It has been a long time coming for Rachel LaMont to play Survivor . The graphic designer was late to discover the show, but was instantly enamored. Thus began her yearslong audition process. She was even brought out to Fiji for Season 46, only to be told she was an alternate. I got to speak with Rachel then, and the difference between our two chats is like night and day. Despite her disappointment last year, in a game that's all about timing, the 34-year-old is confident Season 47 is her moment. But, though she's had a long journey to get here, she ironically wants to avoid journeys in the game, as she feels new era idols and advantages "set you up to fail."
Read on for my interview with Rachel, and check in with Parade.com daily for interviews with this season's contestants and other tidbits. Survivor 47 premieres on September 18 with a two-hour premiere on CBS.
Related: Meet the Full Cast of Survivor 47
Interview with Rachel from Survivor 47
How are you doing right now?
I'm good! I'm happy to be here again.
Well, we'll get into what "again" means in a second. But first, give me your name, age and occupation.
I'm Rachel LaMont. I'm 34 years old, and I'm a user interface designer.
What does your job specifically entail?
I basically make apps that you interact with look pretty. So I design what they look like and the colors and all of that good stuff. [ Laughs .]
So let's talk about what has you donning a buff color on Survivor . Talk to me about your history with the show, and how you got out here as a player.
Well, I'd never seen Survivor before. My husband randomly put it on TV one day when we were cleaning the house. And I remember he said, "Oh, Survivor ! My dad, he loves this show." And I was like, "I've heard of that." And he put it on. And I just remember setting the vacuum down and sitting down on the couch and being like, "How the hell have I never seen the show before?!" I was so hooked. And I feel like, from the start, it was just this idea of like, "I think I could do this." That's really what got me hooked on Survivor . It was a great show as well. But some people watch Jeopardy and they're like, "I can do that," or Wheel of Fortune . And, for whatever reason, when I watch Survivor , I was like, "I think I could do that. I want to do that."
And within a couple of months, I had submitted my first audition video. And, over the years, got a call, then ghosted, blah, blah, blah. And then, in 2020, I got the first real call that kind of started to get my foot in the door. And COVID happened, all this stuff. And then, two years ago, I was pitched, and then kind of kind of went silent. And then, last year, I got through everything and ended up being the alternate. So I came out here on Survivor 46 as the female alternate and didn't get to play. But now I'm here, and it's great to be here. It's been a long time coming.
Absolutely, I'm so happy I get the chance to talk with you again. It was a such unique experience when we spoke last year. It was basically confirmed to you that morning that you wouldn't be on 46, barring any last-minute emergencies. And that was palpable in your mood, and we talked through that at the time. So talk to me about what the process has been like for you in between trips to Fiji, especially watching 46 and imagining a universe where you were out there.
I mean, I have strong feelings about that as well. [ Laughs .] When we talked last year, that was definitely my lowest day. It was the day that they did the group photo. So before that, nobody knew that I was the alternate except me. And then all of a sudden, I felt very outed, and felt very much like, "This isn't my season. I don't belong here." And I think we did my interview a couple hours later. So it was a little bit brutal. But I think, when I went to Fiji last year, I was like, "Everything I do while I'm there, I need to show them why I should be playing this game." And so, you have some opportunities to talk to people, and I really just wanted to make them say, "We f–ked up." [ Laughs .] That was my goal.
And when I left at the end of the week, I felt that I had done that.I felt that I had accomplished that. And so I felt really weirdly good. I know the day we talked, it wasn't great. But after that, I just I felt really good about my whole experience, and felt at peace with the fact that that wasn't my season and that I would get another chance. And, over the last year since then, ebbs and flows, self-doubt, whatever. But I'm here! [ Laughs .] And it feels amazing. And I am the kind of person that believes that everything happens for a reason, and timing is everything. And just being here and seeing all the people here and the vibe of this season, I genuinely feel like this is my season. This is the one that it was meant to be. And it's great.
That's amazing to hear! So let's look back on Survivor history. Give me one winner and one non-winner who you identify with the most.
I have a love/hate relationship with this question. I listen to your interviews every year, Mike Bloom, and I never know what I'm gonna say for these. I think a non-winner that I really identify as a person is Kellyn Bechtold. I feel like I've never really watched other players on the screen and been like, "That feels like me." But when Kellyn was on Ghost Island , her personality resonated with me. A Midwest girl, strong personality, smart, and scrappy. I just love her. And then I also feel like I really, really like Omar Zaheer. I feel like, when I watched him play his game, I was like, "That is the game I want to play." I want to be able to make everybody think that I'm in with them, just kind of rule from the shadows, and no one really knows what I'm doing. I just was so impressed, and I really admire his game.
As far as a winner goes, I struggle with this so much. I don't know that there is, a single winner that I'm like, "That person is the person that I would say I'm like." But [I'm gonna] throw a curveball and go international. I feel like Dino Paulo from Survivor South Africa . The way he played his game, where he knew his strengths and his weaknesses coming in, and he knew how to kind of lean away from his weaknesses and play into his strengths. And he was very self-aware. And that is the kind of game that I'm really hoping to play. And yeah, not that nobody in US Survivor has done that. But I feel like the way he did it was very similar to the way that I would hope to do.
