By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

It has been over a month since Rome Cooney made his accusations against fellow player: Kyle Ostwald. In our interview with him, we asked Rome if it was a big mistake to target Kyle?

His response was: “No, honestly, I don’t. I would do it again. I targeted Kyle for moral reasons. It wasn’t shown but Kyle had mentioned something on the beach that I was not a fan of and that was the reason why I targeted him otherwise I would have worked with him…Kyle said something about Sue and Caroline that I was not a fan of. It didn’t make the edit so I’m not going to talk about it but that that made me want to go for Kyle instead. I was like: Okay, I’m not going to work with this guy. I want you out of the game. I don’t even want you to last another day on this on this island. People know because I obviously relayed what he said to Sue and Caroline so the people on the island know what he said but I’m just not going to be the one to repeat it right now.”

Since that time fans have wondered what Rome meant. Was it the totally innocuous “Tweedledum and Tweedledee”, follow the leader, comment or was it something far much more that didn’t make it to air? Having seen how the construction worker was portrayed on the show many didn’t believe Kyle would ever stoop so low. It wasn’t his style, wasn’t the game he was playing and not the human being he is.

Kyle cleared that controversy up and more in his chat with us.

John Powell: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today. You’ve been able to sit back and watch your exit. How you feeling about it all?

Kyle Ostwald: I’m feeling good about it! Obviously I’ve picked myself apart and I’ve tried to take myself back to the moments of my demise and I’m like: Man, if you could have just did this. You should have did this, like that kind of thing. I think that’s pretty typical thing for most people to do but I’ve basically come down to the point where it’s like: Kyle, if you’re not starving for 20 days, if you’re not sleep deprived, if you’re not uprooted from your community, it’s not fair of you to pick yourself apart when those things were being applied to your personal position in life.

Ultimately, I’m really happy with myself. I came into this game knowing that I was going to put my foot on the gas and I wasn’t picking my foot up off the floor until I’d seen God or a checkered flag. I knew that was a high risk, high reward situation, right? You can see it time and time in Survivor history but there’s only going to be one sole Survivor in the end, one winner of a million dollars. Just knowing that I had so much community and family and people behind me, I couldn’t find it in myself to roll over at any point. So anything that you’ve seen me doing, I gave it every ounce that I had every single step of the way. I gave it that buck 20.

John Powell: Whether it’s life or Survivor, we can look back at ourselves over and over again and pick apart ourselves but that’s our wishes and dreams, right? You have to look at yourself and what you accomplished. You just talked about how driven you are, how your attitude and mindset was going into the game. Was there any thought of all to throwing a challenge to take the heat off yourself?

Kyle Ostwald: In your mind you kind of feel that way. Sometimes maybe you should roll over. I’ve watched many of Survivor seasons and I see the way physical players stand out…That’s where I come back to the there’s only going to be one winner, right? The odds of you winning at the start are one in 18 but when you’re on the island it’s like one in 30 million!

You start to realize that there’s more than one goal that comes to light. In the beginning, it was money and Sole Survivor. Then, it’s a sense of pride for your family. It’s more of like, get out there and show the world, show the nation, show your family where you come from, the integrity within you and show your family where they come from so they can be proud of themselves into the future. That ripple effect right there, that into the future, was going to be my ultimate take home if I could not take home the million dollars as well. I could not let off the gas and still achieve both things comfortably within myself.

John Powell: You’re very open about your background. There’s foster care, there’s the alcoholism and drugs that were part of your family life. I can sympathize with all of that. That really resonated with me. I’m glad that you brought that in the public forum and talked about it, because it takes away a little bit of the stigma. There’s a stigma that if  you grow up in that environment you are THIS or THAT kind of person. When you were on the island and people were talking about perhaps their everyday complaints did that weigh on you at all, someone who has dealt with so much in your life?

Kyle Ostwald: So what I did, to be fair, I tried to look at it like this: I was thinking about this during pregame, before I even got into the game, I was thinking this exactly. Everybody has their own lives and they’ve experienced the ups and downs. If a down in my life is seemingly a mile down, right? There’s no reason that when I look at your life and your down only seemed a half mile, there’s no reason that could not have felt like a full mile to you, right? If you’re complaining because your cat passed away and I’m complaining because my family passed away it’s not fair of me to say that’s just your cat, right? That could have been a lot for you. So my problems were never more than anybody else’s problems. My problems were to be known. I can’t hardly afford the insurance on my truck. My house is half built. I came out of foster care and I was left down and out of family things when I should have been included more times than not. It got to a point where I had to find a sense of self pride or I would have to roll over in life and I can’t do it. I couldn’t find myself to do it in life. I couldn’t find myself to do it in the game. So I had to find something, some something in me that came to life that said: You just got to be resilient that the Devil himself is just so sick of picking on you because he just can’t knock you down.

John Powell: Well, it’s like my grandfather always said: It is not your successes in life that you learn from, it’s your failures and when you’re down. That’s when you really learn about yourself and your true character and what you believe in. Now, speaking of some of your relationships on the show, what was up with you and Sue? You must have been surprised to see how much she was going in hard on you.

Kyle Ostwald: Which is another sensitive topic, and I’m going to be very careful of how I speak because I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes or feel like I’m disrespecting anybody. I genuinely love Sue. I seriously do. We’ve had nothing but positive things to say to one another outside of the show. We’ve even hugged each other, smiled, everything, not one negative thing.

