Marvel producer Nate Moore was identified early on as a potential winner of Survivor 49 by Jeff Probst himself. On the On Fire podcast tied to Survivor Season 49 Episode 7, Probst revealed that he called Nate a “home run” in his casting notes and that he “could win with the right group, which I don’t say about everybody.” (Read our Episode 7 recap here for more details about “Blood Will Be Drawn” and the On Fire podcast.)
Indeed, Nate was a strong player from the start, but he was concerned about forging bonds with younger players given their age gaps. He told everyone that he was a stay-at-home dad instead of revealing that he’s produced some of Marvel’s most successful films, such as Black Panther and Captain America: The Winter Soldier — the latter is a film that some players said was their favorite Marvel flick during filming, he tells TV Insider. He couldn’t speak up and react, but he was flattered all the same.
After a blindside staged by Sage Ahrens-Nichols, Jawan Pitts, Steven Ramm, and other players who had yet to have the chance to make a big move, Nate became the first member of the Survivor 49 jury in the November 5 episode, shocking him and his Uli alliance that had been dominating the game until this point.
Here, Nate reacts to his elimination and Probst’s praise from On Fire.
No one on the show found out that you were a Marvel producer during filming. When did the cast find out that you’ve made what’s probably a lot of their favorite movies?
Nate Moore: It wasn’t until after it was all said and done. And it was funny because I think I wasn’t the only person who wasn’t completely honest about their jobs, but I think that was the biggest swing from like, wait, you went from not having a job to having done all this stuff, and it was cool. Look, it was interesting in the moment when Jawan and Rizo would talk about Marvel stuff, or obviously, you saw Jawan and Steven talking about it. The amount of times it came up where I was like, Oh, I can’t say anything was fun, but I didn’t think if I went in there saying my job, my worry was that no one would ever give me $1 million.
Do you think it’s because of like, well, he works in Hollywood, he doesn’t need the money kind of thing?
Yeah, I think so. I mean, whether or not that’s right, I think the thought is, why would you give it to that guy who has money? And honestly, if I was on the other side of it, yeah, that would be a hard decision unless I had a super compelling case. But you get to know people so intimately out there, you’re really looking for big and small things to make judgments. And I didn’t want people to judge me on a title.
Did you hear anyone talking about movies you worked on specifically?
Oh, yeah. Totally. [He heard] “The Winter Soldier‘s my favorite movie!” I’m like, yeah, I made that movie! Great. Also flattering. That’s cool. But part of me does have a little buyer’s remorse of going, “Hey, if I would’ve led with that, there certainly would’ve been more connection points with some of my tribe mates,” because there was clearly a generational divide at the least. So part of me goes, “Oh, if I would’ve just been honest, I wonder if there would’ve been more overlap,” and maybe I would’ve had stronger bonds with some people. But you never know.
Robert Voets / CBS
That is interesting to think of because everyone has seen Marvel movies, so that would give you a talking point across generations for sure. Did watching this episode back help you better understand your elimination?
Yes and no. I had a pretty good sense of why, and it’s interesting. I think we knew that there was a chance Sage and Jawan were going to flip for a lot of reasons. I think the Shannon [Fairweather] vote, as much as they had a unifying story, it didn’t 100 percent pass the smell test, but it made you think. But what you didn’t see is, Sage and I actually had a conversation where she revealed that Shannon had told her that she was sort of not in the core four. And so I knew there was repair to be had there, and I knew if Sage knew that, then Jawan knew. They just spent a couple of days together. But the pitch from our perspective was, Hey, Sage and Jawan stay with us because then you, you’re kind of guaranteed top six. Whereas if you flip, you’re in a collection of seven people of which you don’t know where you stand. We kind of knew, as much as Alex [Moore] was playing both sides, that he wasn’t really with us, but we thought, certainly, I thought from a numbers perspective, it made sense to stay. And so we knew there was a chance we were in trouble, but if we could pass this vote, if we could get through this one vote, the game would be wide open for all of us.
The episode did make it seem like the Shannon story was believable to most people, but as you said, it didn’t really pass the sniff test. What made it sound legit?