The one exception would probably be making sure you don't sleep by the fire. [ Laughs .] What is your biggest superpower and biggest piece of kryptonite that you're bringing into the game?
Good question. So I think my biggest superpower is that I feel like I can connect with almost anybody. I feel like I've lived life from a lot of different kind of perspectives. I've been an outsider; I've been a person that knows everybody. I'm very open about myself. If you ask me a question, you better want to know the answer, because I'm probably going to tell you a little too much. [ Laughs .] And I feel like that seems to get other people to trust me and open up really quickly. I make fast friends. And so I feel like that is a really useful skill for Survivor . I think my kryptonite is probably, oh man. I'm a little bit controlling, and I kind of like to know what's going on at all times and have my finger at all the pies. And I don't know if that's the best thing for a game where you might come off as a little paranoid or a little too controlling.
Related: Everything to Know About Survivor 47
How tough will it be for you to let up on that throttle? Because we've seen as recently as Survivor 46 that people sometimes don't like being told what to do.
[ Laughs .] Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think I can refrain from bossing people around. But I think just wanting to make sure that everything is in place if we're gonna do a plan. And I think the key will be finding an alliance of people that I can really trust. That I can be like, "I know that when you say you're going to go convince that person to do this, that you're going to convince them that you can do it." I think that it will be imperative to find people that I maybe not trust fully, but can trust enough to execute a plan that sees the game in a way that I see the game.
What is one life experience you feel has prepared you the most for the game?
Well, I don't know. I feel like this is it's so early. But I was born in Bangkok, and I didn't speak Thai growing up. And we moved to the US for my mom's job from when I was seven. And so, for the first seven years of my life, I couldn't speak to my own grandfather. He didn't speak English, and I didn't speak Thai or Chinese. [ Laughs .] So there are just so many times where I just really learned to communicate in a non-verbal manner with a lot of my literal family. And then [I] moved to the US and didn't understand US culture. So I feel like I just was forced to kind of learn to assimilate in in my own way from a really young age. And I also have two much older sisters. So I feel like I've always been around people that I didn't actually fit in with, whether it was age or culturally or whatever. And so I think that, throughout my life, I've moved a lot. And I just feel like all of those things have just made me really able to kind of blend in with a group and just pick up on the vibe, and just be that vibe too. [ Laughs .]
You talk about that communication breakdown, which is the mode you're in right now as you're not allowed to talk to your competition. But are you picking up good vibes from anyone in particular?
I knew you were gonna ask this question. And it's funny, because, genuinely, all of these people seem really, really great. And that sounds like such a cop-out. But genuinely, I feel like it'd be easier to be like, "Who am I not vibing with?"
Let's do that, then!
Well, there's one person that is just not making too much eye contact, not giving very many smiles. Everyone seems very friendly, and this guy…He was wearing a shirt that said "Macho Man" on the first day. I'm not a macho man! [ Laughs .] But, as far as good vibes go, there's an Indian girl, she just seems very bubbly and personable. I also feel like this is a little biased, because I feel like the people I feel the best about are the people that just happen to be sitting closest to me at Ponderosa. So I feel like you see them enough, and then you feel a little more comfortable. So this could all be very biased.
But then there's this younger Black guy who I call "Snacks." [ Laughs .] Because the very first day, the head of Ponderosa was like, "Do not have food in your tent at night, or ants will just come in droves." And so I handed him the pack of gum that I had in my bag. And that guy opens his backpack, and it's just like an entire backpack full of snacks. [ Laughs .] It was Skittles and Doritos, bag after bag after bag. He just grabbed a two gallon bag, just shoving it full of snacks. And I was like, "That's my kind of person, just prepared with all the snacks." [ Laughs .] So I really like him.
Well, let's open up your candy store and get to some Red Hot takes. What is your hottest Survivor take?
I think that idols and advantages in the new era set you up to fail. I feel like, more than not, not only are they not successful. But they also socially isolate you or make you suspicious or whatever. And I don't know that, at least premerge, that they are worth the squeeze.
So is that the approach you're taking to idols, advantages, and journeys in general?
Yeah, watch me say that now and then, two days from now, I do whatever. But, no. I'm definitely not volunteering for a journey. But if I come across a Beware Advantage, I'm going to really think hard about what I want to do with that. And that doesn't mean that I'm just going to ignore it. But maybe I will guide someone else to find it, or I will tell someone else that I found it. But I don't think that I want that. I know [in] 46, they had Beware Advantages that you could technically do by yourself. Like Hunter got his and no one knew about it. It's still time away from the rest of the tribe to do those things. And there is so little time now, and then I have to hide [being] flustered. I don't think, for me, at least, that it would necessarily be the path I'd want to take.
Finally, what celebrity or fictional character would you bring out for a Loved Ones visit? Do you remember what you said last year?
I do, and I'm going to use the same answer. [ Laughs .] I would bring Veronica Mars. I feel like she is a badass, and she's scrappy. She's a private investigator, so she picks up all these little things. And she would come to the island, and we'd go on reward or whatever. And she would be looking around and being like, "You didn't notice that that person is doing this and that person's doing that." And she would tell me all the things that I was missing, because she's more perceptive than I am, and she'd help me win the game.
Next, check out our interview with Survivor 47 contestant Jon Lovett .
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