Richard Hatch has left the House of Villains — and he took what little clothes he wore around the manor with him.
On Thursday’s (October 24) new episode of the E! competition show, the Survivor alum was voted out unanimously — despite having a few allies on his side, including Kandy Muse and Jessie Godderz, and even more people who thought Safaree should be eliminated as a threat.
Throughout the season, Hatch employed some good scheming and manipulation efforts, but he didn’t exactly make friends. In fact, he thought that was the exact opposite of what it means to “play” this particular show’s game, so he wasn’t about to try making nice with perceived nemeses like Wes Bergmann and New York.
So how does Hatch feel about that unanimous vote against him? And is another season of Survivor potentially in his future? TV Insider caught up with Hatch to find out!
Your final pitch in the stronghold was risky. What was the strategy with your stronghold room speech?
Richard Hatch: So listen, what I’m was trying to get across to these people was that they really aren’t playing the game, and I don’t know how many of them even followed me, but maybe you didn’t either as you’re asking. But my point was I could say anything I wanted to say.
It didn’t mean that that was true. And unfortunately, when I came into the game, I thought all these people would be, after 24 years of unscripted dramas here to play the game, “Let’s play, let’s play hard.” Very few were playing the game. Most were wrapped up in their emotions, and, “Are you my friend?” And “I love you” and “I hate you.” And, oh my God, it was exhausting and annoying. It was, “Wait, you’re not playing. I don’t care if you do that to pretend but you’re not pretending. This is you, those tears are real. Oh my God. Get away from me.”
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What about with Safaree? Do you think he was pretending and playing the game with his own speech?
So no, I don’t think he was playing the game. I think he was emotional from the get-go. I think he might disagree. I don’t know, but as his roommate and watching him as closely as I could, I saw him kind of befriending people and wanting to kind of just get along and yes, that’s an approach you can take, but it’s not really if that’s what you’re actually doing, that’s not playing as hard as you might to try and win. So I can’t say to you that I think Safaree was playing. I think he’s one of those that was caught up in lots of emotion and let the emotion rule him.
Was there anybody that you think was actually playing because you seem to have a really strong vendetta against Wes right from the start? It seemed like you two were kind of on equal playing fields.
Isn’t that fun for you to say? So, I’d never seen The Challenge and didn’t know Wes from Adam. Same with New York. So I went in without knowing much about any of these people. I knew Teresa very well. But I picked up on who Wes was almost instantly. Actually, I picked up very quickly on who most of the people were, and I recognized that Wes was prepared to play and attempting to play right from the get-go. So I was approaching him in that way, and I knew that he would be a threat at some point, but I was trying to communicate that to others who doesn’t know what a threat is, who weren’t there to play. They’re just like, “Do you like them?” What do you mean? I don’t care about you whether I like you or not. It was very funny to me. I was really off-kilter.
Were you surprised at all by the vote count? Because Kandy had promised you and then Victoria loosely promised and then you had worked with Jessie.
No, not surprised at all. And in fact, were one or two of them or more to have voted to keep me I think that would have been stupid on their part, and it would have been surprising. We knew — or they knew for sure, but I thought that it was tough — by the time the vote was taken for me to have any kind of a chance. And if they knew that I didn’t have a chance, putting their vote to save me would have put them at risk. So that would have been silly and it didn’t affect my emotions or ego, and I don’t care. It’s part of the game.
So you said you knew Teresa and then obviously you had your allies. In your goodbye speech, obviously, you said you didn’t care about any of them. But were you rooting for anyone when you left?
No, no, no, no, no, that’s not how it works with me. I don’t root for anybody and particularly what I do is I look for who really played hard, who’s really willing to have no holds barred to just go, and within the context of the rules play, no matter what it takes. And that’s what I’ll watch for. That’s what I’ll appreciate. That’s what I’ll reward if I’m in the position to do so. But I don’t ever root for anyone in particular.
You in New York were oil and water. What happened there?
Well, I’ve never in my entire life, literally this long life, ever seen anyone interact with others the way she did. I’ve never seen anyone talk to other people the way she did. And so, at my own expense, I dismissed her. I learned more about her later, but right from the get-go, I didn’t pay attention to it. I thought it was unreasonable to think I would bother to talk to it. It was just irrational, and it was yelling things at people and calling people things… I say “it” because I’m talking about the character. It didn’t seem intentional enough for there to be gameplay going on. It just seemed to me to be what had been developed by Tiffany as this character. She had to be. It was so off-putting that I just dismissed it. It didn’t bother me, just disengage. “Why would I talk to that?” is kind of what was in my head and she picked up on that.
In this show, who do you think is truly a villain?
Well, you know, I don’t subscribe to the real context of the word. I mean, I’m fine with people calling me a villain but villain? I won Survivor by following the rules and blindsiding everybody. Call me a hero. What you think doesn’t affect me so much as what I’ve put effort into considering I’m very introspective. I think I’m very self-aware. So, who do I think of as a villain? I mean, that would be getting personal for me. You know, a game is a game, do anything you want. But if you’re asking me who is a villain? Like a real villain? I don’t know, these are good people. I’ve met them all since and interacted after the game and that’s just very, very different.
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Do you, do you have a relationship with anyone since the show ended?
Sure all of them. We all met for press for a week in New York. We spent time together and who knows what relationships will linger and be built upon? But we’re all, certainly, I’m sure viewers might be surprised after seeing what they saw. We all get along afterward.
You mentioned that you saw some holes in Jesse’s gameplay. I’m just curious if you have anything specific.
“Some,” you’re kidding? I saw holes in all of the participants’ gameplay. Jessie was one who happened to be playing, thankfully. Same with Wes and a couple of them. But yeah, many, many holes in many people’s approach and I don’t want to talk too specifically because some of those holes will be exposed soon. You’ll see the regret.
You talked a bit about Survivor. Do you have any interest in an All-Stars Season or Season 50 or maybe The Traitors?
Sure. I’m confident you’ll see me again. I think something like Traitors is made for me. Something like Survivor? ou know, I’ve played it a couple of times, and it’s an incredible game. I’ve never missed an episode. There’s some real distance between me and the production team. Jeff Probst and Mark Burnett have not acted responsibly in any way with respect to me personally. And I don’t know what other contestants [think] but they could have prevented the devastation in my life and they just didn’t. And I think that’s pretty irresponsible, but that’s kind of personal and that’s separate. Were they to reach out to me? There would be some, a couple of very, very reasonable things that would have to take place, but I would certainly do the game. I would certainly participate. I don’t expect a call, but I’d be grateful if one were made.
In this show, you embraced your identity as the nude guy. How did people react to that?
So it’s a branding kind of thing now, I guess, but there was intention behind it during the original season. There were several reasons. One of them — silly me — thought I might communicate to a public that’s kind of puritanical and restricted. And I’m very well-traveled, and I realized that America has always been kind of off-put by nudity, frightened about nudity, and conflated it, unfortunately, with sexuality. And it’s not. So I thought, “Huh?” I don’t know anyone who’s gone camping and hasn’t been nude. I’m camping on an island with nobody. I’m not gonna pretend I’m not nude and in fact, everyone was at times nude, but they made me the naked guy. So be it. I’m the naked guy, and unfortunately, it hasn’t changed America. We’ve gone backward. I think we’re more conservative now in some strange, uncomfortable ways and that’s frightening.
House of Villains, Thursdays, 10/9c, E!, streaming on Peacock
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