‘Survivor 50’ Angelina Keeley calls ‘lack of female representation’ on Survivor 50 an ‘abysmal shame’

It has been a rough two weeks for Goliaths. And at the hands of a David, no less. Last week on Survivor 50, Mike White was dispatched by his former and current castmate Christian Hubicki. But Christian was not done with his Goliath bloodbath, eliminating Angelina Keeley on this week’s episode.

It marked the end of a surprisingly silent run from one of the franchise’s most boisterous personalities. Angelina was almost immediately on the outs of her original Vatu tribe, and although things appeared to be looking up once she reunited with her David vs. Goliath castmates, Christian was intent on taking out his would-be allies.

Not only was Angelina never in a position of power in the game, but she was not really in a position of power when it came to the edit either. A negotiating attempt with Jeff Probst after the first immunity challenge never made it to air, and there were no other breakout moments from the fan favorite. Even her final episode was relatively muted, as most of the new Vatu footage revolved around Ozzy Lusth and Christian.

So what didn’t we see about Angelina’s game? Does she take her vote-out by Christian as personally as Mike did? And why didn’t we see more of her? We asked Angelina all that and you better believe she did not hold back when it came to her thoughts on how women are being edited this season. You can now watch or read the entire interview below.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I feel like we didn’t hear a lot from you last night, which we’ll get into, so I wanna get the scoop on what was going down in that camp. I know Ozzy had wanted you out at the previous vote, but was there ever any talk between the two of you on possibly working together after you were both blindsided by the Mike vote?

ANGELINA KEELEY: Absolutely. And that was actually part of what was not shown amongst many other things. But yes, I talked to Ozzy a lot, and despite him writing my name down and everything like that, I was totally willing to work with him still. I don’t give myself a lot of kudos in the game because I don’t think I’m a great Survivor player, but I do think I’m very flexible and I’m very forgiving. And I think that lends itself well in terms of getting further in the game. It didn’t this time.

So I was trying to work with Ozzy. I think he made a mistake last night. I think that it would’ve been so epic for us to get Christian out while he had his Shot in the Dark. And I think he didn’t take the swing, and I think he’s gonna regret it.

What was Christian’s pitch to you after the Mike vote to make you think he wasn’t coming for you next and how did you decide to handle that situation?

Basically, his reasoning for the blindside against Mike was that he felt like it was hurting all of our games to have three of us in the game. And he tried to say, “Mike’s a really good player and we have close relationships with him. And so by getting him out, it kind of clears the way for us to move forward.” Because Christian and I aren’t as linked. We never have been, right?

For people who recall from David vs. Goliath, I was the very first and the most vocal voice on the merge tribe saying, “Christian, he’s gotta go. What are we doing?” Everyone was bewitched by him. And I was not. And so I think that’s the origin story of the beef with me and Christian — and it all comes from love, that piece does, because I just was like, “He’s so magnetic.” He was so magnetic then. I’m not quite sure about what’s going on this season, but that was the origin story. I was trying to get him out.

The Goliaths finally came on board when Mike said, “Hey, we should get Christian out. ” And eventually we did. And so look, Christian owes me no favors. I was not betrayed by Christian, and the writing was on the wall for me last night. But I will say the reason that Christian was able to give me any semblance of a rationale was that it was too dangerous to have the three of us in a game. We’re too connected. Mike’s too loved. Mike’s too good at the game. And so I was like: Alright, I gotta keep on keeping on and find some sort of path forward. And so I thought my path forward was with Christian and Emily.

But it wasn’t because of Christian. It was actually because of Emily. And I think Emily is not getting enough credit at all by this edit either. I mean, this season is just like, what’s going on? Emily was the smartest person on that beach. She was the best player on that beach. Christian who? Mike who? Emily is amazing. She can lie like no one’s business. Literally, the woman should work for the CIA.

I was convinced she was with me. It was incredible. I’ve never seen a player like that before. And you know what, too? I still like her. We were sitting together at the premiere. She was really fun to play with. I was super down to play with her. She gained my trust. I really thought she was with me and I felt like of all the options there, I was like, “I would ride with Emily.” So Emily was really sitting pretty between her relationship with Ozzy, Christian, me. Emily’s brilliant. She’s not given the credit that she deserves.

 Mike told me last week he feels like he overestimated his friendship with Christian, so he clearly took it personally. Did you take it personally the way he targeted both you and Mike?

I do not take my vote out personally. I think what was done to Mike is how you take an enemy out, it’s not how you take a friend out. I also think that the move was made too soon. I think we were all of the mindset that, like, you know, let’s let this last while it can last. Let’s have a little fun. Let’s have a little joint success potentially.

And I think we all knew it is not gonna be forever, but at least let’s help each other get to the merge. At least let’s help each other and not be embarrassed about our second go around out here and let’s have fun, right? And I think that we are getting a very different version of Christian this time around. And I think some of us showed up for the better and some of us showed up for the worst.

Well, look, you were on the beach with him for both seasons. You say we’re getting a different version of Christian. We’re just seeing the edit. You’re out there with him. Tell me the version we’re getting this time as opposed to last time.  

You’re seeing some of it too. I mean, he’s interrupting people constantly. He has to have the last word on everything. Someone mentioned that we’re all the heroes of our own story. I think that this matters a lot to him. I think that it’s evident that playing Survivor again and trying to win Survivor is the most important thing to Christian right now. And that’s what I felt from him out there in seeing how he made the decisions that he made.

Now, he has the right to make whatever decisions he wants to make, to be clear. And again, I am not a scorned woman. I knew I was getting voted out. I’ll be so clear with you. I knew it was my time. I’m proud that I was really gracious in my exit. Part of that, though, is that I was mentally prepared for that fate. But with Christian, it’s very interesting, especially for me, because I came in softer. I came in with more empathy and with, honestly, a lightness to me. I played really joyfully. I was like, “I’m gonna have fun. Let’s have some fun.”

And I know Mike wanted to have fun, and I did have fun. And Christian was so serious. He was really, really living and dying by this game. And we’ll see how it all plays out, but I think there’s quite a few people who might be, you know, regretting some of the steps that they took… and didn’t take.