‘Survivor 49’s Matt Williams Explains Why He Revealed His Secret Finance Background (Exclusive)

Survivor 49 is here! Every week, Parade.com’s Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the castaway most recently voted off the island.

“My wife said, ‘You know you’re gonna be filmed 24/7. You better watch what you say.’ I said, ‘What does that mean?’ She said, ‘You know what that means.’ Apparently, I don’t have much of a filter.”

That, fittingly, is what Matt Williams said in his opening remarks to the rest of the competition during the premiere mat chat of Survivor 49. The airport ramp agent had no trouble publicly expressing how he could face turbulence early on, the oldest person on his tribe by over 15 years. But he was able to bank on being a frequent flier in outdoor experience, proving himself to be invaluable to Hina early on. While the yellow tribe enjoyed immense success in every challenge the first three episodes, Matt wasn’t yellow about starting to play the game. He assembled a majority alliance of four, and eagerly went on the first journey of the season. And while he ultimately came up short in the competition, he walked away with what was a very different advantage: Cross-tribal relationships with Jake Latimer and Jawan Pitts.

Matt had no idea, only a few days later, his game would make an unexpected landing for one hell of a layover. A swap brought the tribes down from three to two. And suddenly, while he remained at the same camp, he was on the outside looking in, left with only Jason Treul as an ally. On top of that, the self-proclaimed “Trojan Horse” opened up his belly, revealing to everyone his secret background in finance. When the new tribes finally broke Hina’s winning streak, the dreadlocked man was dreading having to face his first vote. Knowing he was on the bottom, he decided to take a mile-high shot, trying to swing Jawan over to get rid of the perceived Uli leader, Nate Moore in the hopes of getting upgraded from coach to first-class. Unfortunately for Matt, the “Section” failed to come together without his wingman. Nate called him out both to his face and in the voting booth for trying to make a move against him, and rallied everyone to ground his game. For Matt, his first Tribal Council would up being terminal.

Now out of the game, Matt talks about why he chose to walk out of the game with nothing, whether he overcame the generation gap and the many alliances we didn’t see from his time on the island.

I want to start with where things ended. I noticed that you walked out of Tribal Council with just the clothes on your back. Were you so shocked to go that you just forgot to grab anything? Had you already checked your luggage for the flight home?
[Laughs.] There’s so much happens that just doesn’t make the cut, doesn’t make the edit. But you saw in last night’s episode, Sophi was actually able to use Nicole’s shoes that she had left back at camp. And we were sleeping in that shelter made of bamboo, which was so uncomfortable, and we were trying to wedge clothing in between the bamboo pieces and stuff. And I knew that I had one path forward and a very slim probability of being there the next day. And I told Jawan, “You know what, if it’s me, I’m going to leave my stuff. There’s absolutely no value to anything in this bag to me back in the world. But maybe you guys can use it for whatever, a pillow.” And so I intentionally just left it there, thinking they could use it. But it backfired on me, because after the episode, they handed it to me and said, “You can’t leave this.” Apparently, if I left it at camp, that’s okay. But I brought it with me to Tribal. So I brought it back to Ponderosa with me after I left.

You mentioned that there was a slim probability you would survive. So what did you think your chances were going into Tribal Council? Did you ever contemplate playing your Shot in the Dark?
No, I never thought of the Shot in the Dark. How it was edited, Jawan and I chatted briefly, and then he immediately went and ratted me out. But while you’re there on the island, it’s, it’s a long process. Jawan and I actually have a long conversation. So we were talking with Jason and Sophi, and we were coming up with this plan, and none of it made the edit. But I really thought [that] there’s a chance. It wouldn’t really make sense for Jawan to do it. It’s too early for a big move, and he’s sitting in us in a nice spot, but I thought there’s a chance. And if Jawan goes with me and writes down Nate’s name, and then I throw away my vote and play a Shot in the Dark, what kind of chump would I look like? [Laughs.] I’m putting all my eggs in this basket, and I don’t feel great about it. But I’m not going to be the guy that that screws it all up when the other players are making it happen.

What made you decide to put your eggs in the targeting Nate basket? And what was your reaction when he called you out at Tribal Council about it?
Well, again, a lot of the conversation didn’t make the edit, but Jawan and I got friendly at the journey we went on. We actually made another alliance. Jawan, Jake and I were talking about, “Hey, you get one guy. I’ll get one guy. You get one guy. We’ll meet at the merge, and we’ll be six strong, and no one will know.” And so Jawan and I had a little bit of history. I felt confident talking with him. And he thought, “I’m on the bottom over here,” and that’s what made me think there’s a chance I can flip him.

And even though I had very little information other than what Jawan was feeding me, I assumed that Nate was pretty much in the leadership role over there. And if Jawan’s in the bottom, Nate’s on the top, hey, Jawan your big move is get rid of Nate! And that was my pitch. And apparently he wasn’t ready. He wasn’t enough on the bottom. He played it safe, he played it smart, and I went home. But I thought, “I really don’t have a whole lot of options here.” I drew the wrong color buff, and here’s where I’m at. I’m not going to start a campaign to keep me and get rid of Jason. I thought this was a better, bigger, bolder move. And if it worked, it would have been awesome. And it didn’t happen.

