:40 and she definitely does not call me every day.
08:42 So I don't know what secret sauce you got going on there.
08:45 That's just not the way it works in my household.
08:47 Let's get to the good stuff.
08:49 You won two immunities back to back, Bruce.
08:52 Your two season survivor experience,
08:55 is that the height of your experience?
08:57 I have to imagine that's an incredible feeling
08:58 and to do it back to back.
09:00 Yeah, that was truly an incredible feeling.
09:03 You know, I got so many amazing messages.
09:07 You know, messages of inspiration from people,
09:09 messages just from people saying "Bruce, you kicked ass".
09:12 Like this, the highs that came with that
09:15 were absolutely amazing.
09:17 And it just put more into that bucket of stuff
09:20 that I wanted to get from Survivor,
09:22 from watching the show from day one,
09:24 from actually episode three.
09:26 But from watching so early and seeing that,
09:29 saying "Hell, I can do that.
09:30 Like, yeah, I can. I definitely can do that.
09:32 Should I ever play again,
09:33 I'll still be able to bring the same tenacity
09:35 by really challenging me like that.
09:36 The only thing I'd have to do
09:37 is just kind of change the way that I maybe speak
09:40 or how demanding I am with people.
09:43 But yeah, this has been a great,
09:45 great check marks off of the bucket list of Survivor.
09:48 I remember we talked before the game started
09:50 and you said, "Look, I'm just going to try
09:52 and be crazy Uncle Bruce."
09:54 And we saw that it seemed like you were 87% wackier
09:57 anytime you stepped on a boat.
09:59 Just weird things were happening with Bruce on a boat.
10:02 But tell me about trying to sort of like do that
10:04 and tone down some of the leadership stuff,
10:07 which at least from the edit seemed like
10:09 you just couldn't help yourself
10:11 because that's who you are, wanting to lead.
10:13 All right. So here's what I'm going to do.
10:14 I'm going to blow it. I'm editing.
10:15 I'm sorry. I'm going to blow you up real quick.
10:17 There were a lot of times that we sat there
10:20 and we would be, even on day one, walking up
10:22 and there were questions that were being asked of me.
10:25 Those are questions. I'm answering questions.
10:27 Well, you know, when you got a pair of scissors
10:29 and you can cut stuff, cut the tape
10:31 or digitally hit the button, press pause,
10:34 you know, edit.
10:34 All of this stuff is really, you know, I'm a dad.
10:38 I understand it. I get the dad in it.
10:40 Like as much as I tried to be crazy,
10:42 I could work, which I did as much as humanly possible.
10:45 Even when I was starving, I just wanted to have a good time.
10:47 The edit did chop it up and show that I, you know,
10:51 that I was do this, pull this here, take that down.
10:53 La la la.
10:54 When I talked to Caleb that day,
10:55 I remember very vividly saying to Caleb,
10:59 yo, we need more firewood.
11:00 We can talk about it and be about it
11:01 because that's all that everyone wanted to do.
11:03 They wanted to sit and talk.
11:04 Well, we're going to go get the firewood.
11:05 I'm like, yo, talk about it, be about it.
11:07 Like just go get the firewood, you know?
11:09 And that was probably the biggest snap that I had,
11:13 by the way, it was like dad coming out
11:15 because I really wanted to ensure
11:17 we had fire for the evening.
11:19 So that was that.
11:21 So much, Bruce, as you're just kind of alluded,
11:24 doesn't make it to a TV
11:26 just because there's not enough time.
11:28 What's something that happened out there
11:29 that we didn't get to see
11:30 that you wish had made it to TV?
11:32 Could be something very specific,
11:33 a specific incident or event,
11:35 or it could just be sort of generally
11:36 what's something you wish had made it?
11:38 Everybody calls it a hot take.
11:39 I don't know what the hell that means.
11:41 But what I wish would have made it
11:44 was at least the ability for Katara
11:46 and I to have a good conversation.
11:47 We talked about things.
