Castaway Interview: Marcus Lehman

Subject: Castaway Interview: Marcus Lehman Mon Nov 10, 2008 12:56 am

By Gordon Holmes
Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:00:37 GMT

Poor Marcus went from the leader of the most powerful alliance to the first member of the jury in one episode. We had a chance to talk with the latest “Survivor” castaway about his relationship with Charlie, Dan’s negative comments from last week, and last night’s twist…

Gordon: Seems like you had a rough night, what happened out there?
Marcus: They had a pretty accurate display of the major points that happened over those couple of days, and just reliving being around a group of people who kind of didn’t get it in a sense of what we were trying to accomplish. It was just unfortunate, the way they put that twist in really made it tough to be successful in the strategy that we’d work so hard in the last 14 days to put together. You know, it sucks.

Gordon: It seems like people are in one of two camps. The one being, it’s a TV show and we want it to be interesting, so here’s a twist. The other being, it’s still a game and changing the rules mid-game leaves too much up to chance.
Marcus: One of the analogies I’ve made to the situation is let’s say the Gators, I’m a Florida fan obviously, let’s say the Gators are up 21 to 7 in the third quarter and then they’re like, “Why don’t we switch the score so the Gators are down 21 to 7.” You can still win the game, right?

Gordon: I guess you kind of feel cheated for caring about the beginning stages of the game if they can switch it up so easily. It just doesn’t work for me.
Marcus: I sort of feel the same way, and it’s not because it was me, or if it had been Charlie that went out or someone else, it would have been the principle of it.

Gordon: After the first episode, my pick was Jacquie. She was in a strong alliance, she was smart, athletic, quiet. Then there’s a shake-up and she’s gone. I worry that they run the danger that viewers are going to be attached to a player who’s playing a strong game, then have them not earn their dismissal from the game.
Marcus: I think the group of people I was with like Jacquie and Charlie and Corinne and Randy and Bob were excited for success because my success was their success and their success was my success. And it just grew on itself and that's why we had such a good run. And you can have a deus ex machina come in and blow the whole plan. That’s kind of what happened in my instance, and you can shake your head at it, but in the end, I think that’s how real life works.

Gordon: The one thing that did throw me last night was how quickly you gravitated toward Crystal. Was that accurately portrayed in the show?
Marcus: I got along with Kenny and Crystal. The funny thing is Kenny and I watch the same…I’m such a dork…I watch anime. I call myself cultured because I try to experience lots of different things. I had a lot in common with Kenny and I had a lot in common in Crystal. You’ve got to understand, the guy they talked about in the show, there are two people that I consider family in Atlanta, this guy is one of them.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Marcus is talking about Crystal’s cousin, Kenny.

Marcus: This guy, we lifted weights together this whole time, if you said you need to have him at the gym at 4:30 in the morning, he was there. This guy is a rock. And I really felt like blood is thicker than water. And Susie had been backing off of promises left and right. She was completely…well…she’s Susie. And I felt like we really needed something else to make this work.

Gordon: How’d you feel when Crystal turned on you?
Marcus: It’s one of those things where you feel like you have this common bond. It is meaningful and for someone to take advantage of something like that...and for what? A couple extra thousand dollars even, or the million dollars? I just shake my head at something like that, I’d rather go home and not lose that part of myself.

Gordon: You compared your strategy to an onion, with different people inhabiting different layers. And we’ve had fun with that, calling it the Shrek Alliances, the Shrekers, the Shrekies…
Marcus: You cut me deep, Shrek. You cut me real deep.
Gordon: We had Marcus Mark and the Onion Bunch.
Marcus: That was a good one, I give you props for that.
Gordon: Which one do you prefer that we run with in the future?
Marcus: The funny thing is that me, Charlie, and Corinne started calling ourselves “Menage A Kota.”