You told me before the season that you wanted to be a “Trojan Horse” in hiding your finance background. But you chose to open up about it to everyone on your new tribe. Why did you decide to do that? And what was your reaction to Savannah saying that people who work in higher-up positions like yours are sociopaths?
[Laughs.] What’s funny is, even after the game, over the last several months, I never really puzzled it out and put it together that somehow that would be used against me. Until I watched the show last night and I see Savannah [saying], “He’s smarter than he’s leading on. He’s a sociopath.” [Laughs.] And then I kind of stepped back. I thought, “Well, I’m playing Survivor. Of course they’re going to use anything they can against me!” Maybe I should have just said, “I’ve been nothing but an airport employee my entire career. Here’s who I am. Love it or leave it.” But you give them anything, they’ll use it as ammunition to steer the game one way or the other. And in retrospect, I should have kept my mouth shut. I really thought, “What do you care what I did 20 years ago?” But yeah, I have a past. I’ve done a lot of really cool stuff that I’m proud of. And I didn’t think that talking about it would be used as a reason to “get rid of that guy, he’s sketchy.”

Before the swap, we saw you put together an alliance of four on Hina. What do you think would have happened if you had gone to Tribal Council before the swap? Especially now, knowing MC wasn’t entirely thrilled about you telling her she was brought in as a fourth?
I don’t know. It depends on when we went. I think initially in the first day or two, it would have been Jason. But Jason grows on you; what a cool guy Jason is. But right out of the gate, it’s like, “Well, we want to be strong when these challenges.” We had no idea how good he was at puzzles. He really was a game changer. And after a couple of days there, why the hell would you get rid of Jason? So things are moving.

But another thing they didn’t show, didn’t make the edit, was Steven and I were very friendly. We formed a Final Three alliance within an hour of being on that beach. And it’s kind of hokey, and it’s Steven’s idea. Our alliance was called the “Early Birds.” And every time we walked by each other on the trail, we go, [Makes bird head with his hand.] “Cheep cheep. Cheep cheep.” Keeping in touch with one another, kind of low key. Talking with Steven after the game, he’s like, “Dude, I was 100% in on that.” And so you didn’t see it from the Edit, but Steven and I were going to vote together no matter what. And so I think if Hina had gone to Tribal, I was in a decent spot, I don’t think I would have been voted out if it was the original Hina six making the decision.

We talked preseason about the fact that you just wanted to come across as the laid-back older guy who was going to work on the fire and shelter. But when I got to visit your camp, I saw you constantly going out for wood, but mostly looking for idols. Did you ever worry that perception would be challenged by what you were doing out in the jungle?
Absolutely. Steven even pulled me aside and said, “Bro, you got to quit disappearing. People are talking. They know you’re out looking.” They should be out looking too! This is Survivor! So, yeah, you got to balance it. And the fact that people were noticing means I didn’t do a very good job balancing it, but I do it all the same. I mean, I really am not going to go out on that island and not look for an idol and not try and find an advantage and not try and play the game. MC ended up finding it. I know exactly that tree. I looked everywhere else, other than that hole in that tree.

You opened up both before the game and on the mat Day 1 about being the oldest person there. Do you ever feel like you were able to overcome that generation gap with your tribe?
I don’t know. That’s a tough one. I think I overcame the age gap with just who I am and talking, “Hey, we’re Hina strong, and I’m making contributions.” And I don’t think there was ever any conversation about, “He’s old. We got to get rid of him because he’s old.” If they were going to get rid of me, it would have been something other than my age. But one thing I rolled around is how different it would have been if they’d have put Annie, Nate and me all on the same tribe, where we did have that commonality with all the older people. Instead, we were split, one on each tribe. And I don’t know if that was intentional. I don’t know what makes good TV. But I think it would have been interesting to have some other players on my initial tribe closer to my age.

But then you wouldn’t have learned about the Super Smash Bros. community!
[Laughs.] Still means nothing to me. I have no idea what these guys are talking about. Sometimes I felt like I was on iCarly rather than on Survivor. Now we got the “Shoe Bandit.” What’s this have to do with being on Survivor? But I guess being resourceful, catching crabs, cooking, lighting fires, I guess that doesn’t make for good TV. Never thought of that going into it. I should have played it to the cameras and doing some some crazy stuff, rather than just providing and surviving.

In that same breath, I will tell you I did have aspirations of turning the corner. And I thought, “Once I’m at the merge, I’m really going to try and come alive. But right now, I’m going to be ‘Aligabler.’ Just got to stay off the radar and wait until it’s the individual challenges, and then I’m going to really turn it on.” But as you know, here I am! [Laughs.] I’m not at the merge, and I’m not participating in individual challenges. So never really got the opportunity to flip that switch, who knows what would have happened.

I had a great time. I enjoyed every minute of it. I’s go back in a heartbeat if they asked me. But Jake can say, “I didn’t lose, I got bit by a snake.” The way I look at it is, it was just bad luck. To win Survivor, you’ve got to get lucky a couple of times. And that tribe swap, I got unlucky. I picked the wrong buff, and that’s why I went home. And that’s what I tell myself anyway. Not much I could have done. I tried. I went out swinging and proud of the game I played. Even though you didn’t see much of me on the screen, they were focused on the losing tribe. Occupational hazard of being the winning tribe is you’re not going to be the focus of that episode. And when you win every single challenge, can’t expect to really be focused on from a production standpoint.