How Bianca Roses prepped for 'Survivor'
Plus: her special iced coffee recipe.
Two notes. First, there are some Survivor 48 spoilers ahead. (Really just one.) Second, this interview contains some discussion of food restriction in the context of the show, so if that’s not for you, I’ll see you back here next week!
Bianca Roses and I met fresh out of college: I was a baby reporter, covering startups at TechCrunch, and she was a baby startup publicist. We worked together quite a bit, and she struck me as funny, energetic, and persistent, a Jersey girl unleashed on New York City. We kept in touch only sporadically over the years — I’d gone off to write about fashion and then entertainment, so we weren’t in each other’s inboxes as much as before — but we reconnected last year, after discovering that we’d both moved to the D.C. area. We got coffee in my neighborhood, and she told me all about relocating to Virginia and starting her own PR firm, which seemed to be going swimmingly.
It turned out Bianca was harboring another huge life update: She had been cast on the 48th season of Survivor, which filmed in Fiji and has been airing since February. (As of press time, six of 18 contestants remain.) When she announced the news ahead of the show’s premiere, I informed her that I needed to interview her for this newsletter.
Per Survivor PR regulations, we weren’t allowed to talk until Bianca had been voted off the show or won the whole thing. Tragically, she left the island in episode five, after revealing to her castmate Cedrek that she had lost her vote at tribal council — a big swing at alliance-building that appears to have wound up backfiring. (He voted against her.) Still, it was so cool to watch Bianca competing in Survivor’s insane games, which, for me at least, totally recontextualized her everyday confidence and drive.
I had so many questions for her. Like, how do you physically prepare for the show? And where do you use the bathroom on the island? (The answer may shock and delight you!) But I also wanted to hear what she’s taken away from Survivor.
We talked about all of that over Zoom last week. Here’s our conversation, edited and condensed for clarity.
Last spring, we were both training for D.C.’s Cherry Blossom 10-mile race, which I thought was a fun little shared hobby. And then, when I found out you were on Survivor, I realized: Oh, we were perhaps training in very different ways. I want to put that in the context of the show’s timeline. When did you audition?
I sent in my first application video in the spring of 2023. I was about to give notice at my job — the PR agency where I had worked for almost 10 years — and I was about to move to Virginia with my now-fiancé. I was just doing all these crazy things, blowing up my life and taking a ton of risks.
I’ve been watching Survivor since I was eight years old. I’ve been a die-hard forever. It was always in the back of my mind, and the idea just popped into my head: I’m taking so many risks in my very real life. Sending in a video is not that risky. I’ve just got to do it. I was at my parents’ house on the Jersey shore. It was raining. And I was like, you know what? Today is the day. I’m filming this video. I did it, and it snowballed from there.
You only applied the one time?
It was my first time applying, which I feel immensely grateful about. In so many ways, I was unlucky on the show, but I was lucky in that way.
I was very sad to watch episode five. Going back to age eight — was that season one of Survivor?
That was season one, in 2000.
What are your memories of watching it at that age? Because my memory is that I fell asleep on the night of the season one finale with the understanding that my parents were going to wake me up for it. And they didn’t. I woke up in the middle of the night like, “What the fuck?”
I have emotional memories of knowing I wanted to do it, even at eight years old. Most of my real memories are of being with my friends and family and celebrating the finale.
My family always threw big Survivor finale parties. Me and my best friend Jill took them very seriously. We set up tribal [council] — my dad was voted out every single year. I made sure the only food that was allowed to be served was rice, because they were giving contestants rice at the time. My mom would make her famous chicken cutlets, and we would pretend that they were rats that the contestants were eating on the island. You weren’t allowed to eat anything else at our parties.
I think it takes a very certain personality, at that age, to want to be on Survivor. Were you a competitive kid growing up?
I definitely was competitive, but I wasn’t into sports. I did sports because I had two brothers — I was the only girl on the all-boys little league team that my dad coached. But I was a theater kid, through and through. I went to summer theater camp, I grew up doing plays in school, and I would force my brother to put on performances with me just for my parents. I think there was definitely an element of connecting with people [in my desire to be on Survivor], but also being on television was exciting to me, for sure.
