MANILA, Philippines - Picture this: You are marooned on an island, with no food, no water, no-nothing, not even a volley ball to draw a face on, call Wilson and have one-way conversations with.
If you think this happens only in the movies, think again. Ed Stafford, whose official job title is adventurer/survivalist extraordinaire, subjects himself to the “ultimate test of human endurance” via Discovery Channel’s brand-new nine-part series Marooned.
The 38-year-old former British Army Officer is multi-awarded (he was named European Adventurer of the Year in 2011) and a Guinness World Record-holder for his exploits. His resumé reads like a Survival of the Fittest manual on, among other things, how to trek the entire length of the Amazon River (which he pulled off in 860 days — the first man in history to do so — in Discovery’s Walking the Amazon) or how to live in a deserted island with nothing — not even clothes (in Naked Castaway).
In Marooned, Ed (who in his post-Army life became a UN contractor and expedition leader for conservation groups, and worked for BBC’s Natural History Unit) takes his passion to a level that could redefine human survival/adventure reality TV programs. He is stranded for 10 days in not just one but several desolate locations, from the harsh jungles of Borneo to the unforgiving coasts of Western Australia, stripped bare of the essentials — food, water or even a knife.
What he’s only left with is a video equipment to document his experiences in some of the most extreme environments where he is pushed to the limits — physically, psychologically and emotionally. Marooned begins airing on the Discovery Channel on Oct. 28 at 8 p.m.
The STAR recently got hold of Ed during one of those times he wasn’t living on the edge, but just at home, doing normal human stuff and accommodating questions over the phone from Asian reporters, awestruck over the things he does. Here are excerpts:
On why he does a series like Marooned:
“I think Marooned really came about because I’ve always really loved adventure TV. But, I thought, wouldn’t it be more interesting and more engaging to the viewer if whatever the person was doing was actually for real? And I just thought, if you couldn’t light a fire then you’d have to suffer the consequences and you’d have to eat raw food and you’d have to be cold at night. And if you couldn’t catch any food — you know, you’d go hungry. And if you couldn’t build a shelter, then you’d get wet. And I genuinely thought it would be more exciting to move adventure TV away from something which is — there’s a crew there and there’s a script and there’s a storyline — towards something real.
“Because, you know, I’m an ex?military captain in the British Army, and after that I’ve been doing real expeditions, sometimes with scientists, sometimes with biologists, and sometimes with TV people. But they’ve been real expeditions and I always thought if I came to TV, I’d really like it to be real. And I think, if you go into remote places then exciting things happen and you don’t need to script it. And I think for me, Marooned always came about because there could be so much more excitement and more engagement for a viewer in adventure TV if we did it for real. That’s exactly the premise of these programs. Ten days, I’m dropped in, 100 percent on my own, for real, with nothing, and it’s literally, let’s see what happens.
“And I think it’s difficult, sometimes, to get a series like that commissioned because Discovery Channel doesn’t know what’s going to happen. In each episode, they haven’t got a clue what’s going to happen. But I think, over time, it became easier to convince Discovery that you don’t need to worry. There’s so many things that I need to do in order to survive, to eat, to look after myself, that we don’t script it. And that’s basically where this whole concept came from.”
On almost giving up during his Marooned experience:
“Yeah, well actually, I’ve just finished my book of Naked Castaway. I finished it about halfway through filming this series. And in that book, which was published a few months ago, I talk about the fact that this series, in terms of filming it, had to be split in two, actually, because I couldn’t continue. Essentially, it was having too much of an impact on me and I had to take a three-month break off from filming because I was just utterly exhausted — absolutely at the end of my tether. You know, the doctor described it to me as, ‘If you had a bank account of courage’ — he said — ‘I don’t doubt that normally your courage is very healthy and you’ve got lots of courage in the bank.’ He said, ‘But at the moment you’re overdrawn and the most minor things are really getting to you.’
“And I think it does show, doesn’t it, that you can’t — just because something’s done for TV, just because you’re making a program which is really only for entertainment, it doesn’t mean that it’s not going to have an impact. So, yes, it’s not just that I wanted to give up halfway through the series, I had to give up for about three months. I had to pause the filming and I had to recuperate and recover. And I think that was between about January and April/May this year.
“And, yeah, as a result we had the break and then continued filming the second half of the series, starting with Thailand. This series, it was far harder than I thought it was going to be.”
On what drives him to continue going for extreme adventures:
“I think a large part of that is what I said before in terms of I just think we have a very short life in which we can either do as much as we possibly can or we can lead a very normal everyday life. And I just think the more I can put myself in situations which are challenging, the more I can test myself, the more I can be humbled I suppose by problems, then the more I will be able to get out of life and the more I’ll be able to achieve and the wiser I’ll become. And I think that is literally it now.
“I don’t feel like I did when I was walking the Amazon that I’ve got something to prove anymore. I think that’s quite a young-man mentality that you have to, you know, go out and prove yourself to the world. But I definitely want to continue to learn and to experience different cultures, people, places. So, for me, it’s been a bit of an evolution and the motivation has changed from being very sort of defiantly independent to somebody who actually just wants to learn. The motivation is still there, (but) I suppose it’s matured a little bit.”
On his advice for those who dream of becoming an adventurer/explorer like him:
“I think you’ve got to be pretty stubborn. I don’t think it takes anything extraordinary at all. I think the reason that I’ve been able to do this job is because I am quite stubborn, I don’t give up and I’m quite prepared to put myself in situations where I’m not particularly comfortable. And I don’t mind that as much as some people do. A lot of people would say, ‘Look, I couldn’t put up with this or that or the other,’ and I don’t really mind.
“And I suppose the other thing that enables me to do it is that I’m just honest about how I’m feeling really. Rather than pretending I’m okay if I’m not, I’ll just be honest about exactly how I’m feeling and I think that works for television, doesn’t it? You don’t want to watch somebody who is only giving you half of the story. You want to watch somebody who is showing you the difficulties as well as the successes. For me, I don’t want to sort of undermine myself too much, but I think it’s just a sort of perseverance. A commitment not to give up. A commitment not to fail at any task, and just an equal commitment to tell the story honestly.”
On if he were marooned again on an island, and could bring a person with him, who would it be:
“My fiancé Amanda! How could I pick anyone else?! Actually, she has the patience I lack for tasks like fishing and hunting so she’d be a great compliment to my ‘wham bam thank you ma’am’ approach.”