By Andy Sloan

 

Graduate student Clay Honeycutt may have left the Big Brother house pre-jury and empty handed, but sometimes money doesn't compare to a #BBShowmance. After 50 days cut-off from the outside world, Clay asked his fellow housemates to vote out himself over fellow showmance partner Shelli Poole. RealityWanted talks this decision, regrets and how Clay feels about some of his former housemates.

 

Clay! How's your day been so far today?

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It's been good. It's been good. As good as it can get I guess.

 

The first question I have for you is in the opening interviews of the show, you said you were a new superfan of the show. You just started watching a few months ago and fell in love with Big Brother. How has what you've seen compare to actually playing the game?

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It's completely different. You really don't get a feel for how this game is until you're actually in the house playing it. The whole motto of this game is Expect the Unexpected. That's definitely true to every sense of the word. A lot of things that happened in the house, I had no idea or ever expected to happen. You really have no idea how it's going to play out.

 

Let's talk about that for a second. How did your strategy change going into the game?

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Well, I wanted to be the same person, walking into this house, walking out. You know, I don't think I've changed as far as who I am as a person, outside of the house, compared to inside of the house. Strategy wise, throughout the game, you know, it changes every day. Big picture, how I wanted to play the game is how I played the game, and that was to be true to myself.

 

Let's switch over to Shelli. You were strangers on Day 1 and now Day 50 you were willing to give up $500,000 for her. How did this relationship progress throughout the summer?

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I never expected to go into this game and develop feelings the way I have with somebody like that. Pause Ah, haha ya know it's her being there, not only on a game level, but on a personal level. That really helped those feelings and emotions escalade as quickly as they did. Being able to relate to her in so many different ways. Having her in this game as far as someone I could trust and knew had my back through it all. It really helped and really made this game a lot easier to play. You know, us being on the block together was unfortunate. I'm happy with the decision I made, knowing how big this was for her. This has been a big dream of hers and I didn't want to be the one to take that away from her.

 

Strategy-wise, did it ever cross your mind that you could get the votes to stay?

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I was made aware that she was the target and James wanted her out because she was a bigger threat. She did win two HOHs and is a great competitor in the game. I think she has a legit shot at winning this game! Did I have the votes? Maybe, maybe not. Again, there's no way I'd campaign against my girl. One of us had to leave, so I feel like we were in a situation that was undeserving. I didn't want her to leave because of a situation that I didn't think was fair. This is Big Brother, nothing's fair. But it is what it is and I can live with the decision that I made.

 

Last week, if you were to backdoor Austin, how differently do you think the game would've went this week?

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It would've been extremely different. Jason was someone that me and Shelli did not want to leave this house. We should've stuck with the plan to backdoor Austin and everything would've been so different. However, Jason leaving was unfortunate. We knew as soon as he went on the block that it wasn't the right decision. We did give Becky our word that we wouldn't vote her out and we did that. It was a hard decision to make and even after Jason's last campaign to us, we were undecided on what we should do. Should we go back on our word, that we promised Becky that we wouldn't vote her our, or should we evict Jason and have to live with that decision. We just had to accept the consequences and that ultimately got me here.

 

Well now Becky is HOH. Do you see her being an ally with Shelli moving forward after you saved her?

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You never know man. There's so many different options and I don't think Shelli fully trusts Becky. Becky is playing a lot of different sides of the house and I think that will come back to bite her in the butt, like it kind of did with me and Shelli. People play both sides for a little bit too long and Becky is someone that just gravitates toward power. She did that with us, this week with James and now she's HOH and in a good spot right now. I don't know if Shelli will ever work with her, but she'll most likely stay on her side as to not make an enemy out of her.

 

Let's talk about the lead-up to last night's eviction. It got kind of crazy in the house! Vanessa even accused you of being in a romantic relationship with Johnny Mac. Haha, so to clear the air Clay, now's your chance. Are you in a romantic relationship with Johnny Mac?

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Haha, just to clarify, we are NOT in a romantic relationship.

 

From your side, what happened last night and how did it get so out of hand?

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It was all a big misunderstanding. All the information that was given to me and shared with other people, it was a complete misunderstanding. Vanessa is in my alliance and, because I trust her, I went to her in confidence and told her what Johnny Mac had told me, that we was going to target her. I wanted her to clear the air with him, so they wouldn't target each other. I was trying to talk him down and say no you don't need to do that, she's on your side. There are other people you need to target.

 

Vanessa of course went and exploded the whole thing. I think she definitely overdid it and she's proven to be an emotional player. She wears her heart on her sleeve. There's nothing wrong with that, but in this game that is going to be one of her downfalls.

 

You were in the Big Brother house for 50 days. There may have been some blowouts and downfalls like last night, but what was the best part of the game for you? Let's take meeting Shelli out of the equation for now.

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Oh man, this whole experience has been unforgettable. To pick one specific moment, it'd have to be walking through the front door the first day. It was so surreal and an unforgettable moment to be in the Big Brother house. That first morning, waking up to that music, let me know this whole experience is happening. It's crazy to be there and it's such a blessing to have had that experience.

 

Knowing what you know now, if you were to go back to that Day 1 experience, is there any piece of advice you'd want to give yourself?

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It wouldn't be too much honestly. Maybe the only thing I'd say would be to find a side and stick with it. Don't play in the middle so much and ride with a side. That'd probably be the only advice I could give myself.

 

Okay, good advice! Fun question now. We haven't seen a lot of takeovers this season. If you were to go back into the house as a takeover, what would you want to do?

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Oh god, I don't know.

 

Let me rephrase that. Da'Vonne told us her takeover would be to put everyone one slop. If you could name 3 Have-Nots for the rest of the summer, who would they be?

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Meg, James and Jackie.

 

Why them specifically?

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Because they're on the other side and obviously for personal reasons, I wouldn't mind them being on slop and seeing them suffer a little bit.

 

After 50 days into the game, we haven't seen a lot of Steve. What's your opinion on him?

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I love Steve as a person. I think that his time is coming and that he's about to start running this game. He's an extremely intelligent person and he's competitive. People are very mixed about him. They like him, but he does scamper a lot through the house. It's kind of a joke we have with him. But, I think his time is coming and he's about to start shining in this game, similar to what Ian did.

 

Steve definitely resembles Week 1 Ian Terry, I can see that. But last question for you Clay. I know you've only been out of the house for one day, but what are your tentative plans for the rest of the summer?

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Just go back, see my family. Kind of relax and start back to school and finish up my masters at Texas A&M!

 

That's awesome! And America definitely hasn't seen the last of you because we'll see you back at finale night! Thanks so much Clay and we'll see you soon!

 

Photo credit: CBS