I’m not sure I knew that about you. What were your favorite roles as a child theater star?
Okay, so I did a few musicals. I was in Cabaret. I was Curly, one of the Lost Boys in Peter Pan. But my school actually did a lot of original performances —
Okay!
We would write them, so they were not known to the normal person. But I also did a lot of sketch and improv when I lived in New York for 10 years. I did that at UCB, the Peoples Improv Theater, and Magnet Theater. I talked a lot about how I love improvising in my Survivor application and in casting. You need that as a skill on Survivor.
What is it about improv that prepares you for the island?
So much. It’s being able to react instantly in the moment. It’s a lot of listening — in order to make good improv, you really have to listen and connect with your scene partner. I’ll let this person talk and do what they want to do, and I’ll react accordingly.
Improv is also great training for my career in public relations. When I was at the agency, I would encourage everyone to go take an improv class. Honestly, it’s not even just [helpful] for PR, but for professional skills. It helps build confidence. It helps get you out of your shell a bit more.
That makes sense, though I have a huge phobia of improv. My sister is a former theater kid, like you, and loves it. As for your PR background, how do you think that prepared you for Survivor?
I feel like I’m playing Survivor every day. There are so many transferable skills. It’s relationship building. It’s being able to pivot on a moment’s notice. It’s getting to interact with people from so many walks of life. I’m super fortunate to work with so many different diverse founders, and understanding how to communicate with them on a real, genuine level is so important.
I actually went onto the show lying about my job [to the other contestants].
Really?
Yeah. Early Survivor was very much like, if you were a doctor or lawyer, you did not tell anyone that.
Okay, why is that? Because I remember that at the start of the season, one of your castmates was like, “I’m a lawyer, but I’m not revealing that to anyone.”
It’s two things. One, if you are in a career that people perceive to make a lot of money, [they might think] why are we going to hand this person a million dollars? I also think that those are really ambitious professions, so if you’re working with someone highly successful and skilled, that increases your threat level. I’m not saying that as a PR professional I’m on the same level as a surgeon or defense lawyer. But Kaleb [Gebrewold, from season 45], for example — a phenomenal social player — told everyone he was in sales, and that put a massive target on his back. So I do feel like sales, PR, comms professions have become a little bit more of a threat. I went out there saying I work in corporate events.
And definitely not saying that you run your own PR business.
Absolutely. Me running my own business gives immediate overachiever vibes, eldest daughter syndrome.
Are you the eldest?
I am.
I want to talk about preparing for the show. When did you find out that you’d been cast?
You really don’t find out until a couple weeks before.
Oh shit. So you just have to train like it’s happening?
Yes. The second I got the first callback, which was fall of 2023, I started acting like I was going on Survivor. Everyone in my life knows how important manifesting and living out what you want is to me. There’s a long time between the callback and getting told you’re going on the show, but in my day-to-day life, I started prepping immediately. The day after I got the callback, I literally booked all of my laser hair appointments…
Wait, that was one of my questions! Can you shave?
No! No, you cannot shave.
Okay, so you booked your appointments and got all of the hair taken off your body.
I was like, just naked mole rat me immediately.
And then what about physical training?
I gave up alcohol two months in advance, except for my best friend’s wedding. I was the maid of honor, and I definitely had some drinks there. I made sure I was working out six days a week. I was running two days a week, doing yoga two days a week, and lifting weights two days a week. I started swimming a lot more.
I was mentally preparing, doing my affirmations and manifestations. I was surrounding myself with a ton of love from my friends and family. A month in advance, I also cut all of my meals in half. I was strictly doing Whole30, which is no gluten or dairy.
I also learned how to make fire in our backyard, which is a patio. My best friend sent me a flint — she was also helping me manifest after I got the callback — with a little note that said, “Drop your buffs.” My fiancé, who is big on the outdoors, taught me how to light a fire. I had a goal where, three nights a week, I had to make a fire in order to go to bed.
That is wild.
We would do puzzles for like two hours a day. We’d do slide puzzles online, and then he ordered me a ton of puzzles from Amazon. My brother sent me a full reenactment of one of the infamous Survivor tree puzzles that you can get on Etsy.
