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" A self-described leader, Survivor: Nicaragua&amp;#039;s Jimmy Tarantino struggled to display his skills to his fellow Espada teammates, who were reluctant about letting him step up. His insistence on playing a bigger role in the group quickly made him a target for elimination and during Wednesday night&amp;#039;s Tribal Council, his fate was sealed as he secured five votes and was sent home from the competition. We caught up with the 49-year-old to discuss where it all went wrong and what the future holds.  What was going through your mind at Tribal Council as your Espada teammates admitted their feelings about you? &amp;quot;At that emotional pause, when I stopped, the harsh reality set in that I had failed to do what I so desperately wanted to do which was make America proud to vote for me.&amp;quot; What would you do differently if you were able to repeat the experience? &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s no question in my mind - the next time I play this game, I will play with my head not my heart. I was hoping what had been working for me for 49 years would still work in the game and bring me success, which was just being honest and genuine and hard-working. I wore myself to a frazzle.&amp;quot; You often asked your tribemates for chances to become a leader. Why didn&amp;#039;t you just insist? &amp;quot;Because that was an even more sure-fire way to get me out of there, if I went against everyone. I did think about it, about why I didn&amp;#039;t bring up that they were blindly following Marty to the slaughter house like sheep. I wanted to try something different and win a challenge. I can&amp;#039;t believe they didn&amp;#039;t pick up after the sandbag on the barrel challenge that if they had chosen me to lead, I could have won that challenge. But it&amp;#039;s crazy what people will go along with just to save themselves.&amp;quot; Everyone was clearly against you leading the group. Why do you think they didn&amp;#039;t want you to have that opportunity? &amp;quot;I think there&amp;#039;s two parts to that. The leaders obviously didn&amp;#039;t want me to step up because they knew I could succeed and when I did, it would make them a target and make them accountable for the mistakes they had made so far. And for the followers, they wanted to do what they were told. Several times you saw Jill say we should vote Dan off and Marty would say no and she&amp;#039;d go along with whatever he said. Everyone did the same. Marty tried to point the finger at me for being paranoid but everyone there is overly defensive and can&amp;#039;t see the forest for the trees.&amp;quot; Could you have adapted to only being a &amp;quot;follower&amp;quot; if you stayed in the game? &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s real tough for my personality to sit on the back of the bus while the driver is driving you towards the cliff. I&amp;#039;m not that kind of person and I never will be that kind of person. That being said, when I play Survivor again, I will sit on the back of the bus and keep my mouth shut until I get my confessional interview. I&amp;#039;ll allow the person to drive the bus and I&amp;#039;ll jump off at the last minute.&amp;quot; What did you make of Marty&amp;#039;s gameplan and how he&amp;#039;s approached the game? &amp;quot;When you see Marty in his confessionals on TV, you see the mad scientist in him and you see him for what he really is. Marty is an excellent Survivor player. He&amp;#039;s used to being in boardrooms and manipulating people, which I&amp;#039;m not. He&amp;#039;s good at keeping calm and lying to people, which I&amp;#039;m not. He was excellent at the social game. That&amp;#039;s something I&amp;#039;ve still yet to perfect but I&amp;#039;ll work on it. It&amp;#039;s certainly served him well.&amp;quot; Espada has sort of fallen apart lately and really struggled to put up a united front. Why do you think you guys struggled more than La Flor? &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s a good question. I&amp;#039;m surprised - I thought the first couple of times I pleaded for a shot [to lead] that after we failed for a few times, the other members would say I could step up. Holly did at the end but it was a little too late. In hindsight, I&amp;#039;m pretty certain they will regret their decision. I was honestly out for the good of the tribe and not, as Jeff Probst said, an egomaniac that wanted attention. I think if you watch those videos you&amp;#039;ll see in my eyes that I tried to stay calm and be a voice of reason but Marty squashed it.&amp;quot;  Do you think that your leadership skills would have been more appreciated if you were on La Flor? &amp;quot;Yeah, I think I might have gotten a couple of opportunities. We had conversations pre-challenge of what the strategy would be and those conversations largely took place between Marty, Jimmy and Tyrone. I would try to insert my opinion and Marty would come in and squelch me. I know and they know that I could have won us a couple of those challenges. Not the last one, because I think we did the best we could with that, but I could have won others if given the opportunity.&amp;quot; What did you struggle with most during your time on the show? &amp;quot;To not be appreciated for trying to do the right thing. I could give you a hundred examples but I&amp;#039;ll give you one - trying to show someone how to tie something. You&amp;#039;re doing it to make them better and improve the tribe&amp;#039;s well-being and I thought that would have been appreciated. But when you show someone something, they&amp;#039;re looking around trying to see if anyone is looking to see that they&amp;#039;re weak. It happened with construction, with food supplying. It&amp;#039;s very frustrating because you try to be a good team player and you end up resented for it, and even targeted.&amp;quot; You&amp;#039;ve mentioned playing the game again in the future - would you ever return to Survivor? &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m 100% sure that I would go back if I was asked, but I&amp;#039;m less sure that they would ask me. Unfortunately Jeff Probst doesn&amp;#039;t seem to like me and finds me annoying which saddens me because I thought I gave him some honest opinions. But if given the opportunity, I will play and I will win.&amp;quot; Survivor airs Wednesdays on CBS &amp;amp;gt; Click here to read our recap of the latest episode "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/survivor/interviews/a280964/jimmy-tarantino-survivor-nicaragua/>