By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

She played a very strong Survivor game and she makes no apologies for that. Saiounia Hughley, the 30-year-old marketer from California, hit the beach running harder and faster than any castaway we have seen in the New Era generation. Along with her edit, Sai also been a very derisive personality. As she says about her off-air life, people either love her or you hate her. You be the judge.

John Powell: It’s nice to be talking to you today. How is everything?

Saiounia Hughley: It’s so good! I’m having an amazing day, amazing exit, all of the things! I just had a good time!

John Powell: You did a lot of work at back at camp. How was your feeling going into tribal council? Were you confident or concerned?

Saiounia Hughley: Oh, thank you! I mean, I was always doing a lot but to answer your question I don’t think I was super confident that it was going to go the way that I was trusting that it would go because something that you don’t see is that I went up to Mitch and I told him I was going to use my Shot in the Dark. I wasn’t confident that all the persuasion I tried was actually going to work. So, I knew this was going to happen. It was kind of predictable, kind of ‘Womp! Womp!’…but it’s fine.

John Powell: We saw throughout the season that you would approach people you wanted to play the game with as you wanted to get your hands dirty. There’s a lot of standoffish kind of responses to you. Was it very frustrating to get people to play and pull them in?

Saiounia Hughley: It was frustrating. I think that I had an understanding of why. Maybe they didn’t want to work together. Do I think it was interesting gameplay? No, but do I think they were disrespecting me also, no. It was fine that is wasn’t the game they wanted to play. I have to respect that and I have ton of respect for my cast mates.

John Powell: Talking about your game play, a lot of people refer to as “aggressive”. I don’t think it was “aggressive”. I just think it was “strong”. You weren’t compromising. You put everything out there at the time. You’ve been able to watch everything back now but did you realize you were a big target out there because of how you were playing the game?

Saiounia Hughley: Thank you for clarifying. It’s not “aggressive”. I’m actually tired of hearing that word in association with me, especially as a black woman. It has that microaggression energy.

I played a strong game and I played a hard game. Do I think that I was being received that way? I think I was being received as aggressive, which is disappointing, rather than: ‘Oh, she’s here to play the game.’ So, was it hard to work in that space? Yes, it’s always going to be hard when somebody thinks that you’re aggressive and you are mean or whatever. I’m like: ‘No, I’m playing.’ I think we’re forgetting that all of the people that I targeted targeted me first. I reciprocated that energy. I meet you where you’re at. If you’re going to target me I’m going to come after you. That’s the game we’re playing.

John Powell: Did you think that your approach to playing the game would have been a lot different in Old School Survivor, because there was a lot of players, both men and women, back then who hit the ground running and who took risks.

Saiounia Hughley: I love old school players! They tell you what it is and it’s like nothing beyond that. You don’t have to read into it too much. Like: ‘Let’s play hard and if you go home, sayonara, you go home but don’t take it personally. I genuinely don’t and didn’t take anything personally. People don’t know how to receive that. Like: ‘Why isn’t she mad or angry?’ I just don’t care. I don’t care enough. I don’t put value on what other people say about me or how they perceive me. I’ve always navigated my life that way because if I cared about how people felt about me maybe I’d be crying every day. I just do not care.

John Powell: I tell my son all the time you should only care about the people closest to you, those that support you. Don’t live your life for other people. Your time on the show has had a very strong reaction, whether it’s positive or negative. Were you surprised by any of this?

Saiounia Hughley: You either hate me or love me. I actually am not surprised by the reaction. I have a ton of friends that love me for me and call me out on me being me. I’m very well aware of how I come across but I’m also very happy that. The people love me, love me for me and the people who hate me, they hate me because of me. I cannot be mad at that. I’m an acquired taste, so…(laughs)

John Powell: How do you feel about missing the jury and what things would you have thought about if you had to pick a winner?

Saiounia Hughley: I appreciate the strong player comment! I love it! See in my head, I made the jury. ‘I’m on the jury. What do you mean?’ (laughs) I am surprised that I missed the jury and if I were on the jury I would be putting an emphasis on what big swings did you take? What big swings did you make and how did they impact your game? Who did you turn on? That was your number one. How did you do those kind of things, the things that make Survivor great? Screw the integrity and honesty. What made you dishonest?

John Powell: One of the big relationships you had was with Cedric and it was up and down. He seemed to be playing with his heart and you were playing with your head.

Saiounia Hughley: First, let me start off with if Cedric weren’t in my game or playing the game with me I would have had a totally different experience. He was an important part of my game that I genuinely think I can’t see a world where he wasn’t there.

Our relationship is so complex. There’s so much about it that you didn’t get to see. He’s the one of the people that I really opened up too and that’s why it hurt when he was trying to vote me out because I was like: ‘Man, like the one time that I’m opening up to someone, I’m really trusting them with things that actually happened in my life, they are now trying to backstab me?’. That’s what it felt like in the moment but he also did try to probe that we were on the mend to prove himself trustworthy….He meant well and he made the game more fun. He was my messy mate. He made the game so, so fun.

John Powell: Another big relationship that was featured was you and Mary. Did you really want to work things out with her?

Saiounia Hughley: I think Cedric is really great at realizing that: ‘What Sai says she’s going to do, is what she’s going to do.’ In that moment when I said we’re going to work on that, I meant that. We had a long conversation that you aren’t privy to, that didn’t air on the show, in which Mary and I squashed our beef…She was telling me with bonus charity the she was protecting me and all these other things but I wasn’t privy to the confessionals. Had I known she was doing one thing and saying another, my energy would have been different.

John Powell: Speaking of things we didn’t get to see is there anything about your journey that you wish fans had seen on the show?

Saiounia Hughley: I first let me start off with I feel like you all got enough of me! (laughs) They did a great job of showing all facets of Sai but I also wish the editors would have seen how intentional I was with my conversations. I think Shauhin hinted at it. He literally did a great job of describing me in the last episode saying that she doesn’t do ‘niceties’ and she’s not “face fake”. You tell me you don’t like me to my face, I can respect that. I respect that and I receive it. What I don’t respect is people who are like: ‘Oh my god! I really like you!’. I can’t work with that but you telling me where we’re at, I can build on.

John Powell: I want to give you a little bit of chance to get some get back. What would you say to the haters?

Saiounia Hughley: Honestly, to me, if you play with clowns, you become a part of the circus. I genuinely could care less what clowns have to say about me. I’m playing the game you WISH you could play, baby! I loved every moment of it! This comes from my heart, when people say things about me, I do not care.

John Powell: You have been though a lot off and on screen this season. Would you come back and play again?

Saiounia Hughley: Yes, I would come back and play again! I think I would make minor tweaks, not too much, not too many. Maybe hold back some comments here and there.

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