Well, because even when I was on Uli with Sophie [Sagreti] and Kristina [Mills] and Alex, they were talking about how Shannon was talking a lot about religion and stuff. That was probably less present in my time with Shannon on Uli. I will say, again, I’m pretty aware of how Shannon’s been talked about, certainly online post-show. My interactions with Shannon were awesome. That’s not really how she presented to me all the time. She was just a genuine kid from Boston who I really dug, and certainly I, at least, was like, “That doesn’t really sound like the person I spent the first part of the game with.” But as I said in the interview, certainly the pressure can make you do a lot of things, but there, it’s interesting, I watched it with my wife and she was like, they could have just said the real story of what she did, which was just trying to vote Johan off that didn’t need to be as heightened as it was. It was when they started to heighten it about her wanting to talk to not letting people talk to each other, that I started to go, “This doesn’t really sound like the person that I knew anyway.”
Related‘Survivor 49’: Shannon Reveals Sage Hug Finally Happened & Where They Stand Now
I agree that the truth probably would’ve worked in that moment. If they felt closer to Jawan and Shannon was trying to get him out, that’s a reason to vote her out.
That’s why some of the details seem so extreme that you’re like, “Why would she do that?” I was like, “The truth is fair enough.”
Also, effective lies have a little bit of truth to them. Just say that Shannon was playing too hard.
Yeah, playing too hard. If Sage had just said, “Hey, she said my name when we were on Hina,” I would’ve been like, “I get it.” That’s why I was like, “Oh, this does seem a little big for what was happening.”
Heading into tribal council, how confident were you that you would successfully get Steven voted out, and who did you think was on your side outside of your Uli alliance?
The last conversation I had before Tribal was with Savannah, and I said, “It’s either me or you that’s catching votes tonight.” We all knew [the people with idols weren’t] going to catch any votes, and I thought either Savannah and I would catch five. I was pretty sure Alex was going to flip. I did think Sage and Jawan would stick with us because I just thought the numbers argument was unassailable. I didn’t realize how close Sage and Jawan had gotten to Steven. And so part of me wonders if we hadn’t said Steven, if we would’ve said Kristina, if maybe there’s a different outcome in there. So I certainly, and you can watch it back, the first four or five votes, I was sort of like, “Yep, I knew these were coming.” It was like the Matt [Williams] vote. I knew I was going to give votes when Matt voted for me, too. Five was a confirmation that Alex wasn’t with us, which I knew. Six, I was like, “Oh, I’m toast now.” I realized they’re going to flock together. Sage and Jawan were a pair, and we were quite aware. So there was no version of one of them flipping and the other not. So as soon as I got six, I was like, well, I mean, obviously I was out of there, but I knew they both had flipped.
It was 50-50 [between] me or Savannah. I knew it wouldn’t be Sophi [Balderi]. She had such a hard run at Kele. People weren’t looking at her in that way. And I knew it wouldn’t be Rizo because again, they were so afraid of that idol. And so I knew it was going to be one of us, and I did not as much as there was talk about will he play it for other people. I mean, I don’t think it was going to. And I do remember a conversation, I think if I’m remembering correctly, where I was like, “You shouldn’t play it for other people. An idol is so valuable to protect yourself, especially at the point in the game where it’s either going to break in your favor or not.”Jeff Probst had some kind words to say about you on last night’s episode of the On Fire podcast, and I want to get your reaction to them. Have you heard them?I haven’t heard them, no.Robert Voets / CBSHe described you as a “home run” in his casting notes and that you “could win with the right group, which I don’t say about everybody.” He said he “hated” seeing you get voted out. How does that make you feel?[Laughs] I mean, it makes you feel good whenever anybody has anything good to say! I feel great. Look, I truly have seen this since Season 1. I was so excited to be on, but I think he’s right. You watch the show, and you go, “Oh, certain people are good and certain people aren’t good at this game.” And what you realize is, it is so contextual. The right group of people can make somebody feel like a really good player or a bad player, just by who they’re surrounded with and how those other people are playing. And so I thought I got a pretty good draw, but obviously, there was a little bit of a generation gap that I was battling that I don’t think I overcame in the right way. But then I go back and think about other players who I thought were bad, and I go, “Oh, maybe in a different season they could have killed it because it’s who’s on your tribe. What happens? Who gels with whom?” I think sometimes, as fans, we think it’s strategy all the time, and it is some of the time, but you can’t undervalue how