Did you go camping at all?
I actually didn’t go camping. My fiancé was like, “A week before you go, I’m forcing you to sleep on the ground with no pillow.” I didn’t do it. I was like, I’ll just figure it out when I get there. It’s going to be uncomfortable anyways.
I also had to [stop using] my Invisalign because there’s no teeth brushing. People don’t realize how real the show is. I didn’t want to have to wear these out there and not brush or wash them.
I definitely didn’t realize you couldn’t brush your teeth. So what are you eating on the island?
It’s funny, yesterday one of my clients was like, “It’s so weird that they don’t show you guys eating.” And I was like, “What do you mean?” He was like, “They never show when they give you food.” I’m like, “Kyle, they do not give us food!”
It is so legit, Eliza. We were not given any food. The only food I had in 11 full days out there was a couple bites of coconut, a couple bites of cassava — my swap tribe had that at their camp — and one fruit. I had, like, one banana.
Holy cow. But you have water.
We do have water.
So what did that feel like?
I was never actively hungry, which is crazy. I think I was running on pure adrenaline and excitement. But you start to feel it after a few days. Feeling super lethargic, feeling cloudy in your head, feeling slower overall.
And then you consider the crazy activities that you guys are doing. I was having a small panic attack during the challenge where you had to burrow under a log through the sand and come out the other side. I can’t imagine doing that while you’re in a mental fog.
It’s really hard. All I can say is, the adrenaline carried me the entire time.
Now, bathrooms. I assume there are none.
Zero bathrooms. It’s a good assumption, because a lot of people assume there are bathrooms. There are no porta-potties. Production doesn’t dig a hole and say, “Here’s your toilet.” Literally nothing.
Is there conversation with your teammates about designating an area for the bathroom?
Yes, you do designate an area. This is super public, but we are told to “aquadump,” which is pooping in the ocean, because that’s just the most sanitary way to go to the bathroom.
So, setting aside aquadumping, what are you carrying forward from Survivor into your life?
A lot. The biggest thing is that I’m really proud of how I played the game. Even though I took a big calculated risk that didn’t work out, I tried to make a move. That feels like a true reflection of me as a person. I took a big risk to leave my job and start my own company. I even took a big risk leaving my entire family in New Jersey to move to Virginia. I’m a risk-taker innately, so even though it didn’t work out, I feel inspired by the fact that I did that. I want to keep doing that in my life.
I also left with this big sense of: Whoa, you really can’t control a lot. Obviously that pertains to the game, but in life, there are so many things you can’t control. How are you going to navigate circumstances and deal with the outcomes? I know that even though I might not be able to control something, I have control over how I react and move forward.
For me, the hardest part of the whole show was getting voted out. Going through that early and coming back from that was just a big old lesson in how to get through something you can’t control.
I think that’s really wise. Finally: I know you cut out caffeine before going on Survivor, and that, now that you’re back on it, you make yourself a salted maple iced latte every Friday as a treat. Can you exclusively reveal your recipe to readers of The Scumbler?
Okay, so I do this once a week because I actually don’t like sweet things, but I do love a little fun treat once in a while. My coffee is iced espresso — you can even use concentrated cold brew that you don’t dilute — with good milk. I’m not like David [Kinne, her milk-obsessed castmate], but I’m all-in on farmer’s market cow’s milk. I need to send an email to whoever did the PR for oat milk when I was living in New York, because they did a fantastic job.
I actually know someone who used to rep Oatly.
Of course you do. I was convinced that I was obsessed with oat milk — but no, I’m actually deeply obsessed with cow’s milk now. So it’s real milk for me, then the smallest little dollop of pure maple syrup, then the fun part: some flaky sea salt. Put it all in a mason jar with ice, then give it a really, really good shake. It’s so good.
I asked my most outdoorsy friend if she knew about aquadumping, and she responded: “Dilution is the solution to pollution.”
Anyway, do you feel inspired to take some big swings? I do. I also feel inspired to make myself a salted maple latte.
Oat milk forever though,
Eliza
Wow this is fascinating, from the improv and PR skills to the bathroom situation. Mind blown!!