“Survivor” alum Figgy talks going on “Squid Game: The Challenge”: 'I came in more confident this time'

"I didn't know if having competed on another show would hurt me or if it would help me and I was nervous," Jessica "Figgy" Figueroa tells EW.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Squid Game: The Challenge episodes 1-3.

It's been seven years since Jessica "Figgy" Figueroa competed on Survivor season 33, "Millennials vs. Gen X," and now she's finally returned to reality TV on Squid Game: The Challenge. But despite the fun Easter egg that she's Player 033 on Netflix's new Squid Game reality show, her past experience on Survivor is never actually mentioned onscreen.

But that doesn't bother Figgy. In fact, she's more than glad that she got to showcase who she is now, seven years after a failed showmance led to her being the sixth person voted off the island. But how does she feel about her Squid Game: The Challenge experience ending because of a game of Battleship? And what was it like playing Red Light, Green Light for more than seven hours? Below, Figgy details all that and more behind-the-scenes secrets from her time on Squid Game: The Challenge.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you end up back on TV with this show?

JESSICA "FIGGY" FIGUEROA: One of my fiancé's coworkers sent me, "You should apply for this show." I was like, "Maybe I should. I love the series." I am pretty impatient — I reached out to my fiancé, "Should I apply for the show?" And didn't hear back from him in time, so I sent in a 60-second video and I was like, "Too late. I sent it in." Didn't think twice about it and I didn't put too much effort into it either. And now I'm here.

Had you applied for other reality shows after Survivor, or was this your first foray back into reality TV?

This is the first one. It's been seven years. It reminds me of the GIF with the Titanic old lady that says, "It's been 84 years."

So what made Squid Game: The Challenge the show to break your reality TV hiatus?

I loved everything about [Squid Game]. I was really captivated by how well the series was produced, and once I heard that the show was going to be turned into the biggest game show ever, I was like, "This sounds like the ultimate game show." I thought it was Survivor, but wait a second, there's Squid Game: The Challenge, so I just had to apply because I'm super competitive. And when they say you're immersed into it, I was literally waiting for the actors to come out because that's how real it felt. It was just such a surreal experience and a true once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

How did your time on Survivor prepare you for this experience?

My paranoia levels were super low. I was much more chill going into this experience. But they're so different. Survivor helped me mentally prepare because any time you compete on a show for the first time, you do have the jitters and you have all the butterflies, and those were real for me, but I came in more confident this time and that was really awesome.

Were you worried people would recognize you from Survivor and use that against you in this game? Or were you hoping people would recognize you?

I didn't know if having competed on another show would hurt me or if it would help me and I was nervous. I was recognized at the beginning — Red Light, Green Light hadn't even started, but it was positive interactions. But definitely in the dorms I could feel a subtle shift and certain players feeling like, "She was on another show," and it seemed more threatening. Overall I think it was a very positive reaction, because people knew that I was there to play the game and I was strategic so they wanted to have conversations with me. There was a lot of tea time with me — people would come to me with information and it ended up being a very good thing.

Who was the first person to recognize you?

The first player to recognize who I was was Dash, Player 141. He instantly came up to me and was like, "Oh my gosh, you're Figgy from Survivor." I was like, "What do I do? Do I say yes?" I just was like, "Yeah, hey," and just went with it. From there it spread like wildfire — not necessarily from Dash. I told some people about that experience so they had someone to come to in the dorms if they needed to have a conversation or just someone to talk to. They were like, "You're the girl from Survivor, you're the one I've been hearing about." And I was like, "Hopefully you've heard good things!"

Were you allowed to talk about Survivor in your confessionals, or did you want to distance yourself from your past reality TV experience? Because unless viewers know who you are, it's never actually said onscreen that you were on Survivor.

When I think about this opportunity, it was evolutionary. I was 23 when I competed on Survivor and now I'm 30 competing on Squid Game: The Challenge, so if they've watched me before I wanted people to identify, "I remember watching her then," but watching me blossom into who I am today. We all grow, and I'm strong, I'm tough, I'm confident, and I think there's so much beauty in that story to be told. That's really what I wanted to focus on, is seeing, "That was Figgy then, but let's focus on Figgy now and see how awesome she is."

So it was a conscious choice by you? It wasn't that you were told by Netflix not to talk about a CBS show?

It's the same thing with Survivor, there's only so much that can get shown. Even though Survivor is a big part of my life, with any show, things are going to get cut. I was okay that it's not something that's showcased and it is a nice easter egg for fans to be like, "Surprise, that was me."

Between Survivor and Squid Game, which was more difficult? Which did you enjoy more?

That's a tough question. I want to compare them, but they are truly very, very different. Survivor, I'm outside, I'm on an island, I can watch the sunrise, the sunset, I can go spearfish, I can go search for coconuts when I want. Squid Game, I'm fully immersed, I am a character in the show, I'm in a dorm room with 200 bunks. Sure, there are restrooms and showers, but I'm not able to go get a coconut when I want to have a nice little snack. I'm not able to have a sense of time watching the sunrise, and I'm on the guard's time as to when I'm fed.

