Angie was perfectly well cast to play a villain for the purposes of the programme's drama. And of course, speaking to her in person, she was charming, bubbly and positive. And unrepentant.
When asked her about the last challenge, as it seemed a bit odd that everyone else had a family member emerging from the bushes, while she didn't, she admitted this was a huge disappointment for her.
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Upset her parents were not there
As an only child, she hoped to see her parents, when "family and friends" were announced. But it turned out that her father had had to go to America on business and her mother had recently, for reasons unknown, suffered a DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) and of course couldn't safely be recommended to fly such long distances.
So, although of course she was pleased to see her friends, she was saddened by the absence of her parents and hence said she lost interest in even trying to win that reward challenge.
She remembered wistfully, though, her plans to invade and pinch Mandla's family feast and seemed faintly regretful that she didn't try. She said she wasn't sure how much she could achieve before being tackled by the programme staff.
It was suggested that she might have a go at the buffet table at next week's finale party! Maybe she or Hein might try to hide some of the food? We speculated as to whether Hein actually did hide a lot of food, as he claimed – but Angie insisted they had searched the whole island carefully and she doubted whether they could have missed any significant food stash.
Figuring out her strategy
When asked about strategy, I pointed out that she had a brilliant strategy if her aim had been to annoy viewers and contestant-voters, but hardly a useful one for winning. She agreed and said what she did wasn't that sort of strategy at all.
"If I'd wanted to play for the million, I'd have played it very differently."
But she was confident that she wouldn't win, anyway and did what she did "purely for fun and excitement". She didn't want to get to the finals and then not win and preferred to rather enjoy herself. She claimed she has absolutely no regrets, and said, "I did exactly what I wanted to do".
She said she had expected the game include far more psychological warfare and hence found it all far tamer than she'd hoped and insisted she only lied about food - "And otherwise just caused chaos".
'It wasn't personal'
She again said she was surprised at how personally others took her actions and insisted that although in her personal life with people she is close to, she is tender-hearted and easily hurt, in this sort of situation she took nothing personally and thought the other players ought to have done likewise.
She admitted she looked forward to seeing them all again at the finale and hoped they would bear no grudges, as she felt she bonded well with most of them.
She thought as viewers we might underestimate the frustrations of the game - apart from being exhausted, hungry and lacking energy, the nature of the filming required many hours spent waiting.
Analysing her personality
When asked about her apparent intolerance, getting so irked by Angela‘s empty chatter, for example, she said much of the time she did indeed get up and move out of earshot, but said that if one was going to play the game seriously, you couldn't isolate yourself and needed to stay with the group much of the time.
"I'm very expressive" she explained, so her exasperation was probably more picturesque and likely to be included than others.
She laughed at the thought of poor old Irshaad getting a raw deal from her nagging and said thought he was very like herself in many ways and suspected that she was just as intolerable to him, as he was to her.
She said she understood the editing decisions that have to be made in such a show and insisted she doesn't feel at all misrepresented. "That's me, but there really is more to me than that."
'It was all worth it'
She doesn't think the pressures of the show make you anything that you're not already, but may not bring out all of your characteristics. Despite any negativity some people may have felt for her, she's convinced the whole experience was well worth it for her. "It hasn't profoundly changed my life" she admitted, but added, "There weren't any epiphanies, but it was a learning opportunity none the less."
She said she had learned about herself, things which were perhaps worth putting on her agenda for attention. She mentioned again the intolerance of waiting and the desire for instant gratification.
Looking ahead
When asked about her work, as we never heard what a boot camp instructor actually does she explained that she in fact runs an outdoor fitness program, "exercise out of the gym" for groups of 40 to 50 people at a time, which helped her with being physically fit at the start of the game.
Since she returned, she has "an amazing new job" as a project manager for an international telecommunications company and admitted she was very happy in her new post.
She had met the owner of the company through a mutual friend and, after numerous interviews, succeeded in getting the post. "It's a piece of cake compared to the island", she remarked.
'Angie played her own game'
Positive, self-confident bright and breezy - and wholly unrepentant is Angie. She enjoyed stirring everything up, even if it upset people. She wasn't "playing the game", but playing with the players.
"The game" has certain specific rules, but nowhere do the rules require anyone to play the way she did - that was her game, which was very revealing of her personality in the choices she made, but not the game.
(Professor M.A.Simpson, aka CyberShrink, November 2007)
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