Angelina Keeley is joining a club that is low on membership but high on bravery: she’s returning to “Survivor” for a second time.
It’s the long-running CBS show that tests contestants’ ability to survive the wilderness amid a complicated game of social strategy. Now, for the 50th season, it’s bringing back 24 all-star competitors, including La Mesa resident and season 37 cast member Keeley.
Since she was last seen on “Survivor: David vs. Goliath,” Keeley, 36, started a nonprofit, had two kids and opened a new business in La Mesa called JoyBabe Studio.
“Essentially, the idea is to create a third place for parents of littles, 5 and under, where they really feel like they belong, where it feels elevated, where it feels as calm as it can in that phase of life,” Keeley said. “And just meet people in the community and make some memories together.”
Keeley finished third on season 37 after making it to the final tribal council but receiving no votes from the jury of her fellow contestants. She said that, though a lot of her personality traits from that season are still the same, she’s experienced a lot of personal and physical growth (working out with a trainer beforehand this time) that helped her when the new season filmed in Fiji last year.
“The things I think that are different for me now are just, I think I went into the game with the perspective of taking myself less seriously and taking the game a little bit less seriously in a good way,” Keeley said.
Ahead of season 50’s premiere on Feb. 25, she answered a few questions from The San Diego Union-Tribune. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: What made you decide to go back to “Survivor” for the 50th season?
A: I mean it’s just too epic. Like who in their right mind’s going to say no? … It’s the adventure of a lifetime, or twice in a lifetime for some of us, and also the stars kind of aligned for me timing-wise. If it had been a couple years earlier or even three or four, I wouldn’t have been able to go when my girls were infants. And so I felt really fortunate that, although it was really, really hard to leave a 2 and 5-year-old, I had family and community and friends who really helped make it possible, my partner as well. … And I just felt hungry. I felt ready to just go back and try it again, especially given all the life changes I had had. I mean, I had seven years of time passing, of growth, of watching myself back, being crazy and ridiculous, and just laughing at my shenanigans. And then of course yeah, becoming a mom, just getting older, I mean I was 28 (on “David vs. Goliath”), I was 35 my second time, and I think the curious and adventurous side of me just couldn’t say no to trying my hand at it again and seeing how I might play a little differently given that time and growth.
Angelina Keeley, pictured here during season 37 “Survivor: David vs. Goliath.” (Robert Voets/CBS Entertainment)
Q: You said your strategy was to play a more joyful game this time, are you glad you went with that plan?
A: Of course. Oh, yeah. Yeah, no regrets. I’m honestly just so proud of myself for going and saying yes to it. Because it’s so hard to leave little kids, especially as mom, and there were so many days when I was like, oh my gosh, am I making the right decision? I mean it’s five weeks with no communication, with no updates either way, you’re in a black box, right? … But no, it was worth it. I’m glad I went. Obviously some sacrifices had to be made to do it, but overall, and in the long term, I know I’m going to look back and be proud. My girls are going to be able to look back and be like, that’s pretty cool that my mom said yes to something like that and went and did it.
Q: Will you let them watch?
A: That’s such a good question. So yes, I do plan to let them watch. It is a family show, so that’s helpful. … We don’t do any screen time in the house at all, but the exception will be for “Survivor.”
Q: A question from a local super fan: How did the perception and editing of you in your last season impact your strategy for this season?
A: What I tell people is that you can take snippets of someone’s day and make them look a lot of different ways. So I have those aspects to me, right? Like you know — take control and be assertive, be confident, like a lot of the things we saw, maybe be a little delusional. Then, I mean, I am an entrepreneur, after all, we have to be a little delusional to do something like that. And so are those parts of me true? Yes. But I say, “Yes, and.” The “and” is that there’s so much more too, that’s not shown to, you know, round out the whole picture of it. … I think what was shown made me look more mean than I am in real life, and it also made me look more, like, conniving and stuck up. I’m definitely not those things and so I think, you know, again, I think when people meet me, they see the real me. But that’s the gig you sign up for, right? You relinquish that control and the narrative is the narrative and a story has to be told. But I mean, look, I do own that like I did some stuff that was like totally insane and I will just say I hope it entertained people and I hope it made people laugh. And I’m able to laugh about it now, too.
Twenty-four returning players, including La Mesa’s Angelina Keeley, are abandoned on the islands of Fiji for a monumental 50th season. (Robert Voets/CBS)
Q: So is it hard to not factor that stuff in as you play a second time?
A: Look, I knew going in that because of my game the first time, zero votes and all my antics, that I was coming in with a low threat level. Like, I’m not coming in as like Charlie Davis. I’m not considered, like, one of the best to ever win, right? I’m considered, like, a big personality and entertaining TV. But you know what? We all got a ticket to the show, so I was like, “I’m here, I’m happy to be here, let’s have some fun.” So I factored that in and my strategy with that was like, “OK, let me use that to my advantage” where I hopefully will not be a target early on because, it’s little old me, like, I didn’t get any votes, like, I’m an entertainer. I’m not a threat. Maybe let me just work with you. You know what I mean? You want people to feel that comfort. So that was my thought with that.
Q: You’ve had such a focus on women’s empowerment in your career — is that something you think about playing ‘Survivor’?
A: “Survivor,” when you play it, it unlocks something in you that nothing else can — like something that no school, no other experience I’ve experienced can unlock. It busts you open and it shows you what you’re made of. It pushes you to your limits and beyond, and out of your comfort zone, which, to me, is like, that’s where the growth happens. That’s where you find out like, “Oh, I can do a lot more than I even thought.” … And the thing is like, something inside of you just clicks in, right? Where you’re like, “Yeah, I’m not going to have toilet paper, I’m not going to have any of the luxuries, I’m not going to have, you know, shampoo, soap, whatever, makeup. I’m going to strip myself of all that and just see what happens,” and it’s a total trust fall with yourself, but it’s so life-changing. Like I mean honestly, I’m just so grateful for the experience and to have it twice and, to me, it just makes me walk through life a little bit differently. I don’t think I would have started JoyBabe had I not played “Survivor,” to be honest, because it really just makes you feel like, “Yeah, I can do this.” Like it makes you more delusional. It makes you like, “Yeah, if I could do ‘Survivor,’ I can start a company, I can do X, Y, and Z, I can be a mom,” you know, all the hard things. So it it just builds that resilience, for sure.
Q: Why should someone who has never seen the show tune in for this season?
A: There’s no bad time to start “Survivor.” And the thing is like, once you watch one episode, I guarantee you will understand why it has the legacy it does and why it’s been on for so long. … It really just gets deep into like the human experience in a way that very few things do and that’s what’s so captivating about it. You never know what’s going to happen, you never know where things are going to go. And it’s just the characters. It’s just the people, and that’s what makes “Survivor” so intriguing and fun to watch. And so if you’ve never watched it, try one episode and I promise you’ll be hooked.