Talks

Superheroes couldn’t save Nate Moore on Survivor. The veteran Marvel producer, whose credits include Black Panther and Captain America: Civil War, saw his game snapped out of existence this week when season 49’s former Uli tribemates Jawan Pitts and Sage Ahrens-Nichols blindsided him at tribal council. Despite Uli appearing to hold the numbers after the merge, the duo flipped, sending Moore to the jury in a move worthy of a Marvel-style heel turn.

For someone used to orchestrating cinematic shocks behind the scenes, Moore suddenly found himself on the receiving end of one, and fans were left stunned as the season’s power balance shifted. 

Did Moore ever tell anyone about his Marvel history? What was his reaction when host Jeff Probst mentioned that Survivor 50 spots were “still up for grabs?” In an exclusive conversation with The Hollywood Reporter below, Moore discusses his experience and what it’s like to get blindsided on Survivor.

***

Nate, what happened? I thought the vibes were fire, but your exit was cinema and not in a good way. 

Not in a good way. Look, we knew this was the pivotal vote. We knew there was a chance this would happen because when we merged, I had a conversation with Sage that you didn’t see where she told me Shannon told her they were outside the four. I knew if Sage knew that Jawan knew, and we had some work to do. We tried to rebuild that Uli bond, and my pitch to them was about numbers: “We have a solid six. If you come with us, we will get top six. If you flip, you’re going to be in a seven alliance of a lot of different people. I was closer to Sage than I was with Jawan and I knew that Rizo, Savannah and Sophie had gotten closer. There’s a chance you could work together as we get down the line.”

I thought that would hold them. I knew Alex was never going to vote for us, but I thought we’d have won six to five. Before tribal, the last conversation I had was with Savannah. I said to her, “Either me or you are going to catch some votes,” because we both knew they weren’t going to vote for Rizo. They were so scared of that idol and any blowback.

If you watch the show, you see that for the first four votes I wasn’t surprised, because I knew we were going to get votes. The fifth vote was a confirmation that Alex had flipped, which I kind of knew. Six, I realized six means seven. Six means I lost Sage and Jawan. And it was a choice they made that I understand. Do I agree with it? Obviously not. I’m here. But I didn’t feel betrayed emotionally because I understood what they were thinking.

Whose flip were you more surprised by: Jawan or Sage?

We knew they were a tight two. They’re both eccentric characters, and I do think even though we never said there was a core four, they felt the vibes. I knew my relationship with Sage was probably better than with Jawan, which I think surprised some people, but Sage and I are not dissimilar. Large groups make us nervous, we bonded over that. And because we’d had that conversation, I guess I would be more surprised about Sage.

Survivor fans love a good blindside. What’s it feel like for someone who experiences it? 

It feels a little out-of-body. I’ve seen every episode of the show and every episode of the Australian version so many times. You go, “If that were to happen, here’s what I would do.” Instead I was like, “Where’s my torch?” You’re thinking about it almost as if you’re controlling an avatar in a video game. “I have to go get my torch. I have to walk over here. I have kids. I can’t say anything crazy. I have to just take it on the chin and be a good sport.” But the emotional part of your head is like, “F— these guys.” Sorry. “Screw these guys. I’m so mad.”

Then you walk down this really long path and have to give your final words, and you’re so exhausted. It feels like you were on a rollercoaster, and it didn’t just pull in. It just stopped halfway. Then you’re like, “What do I do now?” You don’t know what to do with yourself. It’s incredibly surreal, and I’m not sure I was 100 percent there. Then you go shower and get some food, and it doesn’t feel all that bad, to be honest.

Let’s go back to the beginning of what happened last episode. Did you buy the story Jawan and Sage were selling about Shannon “losing her mind?”

Not 100 percent. My experience with Shannon on Uli was even different than a lot of viewers experienced watching the show. She was certainly not as hippie-dippy yoga. My relationship with her was actually really personal and lovely. I thought, she’s a great kid. I really liked talking to her. I had assumed when they went to Hina in that first tribe swap, that Shannon and Sage would stick together because we always intended to stick together on our side, even with Jawan.

I didn’t quite buy the version of Shannon they were pitching who was incredibly paranoid, who wouldn’t let them talk to each other, which is not Shannon’s MO. Did I think it was possible she would vote against Jawan? Sure. I thought there was a chance she, Sage and Steven would vote Jawan out because they’d spent so much time with him, but I didn’t quite buy the way they described how Shannon was acting.

Once the merge happens and you’re at the challenge, Jeff drops a bomb and says, “spots on Survivor 50 are still up for grabs.” What’s going through your mind after he says that? Was it a surprise?

It wasn’t a surprise. We all had been talking about it since we got on the beach. It was so hot, we were so low energy and Jeff was like a coach trying to pep you up by saying, “The big game’s coming.” But we all know what that means. I don’t think it’s the reason Sage and Jawan flipped, but the notion of doing the big move feels good when everybody loves Jeff Probst and he goes, “You should be doing big moves,” and they go, “Absolutely we should.” It makes the safe move less interesting. But you could see it on my face. I was like, “Hey, bro, let’s talk about 49. Let me get through this day.” We were dying. Physically, I was dying.

Before tribal, we see Sage wanting Savannah, Jawan wanting Rizo, and Kristina and Sophie viewed you as the “safest option.” How did you think the votes eventually ended up on you? Were you the safest option?

To a degree. I think they rightfully saw that Savannah and Rizo were tight. Savannah and Rizo played every day of the game together. There was a fear that if Rizo didn’t play it (his idol) for him, he’d play it for Savannah first. That makes sense from what they saw.

