Venus Vafa reveals why she wasn't the biggest villain of Survivor 46

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Survivor 46 episode 11.

Venus Vafa knows you think she's the villain of Survivor 46. But the opinionated 25-year-old data analyst doesn't actually hate that.

"I consider myself a villain in the fun atmosphere of the Survivor-verse, in the sense that, I'm a villain where I'm going to give you face, I'm going to give you c---y lines, I'm going to be sassy," Venus tells Entertainment Weekly. "I'm going to storm in on you during your alliance conversation. I'm going to storm in on you during your idol hunt, Hunter. I'm a villain in a very fun-loving and playful way — I was never a villain in the sense that I was never malicious towards anyone. I did everything with the best of intentions, truly."

That's why she believes there were much worse villains this season that aren't getting the same kind of heat that she has, both in the episodes and from viewers watching.

"The people in my season, a lot of those who label themselves as heroes are the real villains because they had such — I don't want to say sinister, but it was very shocking to me how cruel they were to me," she says. "Because I quite honestly did not do anything to warrant the amount of hate I was getting. People really underestimate the the cruelty of social isolation, to not be spoken to, to not be acknowledged, to be met with silence, blank stares, and smirks for however long period of time. It psychologically really messes you up. I was in a very dark place and it sucked that I had no one to talk to."

While her social game was struggling, it seemed as if Venus was turning a corner in this week's episode. She came close to winning the immunity challenge but lost to Maria Shrime Gonzalez, and found a hidden idol but hinted to Charlie Davis that she had it. Ultimately, Charlie flipped the votes from Q Burdette to her, and she became the third person in a row to leave with an idol in her pocket. Below, Venus breaks down the exact moment where her game went wrong, why Ponderosa was more "traumatizing" than the actual game, and so much more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You had the idol, you came so close to winning the challenge — what happened?

VENUS VAFA: Oh my god, that's the question of the hour. Everyone's like, "Why didn't you play it? You knew!" And I did know, it wasn't really a blindside, but I'm very much a gambling kind of girl. I like to take big risks, and I knew it was a risk. But it was one that I thought would be the determining factor of my endgame. Realistically, if I wasn't able to win Charlie over, then that speaks to more about my game and the struggles I would have had later on.

The reason I didn't play the idol was because if I'm able to convince Charlie, great, that speaks to my social game, at least I have more to discuss rather than, "She played an idol in the end." I wanted to be able to rely on other people as well and social connections and the fact that I wasn't able to convince Charlie, that was something that I was like happy going home on. I was at peace with the fact that I wasn't successful in wooing him over and it's fine. You live and your learn, hindsight is 20/20 and everyone is beating me up for that conversation I had with him which I really shouldn't have. What are they going to do without me? Now it's going to be so boring.

When you found that idol, you said you weren’t going to tell anyone about it. Why did you then give a very obvious hint to Charlie that you had something up your sleeve?

[Laughs] I'm so cheeky! Honestly, it wasn't the correct move. I can see that now, watching back, but in the moment my mentality was, and I guess my story throughout the season, as you guys can see is me struggling and fighting to make a connection with my fellow tribe mates. Going on to the show, my strategy was to play a game of loyalty and to find a few people that I could really trust and connect with and be their ride or die. And I was struggling to find that from the very beginning.

With Charlie, we had had enough discussions up into that point where I thought maybe, just maybe, there's something there. There's like a base level of trust and he's someone that I can actually work with to the end. So for me, it was a story of trust. I remember saying to him, "This is a huge risk, but sometimes you just need to trust a little bit and I'm willing to do that." And that's my bad but that's just the type of person I am, I like to lead with loyalty rather than — as people think! — sneaky behavior. 

Do you think if you had just flat-out said, "Charlie, I have an idol, we can use it together after this vote," that would have changed things?

Oh no, no. I think I should have kept my mouth shut and said nothing. And I know that now! I think that's the common theme of the season, is I should have just kept my mouth shut. But we live and we learn. Definitely in the moment during that conversation, I was like, "F---, f---, f---, abort, abort, abort mission. I shouldn't have even started this conversation." But when once I started, I had to commit through.

Did the vote switch from Q to you after that moment, or was it never going to be Q?

No, it was definitely going to be Q, but because that conversation, instead of breeding trust between me and Charlie, I guess it just like widened the chasm of distrust, and I definitely just didn't do a good enough job comforting him in that situation. So he got nervous and for that reason, the vote switched to me last minute. Other people didn't think I had an idol but he was very adamant that I had an advantage. Which, can I just say, as someone who has been pinned as the the loudmouth of the season, who like runs around and tells everyone anything, not only have I never done that, but Charlie did that immediately. I was so upset! You couldn't have kept that conversation between us? It would have helped him. I would have used the idol with him in the next vote but I was expecting too much.

You said you know it was going to be you. When did you start to suspect that your name was going to come up on parchment?

During the Hunter vote — this is actually a common theme from everyone that's been blindsided so far — the person who was writing your name down will refuse to make eye contact with you, when usually during Tribal they make eye contact. During my vote out, I remember I made direct eye contact with Charlie and for the first time ever, he was not making eye contact back with me. And that was as Jeff was about to read the votes. And in that moment, I knew, "Oh, s---. I'm out. He has made his mind and it's not me. It's Q that's staying." I knew in that moment. I should have played the idol.

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Well, yeah, if you knew it was you, why didn’t you play your idol?

It's so weird. Because I remember in the moment it felt like everything was in slow motion. I don't know. It clicked in my mind that I was in danger. But then Jeff was like, "Time to read the votes," and I'm like, "Okay, well, it's too late now." I kind of just missed the mark. I had listened to my gut for so much of the season, and that had gotten me in a lot of hot water. And for the first time, I was like, "Ignore your gut, Venus. Just trust Charlie. For once, just trust someone on this island." And that was my downfall. I should not have trusted him at all.