Psychologically, there's also a difference. Survivor, I make alliances. Relationships can make or break you in that game, and you're paranoid. Whereas Squid Game, I'm forming those relationships to propel me forward, and the conversations were less about, "We need to get so-and-so out," because we don't do that. It's less plotting. I found myself sometimes saying Squid Game is so much harder but I could make a fight for either one.

What was it like competing in Red Light, Green Light?

I practiced Red Light, Green Light even before I knew Squid Game: The Challenge was going to be a thing. When the series came out, it was my first year teaching, and the kids were playing Red Light, Green Light at recess, so I've been practicing with the students for a while. But we get there and it's pretty cold. You can't expect that it's just going to be that simple. They have to make it challenging. It's not going to be handed to us. We got to really work for it if we want to get across that line and make it to the next challenge. So it was cold, I'll never forget that. And it wasn't like a stop-and-go hold, we did have to hold our position for what felt like a very long time. But there are 456 people in one room, so they've got to examine through motion detector sensors and you have production really keeping an eye on people. They took it very seriously and were doing a very thorough job to see who was moving. So holds could be 15 minutes. I played Red Light, Green Light for seven hours, and that's not even kidding. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done, even though it looks like a five-minute game. They made it tough, but we worked for it and we felt the reward when we got to move into the dorms.

The show made headlines earlier this year from anonymous reports detailing "inhumane" conditions and people needing medical assistance after that game. Did you see any of that happening?

I only paid attention to my area because we are playing Red Light, Green Light, and a lot of people are in the same head space. I can't really move because we're playing a game, but if someone needs something, it's similar to Survivor where Jeff [Probst] yells, "Medical, medical!" Production took care of people that needed that care. It felt like it was very instant. And if we did need something and someone was in serious danger, they did come on set and help. It was very, very cold, but I signed up for that. I signed up for the challenge. So even though I wasn't expecting it, I was like, "I've got to power through if I really want it." But production was very, very serious with whatever needed to be dealt with. And I felt very appreciative of that because people were getting the help that they needed.

In reality TV in general, it takes a very long time to film things. It might look like they happen very fast, but it takes time to get shots and to film games. If you had to play Red Light, Green Light for seven-plus hours, or if you had to experience this, you would understand how difficult it is. And that's the same for any reality show. What you see is not the full story. I think it's awesome to see that Squid Game: The Challenge is really designed for anybody who wants to compete. It doesn't matter if you're young, it doesn't matter how old you are, it matters if you have the heart to compete. I think that's really powerful and really inspiring.

How happy were you to get circle in Dalgona?

Oh, my gosh. We already knew it was going to be Dalgona when we walked in the room. There are four lines. It was on the wall in the dorm. We knew it was coming. Believe it or not, I was going to get into line four with a whole crew of people — Trey, LeAnn, Dash, Chad. But then I was pulled into a little huddle, it's all about relationships, and James, Player 269, lived in South Korea and he knows that No. 4 is considered bad luck. So we are not going in line four. And my whole group was like, "Okay, let's go in line one." And the second we saw that [it was circle], the celebration took over. We were very excited, especially when I looked over at line four, because that could have been my fate. I have a guardian angel, and his name is James. Again, relationships can take you very far, and it took me to line one.

But your luck ran out during Battleships. What happened there?

Yeah. Good old warships. When we were figuring out the line situation with warships, that was already messy. I was like, "15 people for tug of war is a lot of people." In my line, I'm thinking about Chad, and he's just really big, built guy. I'm like, "Would they really let Chad fall on someone if we were to fall off of a cliff playing tug of war? I just don't think they would." But I was not expecting warships, and that felt like a gut punch because that's a total game of luck. I honestly did not want to go into the big boat. My team had such amazing people and we were very uplifting and positive energy all the way around so I was like, "No matter what, at the end of the day, I'm with this amazing team of people and I truly love each person on this team, so whatever happens, happens."

We pick our captains, Brownie and Daryl, and they said, "Does anybody not want to be on a certain boat?" And no one said anything. I was like, "I'm just going to go with the flow here. I trust in my team and there's nothing I can do about it. It is a game of luck." So I said nothing. And they go, "All right, Figgy, you go there," and I was like, "Of course it's the big boat." And then I was taken out. It was a sad moment because I wanted to be there and there was nothing I could do about it, truly. Maybe if I moved my boat one up or something like that? But I try my best not to look back at that moment and think, "What if?" Because I already made myself very proud: I got through Red Light, Green Light, I never got to practice Dalgona — I tried making those cookies at my house and probably about set the house on fire, can't make them, never got it right, so I made myself proud to get through Dalgona. And then I got to a luck situation and it didn't fall in the cards for me.

It looked like you and Trey, Player 301, got really close. Was he your closest ally?

My goal coming into the game was to be very open to work with anybody, and build as many relationships as possible with people. Because unlike Survivor, the relationships are going to help carry you to the end and help keep you sane. I worked with Trey, his mom, LeAnn, so 301, 302, Dash/Player 141, Meg, Chad, Brownie, Dr. Rick. I was close with Kwame. I was close with so many people in the game, I could honestly go on. I knew that if we could all work together, we would get as far as possible together.

Are you still close with them all today?

Oh, yeah, I'm definitely still close with them. Weekly conversations are a thing.

New episodes of Squid Game: The Challenge premiere Wednesdays on Netflix.

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.