11:49 Her edit showed what it showed.
11:52 And I've actually had conversations
11:53 with Katara since.
11:55 And she and I are working to an awesome place.
11:58 But I just wish that,
12:00 I wish that they would have showed
12:01 a little bit more of us
12:02 conversating in camp.
12:04 And it wasn't always knives out,
12:06 you know, for Bruce from Katara.
12:08 You know, there was more to it than that.
12:10 And, you know, just the relationship in general
12:13 with myself and the teams
12:15 and the way that we work together.
12:16 And, you know, they turned
12:18 and looked at me a little bit
12:19 because they know I'm a coach.
12:20 They know that's what I've done.
12:21 So what are we going to do?
12:23 So I put great input,
12:24 just like everybody else.
12:25 I put great input in on that.
12:26 So I wish I would have shown that as well.
12:27 So those two things,
12:28 just kind of the way that we work together,
12:30 because we didn't lose challenges.
12:32 We didn't.
12:32 And when we came in second,
12:33 when we were three tribes,
12:35 we were damn close to getting first
12:37 because we worked pretty well together.
12:39 Just so happens that a couple of small details.
12:42 And now we take second.
12:43 Oh, well, not going to tribal.
12:44 - You had such a rough go the first time
12:46 because you were played for five minutes
12:48 and you had to live with that.
12:50 And there's the helmet to protect yourself.
12:52 But you had to live with that what if,
12:53 but at the same time,
12:54 everyone loved you, right?
12:55 Everyone's throwing you flowers,
12:56 poor Bruce.
12:57 Now you get a more typical survivor experience,
12:59 but you see that it,
13:01 a typical survivor experience can be mixed
13:02 as you found out.
13:04 So how are you now sort of mentally
13:06 after this one compared to the first one?
13:08 - I like to keep them both in two separate brackets.
13:10 There's an ego that comes along with it,
13:12 you know, and everybody has one.
13:15 And it was great to have the ego of everybody loves me.
13:17 Everybody loves me.
13:18 And it was great to have the ego.
13:19 You know, everybody hates me
13:21 because I enjoy being hated on.
13:23 I really do.
13:23 Because what that does,
13:25 it gives a little bit of fuel towards something,
13:27 whether it be to wake up in the morning,
13:28 whether it be to, you know,
13:28 put a little extra effort towards a workout,
13:30 whatever happened, like I appreciate that.
13:33 And when I was fighting at any moment in time to,
13:36 you know, for the immunities that I want,
13:37 even when I was going up against Austin,
13:40 you know,
13:41 he was the reason why I was fighting so hard.
13:43 It wasn't anybody else.
13:44 Like I wanted to go fight against him
13:46 to want to show that I'm 40,
13:47 at that time, 46 years old.
13:49 He's in his late twenties,
13:50 bigger than I am,
13:51 stronger than I am physically.
13:53 But mentally I felt that I had a little bit more.
13:55 Only thing I lost was because those pinkies,
13:57 my pinkies fell asleep and I just couldn't feel a thing.
14:00 So that's why I fell off.
14:00 But like I said,
14:01 it's the ego that goes along with it on either side,
14:04 on a good way or a bad way.
14:05 The way that I took,
14:06 what I took away from it all is that
14:08 for season one,
14:09 I got all the well wishes,
14:10 things like that,
14:11 because people were people,
14:12 they were genuine.
14:13 There were some idiots that were out there,
14:14 but whatever,
14:15 but majority,
14:16 99% of the people were concerned
14:17 in regards to my health as a human being.
14:19 Now they're looking at a character.
14:21 There's something about this character
14:23 that they saw on television
14:24 that they did not appreciate.
14:25 They did not understand.
14:26 So you get some hate from that.
14:27 But I'm telling you again,
14:29 majority of the people that I spoke to,
14:31 the majority of the things that I read,
14:32 I was just all positive and they're all like,
14:34 "Go get them."
14:34 So I had some fun with it.
14:38 [BLANK_AUDIO]