There’s no denying that Kelli Harris’ Australian Survivor journey was a ride, but Kelli says that she was playing up so that viewers could be entertained.

During Kelli’s time on the show, she was sent over to the Titans by her own tribe, received countless negative comments from her fellow castaways about her enthusiastic personality, and even got into a bit of a showdown with Valeria at her final Tribal Council.

But, while Kelli was certainly a lot to watch, during an interview with Chattr, the psychologist said that she was purposely stirring the pot to make the show more interesting.

“Production put me in the Rebel tribe for a reason,” she said. “I don’t like boring things and I don’t like them to be mundane why wouldn’t you stir the pot? I love comedy. So it was good to watch that play out as well.”

Kelli said that she used her experience as a psychologist to get under her tribemates’ skin.

“I knew exactly what dynamics were going on. I saw everything that was going on,” she said.

“What I’m what I’m brilliant at is understanding people, watching dynamics, seeing slight micro-level changes in alliances – from who gets served the first food to who asked someone if they want to come to the well – there are so many signs of these little alliances and I watched every single detail.”

“my whole job as a psychologist is to dig deep and trigger emotional reactions in people. And that’s what I did on the island, I wanted to trigger emotional reactions in people because I knew the audience would be triggered by that too and that would make for a great game and a great TV show,” she added.

Kelli on her spat with Valeria at Tribal Council

In recent episodes, castaway Valeria has been getting increasingly frustrated with her fellow players. Once, a relatively chilled contestant, her first sign of firiness was aimed at Feras during Charles’ eviction.

But, it was Kelli’s Tribal Council where Valeria really fired up, she accused the psychologist of throwing her alliance “under the bus” and told her she was going to “cope with the consequences”.

Kell said she wasn’t offended by Valeria’s harsh comment, but said she’d seen the fire in Valeria all along.

“I’d seen that side of Valeria. Valeria is obviously a businesswoman in her own right. And she’s used to calling in the shots, and I tried to come in and call the shots and I think Valeria just reacted very strongly to that,” Kelli explained.

“It’s her decision, and it’s her game, and she’s entitled to do that. But yes, I did see the evolving change in Valeria towards me, because, you know, from Valeria’s perspective, I was dumb and stupid, because that was the game that I played.”

Stream Survivor Australia 2024 Sundays – Tuesdays at 7:30pm on Channel 10 and 10Play.

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