much the interpersonal connections and just the reality of you get on with some people and you don’t with others really affects decision making.Related‘Survivor 49’ Castoff Apologizes to Sandra Diaz-Twine for ‘Anyone but Me’ CommentsI see that tribe swap, where you ended up with no one from Uli, as the negative turning point for you. Do you agree?One hundred percent. I didn’t have a great lie. It is interesting. I was thinking about, in watching that episode, both me, MC [Chukwujekwu], and Steven all ended up in various hard situations. But I, of the three, had to defend a voting record where I voted to people off of my new tribe mates. MC got to go over there and say like, “Hey, what’s going on? I’m MC, I want to get to know you.” I had to go be like, “Let me explain why two of your colleagues aren’t here.” And I didn’t do a great job. Sophie called me out very correctly. I wasn’t going to flip on Uli. Had we not come back in that puzzle, I would not have made it [out of] that vote. I was out of there so fast. And then it really, I think, changed the perspective of, oh, Nate is so Uli strong, we can’t try to win him over. I think again, Sophi from Kele did still feel like a free ball. I think that he and old Hina felt like, “Well, maybe we can sway her.” And they kind of knew that it was going to be harder.How did it feel to be the first member of the jury?Good. I mean, look, that’s what you want. That’s all of us, almost since you hit the beach, everybody just talks about making the merge in the jury, partially because it’s so hard to get on the show, and you love the show, and you want to be on the show through the end of it. You want to see the end of the movie. I really feel for the people who don’t get that experience, it does feel like you got half of the experience. So, as upset as I was, and I truly was not happy that I got voted out, at least I was like, “Oh, but I get to see what happens and sort of participate in the end.” It’s cold comfort, but it’s better than nothing, to be honest.If you can’t be the winner, you want to help pick the winner.That’s right. And just know, a lot of my tribe mates who didn’t make it that far, didn’t even know who won for a long time. At least I got to see it. You know what I mean? That’s pretty cool to have a front row seat to a thing you love. It is pretty awesome.Robert Voets / CBSIs there anything else that you wish fans could have seen that didn’t make it into the final edit of any episode?Things we know: The challenges take so much longer, and they’re so hard, they’re physically so hard. And you watch and you’re like, that seems pretty easy. What’s the big deal? But we were dying out there. I went to the medical tent after almost every challenge except for the water challenge. I was overheating all the time. Other things I wish they’d seen when during the first tribe swap, the first person I sought out to try and make bonds with was actually Matt. That’s why I was so salty about him targeting me. I really wanted to work with him. I was just like, Oh, it’s somebody from my generation. Maybe he has kids. And immediately we went hunting for crabs, and we’re hanging out. And then he went fishing with Jawan, and Jawan came back and said, You know was saying your name on the boat? And I was like, bro, we just started! What’s going on? But that was funny.I felt like what you saw of me is who I am. I really did, and still do, really love and connect with Rizo and Savannah and Sophi. We really had a good connection. And as much as I wish I would have gone further, at least I got that. And that’s not nothing.Your face when you got blindsided was, of course, the shock and disbelief. It was the first time your Uli alliance lost. Watching the episode, what was your reaction to Savannah and Rizo and Sophi’s reactions?At Tribal, actually, and they don’t show it, but both [Savannah] and Sophi turned to me and go [gasps], and Rizo just pats me and says, “Sorry, bro.” Because we were close, it was an emotion reaction. And because they’re all very smart, it was the strategic reaction of, “F*ck.” [Laughs.] That’s not a great start to a merged tribe, losing one of your numbers. We were really solid.But again, in the moment, it’s really surreal having your torch snuffed. I didn’t really know what to do. I sort of was sleepwalking through it. I didn’t want to embarrass my wife and kids by being incredibly salty. But it was sad. It’s sad. It really is. It’s the thing you want and you’ve worked towards. And to have it go away was hard, but it is what it is.I can’t imagine how hard it must be to rein yourself in as you’re walking out after being eliminated because you’re like, I’m on camera. I can’t do anything.Yes, yes. And you don’t want to be a poor sport like, “Boo, I hate you!” But you kind of do. Inside, you’re like, “I hate these people.” But it is, look, I was trying to vote them out. I’ve since seen Steven, and he’s a great guy, and he’s like, “Hey, man, I feel bad.” And I’m like, “I voted for you!” I would’ve been like, “Bye, Steven!” So I can’t be mad at them. I’m trying to do the same thing.It’s all good TV.That’s right.Survivor, Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS
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