AE: So I have to ask
you about your MySpace page, which does say, "It's not the gender, it's
the person." When and how did you come to that conclusion?
AC: That's not my MySpace page.
AE: That's not your
MySpace page?
AC: No! [laughs] I don't have
television, I don't have a computer, I don't have — like I don't watch
television, and it's very rare that I'm on the computer, so someone else put
that up. That's not even my MySpace page [laughs].
AE: So, do you
identify as bisexual or lesbian or do you prefer not to identify?
AC: Oh gosh, I don't know. I don't know if I would put a specific label on
any of it. I mean, if I met the woman of my dreams and fell in love, I would
stay with her, and if I met the man of my dreams and fell in love, I would stay
with him. Like, I don't know. "Bisexual" doesn't really seem to fit
me, and "lesbian" doesn't really fit. I don't know. I don't know what
I would classify myself [as].
AE: So somebody else
created that MySpace page and put that up there without your knowledge.
AC: Yes. [laughs] At some point I
will rectify that, but it's not that important to me. I think I've seen it once
or twice, and, whatever.
AE: Well, at the time
that you were with Crissy, all the press identified you as a lesbian. Did you
agree with that at the time?
AC: I don't care. It didn't bother
me at all. That's other people's judgment calls or ways of defining something.
It didn't offend me at all. I support all the Pride fests — in fact I'm gonna
be hostessing for the L.A. Pride, and I'm always, always at the Colorado Pride.
It's really something that I will always support.
AE: That's great. So,
you came back to Colorado and you're still
working at the coffee shop you were at before Vanuatu,
right?
AC: Oh, I love it, yeah. I work at
Common Grounds in downtown Denver.
It's a family-owned coffee shop, and I just love it. I see over 300 people
before noon, and I have a chance to make their day start in a really positive,
uplifting way, or I can be a total bitch [laughs] and it can start in a really
bad way. So I know that I have an effect on a lot of people before they get out
there and start their day.
AE: How long do you
think you want to work in a coffee shop?
AC: I would like to own the coffee shop. I've been talking to them about
buying it. I actually would be really interested in opening a tea and water
shop at some point here in Denver, and having it my own, but until then, I'm
really happy working where I am. And I'm also nannying right now, a little
6-year-old girl, and I love that job.
AE: Why did you
decide to do Survivor again?
AC: What an amazing experience it
was. Like, to wake up in the morning and know on your "to do" list
all you have to do is find water, find food, make sure the fire keeps going and
win the challenge. Like that's really all you have to do. All day long, there's
no answering phone calls, there's no getting in the car, there's no writing a
paper, like none of that. It's just the basic essentials that you need to have
throughout your day, and it's, I think, one of the best ways to spend your
life. So the chance to get to do it twice was really a blessing.
AE: Are you hoping
that people take away from your experience this time something different? For
example, do you want to erase that man-hating thing? [laughs]
AC: Oh, not at all. [laughs] I could care less. Like I said, all the people
in my life and the people that meet me know that I'm not a man-hater. [laughs]
I'm not some arrogant jerk, so I'm not worried about changing the way that
America views me. I've been really accepted and loved by all the fans that I've
met. They've been really sweet to me, really good people, so I feel fine with
how things are going.
AE: Actually, the
fans versus favorites thing is really interesting. I read that the producers
allowed people to think that there would be 20 favorites cast this season, but actually there were only 10, to kind of trick
the previous contestants and prevent them from setting up alliances beforehand.
Did you know who the other contestants were going to be before you arrived in
Micronesia?
AC: Oh God no, not at all. … I knew that if there was any way that I was
going to be accepted … you have to stay clean of all that stuff. Because the
more you get dug into the other survivors and the other things that are going
on, I think the less likely it is for [the producers] to choose you.
So once I heard that they were starting to pick people, I
just cut off all ties with everybody [because] I don't want to risk my chance
of going out there. So I just told everybody that I knew from before, "I'm
not gonna be talking to you for a while, I hope you understand that, and I look
forward to talking to you in the future." And it was great.
And Yau-Man did the same thing to me. He was like, "I
won't be talking to you anymore." And I kind of like got in my stomach
like, oh, Yau-Man must be going, but he and I both knew that it was in our best
interest not to talk to each other about it. CBS is smart!