Gordon: I talked to Dan last week after his booting, and he seemed to hold a lot of ill will toward Corinne and even a little bit toward you. I never got a sense of that from the show. Was something lost in the editing?
Marcus: Unfortunately for Dan a lot was lost in the editing. Dan’s a great guy, I hope the best for him. I think he’s very far along the path of beginning to appreciate himself. I think he’s got a bit of a way to go. And I wish only the best for him. The unfortunate thing you didn’t see was how the first couple of days I was rooting for him, I’ve been on a similar path, I lost my sister a couple of years ago, and a lot of those things have happened in my life. And, you’ve got to figure out where your interrnal power comes from. And I think he’s doing it. But it seems like he has a lot of blame for other people for certain things. Let’s be honest here, I hate to say it but to be a young, athletic, good-looking, intelligent guy and get yourself voted off before Susie, you have to be very hard to be around. And I’m just throwing that out there, it’s not to be rude or anything, but that’s honestly the reality.

Gordon: When we met in Gabon, you said the three things you learn in medical school are not to smoke, use sunscreen, and stay out of Africa. Would you add anything to that now?
Marcus: I’d actually scratch off the Africa part now, I still agree about not smoking. But, make sure when you’re in Africa to live up every moment. And when I walked off that show, I started the next part of the show which is the Ponderosa, and I had an absolute blast there.

Gordon: How’d you feel when you saw Ken’s “Mark-Ace” vote?
Marcus: One of the things about people who are intimidated by people who are going out and trying to do their best and being successful about things, they say a lot of things in the hopes that they’ll suddenly become true if they say it enough. Honestly, I think Ace and I were both trying hard in the game, which is something I commend Ace for, he never gave up. But, I think we’re night and day as far as personalities and our strategies for being leaders. He wrote “Mark-Ace” trying to be clever, but nobody’s going to be fooled by that attitude.

Gordon: A lot of times on television, whenever there’s a gay and straight dynamic, it seems like the writers want to milk comedy from it, make is seem like the straight guy feels awkward. It was great to see that they let you and Charlie just be buddies without resorting to tired jokes.
Marcus: I really appreciate you asking that question, because obviously with the election in California and my home state of Florida, people obviously have a lot of things to still move on from. One of the cool things about Charlie and I, like you said, is we were friends. It’s definitely a unique circumstance in that it’s not the most common thing in the world, and people approach you with a bit of trepidation. We just hit it off, we have a lot in common, he’s an amazing guy. I appreciate him being out there and the support we were able to give each other. It was a little disappointing to see that we’re just going to make this into kind of a slapstick relationship. But at least they threw us a little bit of a bone in that first episode and made people aware that it wasn’t just that. I think you have that choice as a show to push that limit and show that you can have a mature relationship between a gay guy and a straight guy and have that be a really cool experience. People may think differently about some of those things we’re voting on now.

Gordon: I was thinking you two would make a great team on “The Amazing Race.”
Marcus: If you could hook me up with that, Charlie and I would have the most hilarious time ever.
Gordon: Cause they’ve done the old war heroes and the divorcees, but they’ve never done a gay male and a straight male.
Marcus: Exactly, I don’t know if you caught my air guitar last night…
Gordon: I did, and I was a little embarrassed for you.
Marcus: It was awesome. That was the show that was Kota most of the time. All that serious stuff? That’s not how it was. Charlie and I were having a blast the whole time. I would love to gallivant around the world and continue to have fun.

Gordon: What do you take away from your time on the show?
Marcus: It was a blast, I definitely recommend it to everyone. I’m so privileged to get to experience that. It was humbling and just amazing. I had a great time, and I hope everyone’s enjoyed watching it so far.

LFU Beginner Number of posts : 43 Registration date : 2008-09-13

OH Marcus get over yourself! I'm so glad he is gone.

Subject: Re: Castaway Interview: Marcus Lehman Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:29 am

LOL kate tell us how you really feel?

Subject: Re: Castaway Interview: Marcus Lehman Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:30 am

I am with kate, Marcus comes of as he is better then everyone else, TEAM CRYSTAL AND KENNY!

Subject: Re: Castaway Interview: Marcus Lehman Tue Nov 11, 2008 10:57 pm

Do I have to repeat my shallow ass comment here as well? Man, cuteness really doesn't go far with you guys.

» Castaway Interview: Crystal Cox
» Castaway Interview: Randy Bailey
» Castaway Interview: Corinne Kaplan
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» Castaway Interview: Charlie Herschel