In the episode prior, Sophie and Kristina clearly saw through my bulls — excuse of the Jason and Matt votes. They knew I probably wasn’t going to flip on Uli anytime soon. Alex had separately talked about how much he feared me in challenges. I think it was a combination of, “Hey, Rizo and Savannah are tight,” to, “Nate’s sort of the third. Here’s a guy physically who seemed to be doing pretty well in the challenges. Let’s just get him out.”

It’s also interesting because Matt had a similar reaction where he thought I was the head of the Uli tribe, which I wasn’t, but I am the oldest. He’s like, “Get the old guy out of here.” Maybe cut the head off the snake. But I was not the head of anything. It was a collective. You never want to hear yourself being the safe one. I will say that. When she said that, I was like, “Boo!” But I get it. I understand what they were thinking.

You mentioned in your Final Words that the game was harder than you expected and you made it farther than you expected. What were your expectations before the game began? 

I worried I wouldn’t be able to overcome a generational gap. I’d seen Jon Lovett get killed that way and it’s funny because I don’t think I’m old. But in the game, the next oldest person on my tribe was Savannah who’s 16 years younger, and nobody on my tribe was married or had kids. It was from a life experience perspective. If you look historically, had I won, which clearly I didn’t, I would’ve been the third-oldest winner of all time. Old people struggle on the show because it’s harder to make connections, I think, sometimes. I was worried that a bunch of young kids would be like, “Get out of here, old man.”

And it was harder in that, more than the not eating. I didn’t sleep well on the show. Bamboo is not comfortable, which you kind of know, but you don’t know until you sleep 14 days on it. I am a relatively high-energy guy in my life, and by the end, I was no fun. I was like, “I’m bumming these people out,” because I would just kind of shamble around camp.

It does make you think about how you relate to people because all you have time to do is think. I was like, “Why am I not connecting? Should I be doing this? I don’t want to have this conversation. Is this something I do in my normal life? Do I avoid conflict?” You start to psychoanalyze yourself through the lens of the show, and that you don’t think about because you think about backstabbing and challenges and rewards, and the bulk of your day is none of that. It’s like, “Hey, who am I? Who am I in the context of this game?” That was surprising to me.

We saw you tell people you were a stay-at-home dad. Did you ever tell anyone about your Marvel background?

I didn’t, not in the game. My thinking was that I did not think anybody would give me $1 million if I told them my job. To be quite honest, whenever I say I’m a producer, part of me goes, “Ugh,” because there can be such a negative connotation. So I didn’t. And honestly, in hindsight, part of me goes, “Hey, would it have been different if I just was honest? Would that have been free connective tissue for the Rizos and the Jawans and the Stevens of the world who loved Marvel movies, since I made a bunch of them?”

Especially because I did struggle to find connective points with a lot of people, part of me is kicking myself. But everybody plays Tuesday morning quarterbacking of “woulda, shoulda, coulda.” But I didn’t tell anybody until well after the game.

Let’s do some revisionist history. Let’s say Sage and Jawan stay Uli strong and Steven goes home. Who are you sitting with at the final three?

It’s a good question. I wanted to work with MC. I told her before tribal not to play her idol. I said, “Trust me. We can go far together if you don’t play your idol. Just let’s make it through this vote.” I thought we could get to a final seven of Rizo, Savannah, Sophie, Sage, Jawan, me and MC. Then at some point, I would have the option at four to either go, “Hey, the Rizo, Savannah, Sophie still feels good,” or, “hey, I’m at the bottom of that four. Maybe I can build a four with MC, Jawan and Sage and see what happens.” I wanted to at least have that option. As much as I truly really, really like Sophie, Savannah and Rizo, I started to feel a little bit like that was a threesome and I was the fourth leg, so I wanted to have the option.

I was hoping to get into the individual phase of the game because I did feel in challenges, if it’s a puzzle or physical, I was always in the mix. Obviously, it did not balance incredibly well. That was my plan: let’s get to seven and then see how it goes, and see which of those two sets of three I wanted to go with.

Is there anything viewers didn’t get to see that you wish made it onto this season? 

A lot of people asked why I was so salty about Matt. The truth was, in that first tribe swap with Hina, he was the first person I sought out because I really wanted to try and build an alliance with him. I was just starved for somebody who was of my generation. We spent a good couple hours together looking for crabs and stuff.

I was like, “I’m making inroads. This guy seems pretty cool.” Then he went fishing with Jawan, and Jawan comes back and immediately says, “Hey, Matt’s starting to throw out your name on the boat.” I was like, “Bro, I’ve been here for five minutes. What happened to the Old Guy Alliance?” People were like, “Why were you so mad at him?” I was like, “Because I felt betrayed.”

But feel like I am who I am. That’s me on the show. We had more fun than you get to see, but you don’t want to see that as a viewer. You want to see the back stabs. I feel pretty good about what you got to see.

I related to you really well because of the whole “fire,” “cinema” thing. I’m 54 and watch these younger players talk and I’m like, “Huh? What? These words aren’t being used properly.” Have you rolled any of this into your vocabulary now?

No, sir. I just go, “Okay, and that’s not for me.” It really surprised me. You seem like a young-at-heart kind of guy. I am too. I didn’t realize how far removed I was from popular slang. I was like, “Oh, my God. I’m on a different planet. This is wild.” It was really interesting. I still have not watched a mukbang. I don’t think I’m going to.

What’s more cutthroat, being a producer in Hollywood or being on Survivor? 

A producer in Hollywood, for sure. Survivor is fun, but it’s a pretend game for $1 million. Hollywood’s a whole different ball of wax.

***

Survivor airs new episodes Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.