The Apprentice's Ousted Marisa Talks

You may remember that Marisa was booted from The Apprentice last week, as her entire team voted her the one to go. The next day, she sat down with TV Guide to dish. Here's a little bit of the interview:

TVGuide.com: I feel like one drawback of this season's "penthouse versus the outhouse" setup is that we didn't really get to know you folks over on Kinetic. Did you feel that way, seeing the coverage?
Marisa DeMato: I totally agree. I felt like you really didn't get to see a lot of the team, because they focus so much more this season on the losing team. And in the third week, with the exemption [from the task], our team was basically nonexistent.

TVGuide.com: So when you then show up in Week 4, all we're left with is this painting of you as a person crazy for people in chicken suits, and who perhaps talks too much in the boardroom.
Marisa: Starting back in Week 2, I was getting a little more face time than most, because I was vocal about not really being that thrilled with the [twist where] one person could essentially continue to be project manager [for weeks on end].

TVGuide.com: Was that you? I quoted you when I raised my own objection to that rule change with Donald Trump. I told him it keeps the other team members from having a proper chance to shine.
Marisa: It does, and I still feel that way. As you said before, no one's really gotten to know what a great team Kinetic was, and Kinetic was a great team. Some people right now may be thinking, "Oh, she didn't get along with her group," but nothing could be further from the truth. There really wasn't any dissention in our group whatsoever, aside from Heidi and I occasionally having professional differences over designs or concepts. I was very close with Muna and Aimee and Derek.... You wouldn't necessarily know it by watching, but my boardroom [outcome] was more about taking out the strong player - at least as far as Heidi was concerned. Regarding the chicken suit, I can sit back and say, "Wow, people are going to think I'm really adamant about that" and not know where it's coming from, but had they seen what led up to that point - which was our team learning that Arrow did in fact use a chicken suit as part of their marketing — America would have understood why I felt so passionate about the issue. At that point in the boardroom, I felt they were doing a good job trying to spread the blame around, and that was my chance to say, "I'm not to blame for this loss."

TVGuide.com: Yeah, I thought you might squeak out of this one, but then I saw there was only, like, a minute left in the hour....
Marisa: There are examples where you just drop the ball and make mistakes, and you're the reason the team fails, and you can kind of accept that. If that had been the case for me, I would definitely own up to it. But it was just the opposite. I put myself out there and pushed to do my best job.

TVGuide.com: Is there anything you would do differently back in the boardroom?
Marisa: I would not have been as worried to say I would fire Heidi as project manager. I felt like, because she and I hadn't seen eye-to-eye, it would have looked like it was some sort of personal animus, but it wasn't. For some reason Trump has really taken a liking to her, so he's not getting the full picture, and I felt like it would have been an uphill battle.

TVGuide.com: Now just how dirty did Arrow leave the camp?
Marisa: It was pretty filthy, I have to say. I had never seen anything like that before. It looked like things had been sitting in pots and pans for days.... It was pretty gruesome.

TVGuide.com: You must have been like, "At least I only had to spend a day there."
Marisa: Oh, I know! One day and one night, that was all I needed in Tent City. I got off easy!

TVGuide.com: And what about this whole on-set romance thing? They promo'd the hell out of it the week before....
Marisa: And then it wasn't even on the episode!

TVGuide.com: It's Tim and Nicole, right?
Marisa: Um, I'm not sure that I can confirm anything, but... it's interesting, regardless, based on the things they were showing last night. It was surprising to us. I mean, I'm just surprised that anybody could spark any sort of interest, the way that they were living outside there!

Photo from TV Guide.