After you just watched Hunter and Tiff go out one after another with idols in their pocket, did that make you more aware of the danger it could happen to you too?

You would think so. You would think that, as someone who's an analyst, that I would look at the pattern of the data sets I had and make a decision based off of that, but I very much play a game, and even in real life, I do things for myself. I don't look at what others have done to dictate what I want to do. So in that moment, I was just thinking of myself and my game. Sure, it wasn't the right move, but I love taking risks. And I would take that risk again.

Who do you blame for your exit?

It's Charlie, 100 percent. Charlie could have swung the votes either way. He had three people on both sides. That conversation is what sunk my game. And that conversation was right before Tribal too, so if I just kept my mouth shut for a little bit longer, Charlie would have stuck to the original vote of Q and I would still be in the game to live another day and potentially use my idol.

It is wild that Q has survived so many Tribal Councils now when he has been the "obvious vote" every time.

That speaks to a lot of the chaos cloud he created. Sitting on your couch, it's easy to watch and be like, "How stupid are you? It's happened three times before, how do you not know?" But in the moment, the confusion that he causes and the repartee that happens during Tribal, especially between Ben and Q, it really leads you to believe in that moment when you're in the hot seat, "Maybe I'm safe because people disliked him so much," or at least they presented it that way. It's easy to fall into that trap, the chaos Q cloud, and I think that was my downfall. I think that was the downfall of those before me. Don't underestimate chaos Q.

What has surprised you the most about watching this season back?

I wouldn't say surprising, but reaffirming — I went into the show for representation, because so rarely do you see women of color, especially Persian women, in in the media. I knew I would have a hard time because I'm not the type of person to take things quietly or sitting down. And I knew that I could play that game, but I wanted to be authentic to myself, and to speak my mind as much as I could. And I knew that might rub some people the wrong way. People forget that Survivor is a social experiment. It's a microcosm of society, and whether people like it or not, it really amplifies a lot of the subconscious biases people hold towards others, whether it be women, or people of color, or whatever it may be.

You can see in this episode with Maria's behavior towards me, you can see some of those subconscious biases amplified in her. I'm not saying that she outright dislikes women, but there is a pattern that you start to see of her behavior towards other women that want to work with her but she just shuts them out. I remember Maria telling me that I remind her of a younger version of herself, which is so unfortunate because she seems to not like the younger version of herself because she didn't treat me very well. 

I feel like people saw me for these characteristics that don't really define who I am. They looked at what I look like at first glance rather than trying to get to know me, and that, unfortunately, is what made the whole game so insufferable for me. I lead with confidence because I struggle with self-confidence. It's funny to look back on it and see that people read that as me being cocky or egotistical, when in reality, I was alone on that island with no support system and no one to talk to. But it was a great lesson. I am so grateful for this experience because I've learned so much about myself, how I come off to others, and I feel like at the end of the day, it's going to make me such a better person.

We have to talk about the Soda vote. Earlier this season, you claimed it was your move, but we also saw Tevin and Liz claiming it was their move. Whose move was it really, and what did you think of what Tevin and Liz were saying about you?

That was freaking hilarious. Listen, there's two sides to every story and as delusional as I did look in that episode, when someone says, "It was you?" you're just going to say yes in the moment, right? You're not going to say no, it wasn't me. There were a lot of conversations and work that I put in to convince Maria and Charlie that I was someone that they could work with. And also, people don't realize this, but a lot of my gameplay halfway through the season come the merge was, "Listen, no one's going to vote for me in the end, so take me to the end with you." That was my pitch because realistically, no one likes me.

As much as people like to say that I had nothing to do with the vote, there are certain things that I did and said that led to that vote being played out the way it was. But it is funny to watch it back and see how much of a bully Tevin was, honestly. The amount of s--- he talked about me behind my back, and I've never said anything negative about him... Tevin would just give me the worst attitude ever. It was honestly heartbreaking for me because I really liked Tevin going into the game. He reminds me of a lot of the people who I'm friends with back home, and like I thought we were going to click immediately, but it breaks my heart that he didn't see that same value in me. No one deserves to be ostracized like that.

What’s something that happened on the island that we didn’t see in the episodes?

A lot of people have been asking if I had a makeup kit out on the island, which I don't, but I did have a little skincare routine that people weren't aware of. There was a bush that Hunter showed me with a lot of tiny red peppers, and I would take those peppers because they were really spicy and I would use them as a lip plumper, because I was like desperate to look somewhat presentable on that island. I would use the sand as like a little lip scrub. I would do my little haircare routine. I enjoyed the island makeup and it's fun to see people like confused on how I look. Oh my god, everyone gets island hot.

Was anyone in particular catching your eye when they got island hot?

Oh, hell no. I hated everyone out there! They were all so vile and rude to me that I had zero attraction to any of them.

What were the vibes like at Ponderosa?

The vibes were terrible. I was terrified going to Ponderosa because I was like, "All of these people hate me." And then when I got there, several of the people there straight up did not talk to me, even though I still made an effort to be like, "I'm sorry if I came off negatively or if I rubbed you the wrong way, I genuinely didn't mean it." Silence, did not speak to me. And then a few of them actually personally attacked me and my character, saying that I was a joke and that no one liked me. Honestly, Ponderosa was more traumatizing than the game because I was met with a lot of hostility that I didn't really expect because the game was the game, and Ponderosa should be separate from that. It was a very difficult time. I felt even lonelier at Ponderosa than I did in the game. It was hard. I'm going to tear up right now because I'm going through the trauma again, but it wasn't a fun time. The best time was just playing Scrabble with Hunter — that was the only time I enjoyed Ponderosa.