What was off putting to me was things like I was being “male dominant” when I was giving very genuine hugs and gentle touches. Then you have people like Gabe beaten on his chest. I’m like: I’m the dominant one? I’m rubbing you the way?

I voted against her in the TK (Terran “TK” Foster) moment and I tried to explain to her I didn’t want TK to go out feeling like everybody was against him. His journey was cut short, like so short, that I wanted him to go out feeling like there was somebody there still with him but that was damaging to my game.

John Powell: I was going to ask you about the Rome thing Now, I’m hoping it’s not the Tweedledum and Tweedledee thing, because, I mean, that’s schoolyard stuff. I mean, do you have any do you have any insight into this at all?

Kyle Ostwald: It couldn’t be more pathetic than just that, you know. I’m a Midwesterner, right? If your friend calls you in the morning, you you answer the phone: Good morning, you a piece of s–t! That lets you know that you’re still my bestie. My choice of language can be off putting to many people though there is a lot of gentle and kindness behind it. It was a very good move on Rome’s end. I’m not going to highlight it because he had his opportunity and he missed it but it was a mad lib.

What he did was he took somebody that was genuine, somebody that was very honest and made these accusations. He brought these things to light. You know that? It was after in the interviews when Rome was asked: Why didn’t you work with Kyle? He brought it to light after he was out of the game. AFTER. What he did was he watched me through the game up until the point where he’s voted out. You see him get voted out. He has interviews that come about after he’s already watched the show. Now, he’s using the character he’s observed from TV, and he gives you a mad lib, a second grade mad lib, to fill in the blanks and let your imagination do the damage because he knows whatever he has to say is not going to be as damaging as what your own mind can fill that blank in with. It is like you say: School yard stuff. It was worth a shot. I see what he was doing. I seen what he’s trying to get out of it. It got a rise. It had people asking questions. It’s just like a match. It lit and it burnt out pretty quick.

John Powell: Did it trouble you that he mentioned that? He says he told Caroline what you said.

Kyle Ostwald: What kicks me up about it more than anything is the fact that Rome and I had a decent relationship. We end up on this Journey together. We get good talking everything. He likes to talk more than me and he let me know: Let’s keep good with this and let each other know what happened so at the next challenge we’re going to let each other know, right?

At a challenge, Rome is fighting and arguing with Sol to be the very first person in line. I’m the first person in our line. Rome and I need to get to the mat at the same time so that way we can exchange information before anybody else gets there. We get to the mat and I look at Rome and he looks at me…He just exchanged information with me and it was very positive…I spilled out everything, man. I told him everything. I’m like, listen, this person’s like that. This is their job. This is their occupation. These are some, some alarming things that I’ve heard from these people, whatever it may have been. When I was using the Tweedledum and Tweedledee thing, which, again, by definition I’m going to say is two people the acting, playing the same. Sue and Caroline didn’t show much difference from one another. They were the same in this game as far as I was concerned.

He just runs around telling everybody and I’m like: What? Why did you do that? I’m feeling like I’m at the bottom of my rope. Period. You were one of my lifelines and you just burnt me?

John Powell: Now, obviously we only get a very small look into your entire journey when it comes to the edit. Is there anything that you wish fans would have been able to see whether it was a strategic moment or a bond? Is there anything you wish to what they would have included in your journey on the show?

Kyle Ostwald: There was a moment there where I went against Gabe in a challenge. We were partners and in the end of the challenge we end up having to face one another (and he wins immunity). I’m very happy for him but what he just did was disrupted my immunity streak and left me vulnerable. Now I know he could do that into the future. This is a problem. So when I get back to camp, it’s social game switched on. Now, I’m going to like Genevieve: You’ve been painted as a target. People are threatened by you. Sam, same thing. Sam, you’re a target. People are threatened by you. Telling Gabe the same thing. All we hear though is Kyle and the physical threat issues, right? So as long as you keep me here, you guys are good and keep me in your strong alliance’ Let’s get this to the finals and brawl like a bunch of mad people at the end. Let’s do it! You’re all deserving! Let’s get the deserving people there and just hammer on one another! Let’s light this up!

What Genevieve ends up doing is coming to me with Gabe and they use a fear tactic against me, which is wonderful, because they said Sol is coming after you. Whoa. I love Saul. He’s amazing. I’ve never seen somebody cut through the s–t as quick as Saul and he’s so personable. So if you’re Sol and you’re coming after me I need you gone because I’m threatened to buy you right now. It is not even the question.

John Powell: As a member of a jury you have a very big responsibility in picking the winner. Obviously, you can’t say who you chose in the end, but when you were thinking about who deserves to win what were some of the things that you were weighing on your mind? What were some of the things that you were thinking about?

Kyle Ostwald: I was using personal experiences. I was looking at the way this would benefit someone and their life. Not just financially but them and their lives. In that ripple effect the money can be burnt out quick, poor decisions and all that. You can burn through a million dollars fast in life. I want the winner of this game to have integrity, a little drive, a little bit of whatever they get what is going to happen to their life when they get back home because ultimately this is a journey of a lifetime…It’s going a ripple effect into our communities, into our families, into other people, where it can still be inspiring, it can still be noted.

John Powell: Kyle, you were a breath of fresh air this season. You’re very inspirational in many ways. Would you ever play again?

Kyle Ostwald: If I got the phone call I wouldn’t even stop to pack a bag!

Survivor 47 Fantasy Tribe