Here’s our interview with BB17 returnee Jason Roy, the runner-up of “Big Brother: Over the Top.”
You’ve probably had a long night. How do you feel and what’s been going through your head since the finale?
I feel like I worked my butt off for the past two months. I definitely think I outplayed Morgan immensely, but it kind of is what it is. I was told last night that I’m the Hillary Clinton of BBOTT. I just felt like I worked really hard and it came down, I guess, to who the nicer person is. I didn’t go in there to come across like a sweetheart. I kind of did that last year, but I said every time you go in there you’re just giving yourself more rope to hang yourself.
I clearly did not come across as lovely as I did in BB17, but I was there to really play. So I think I played really hard, and it’s unfortunate that America did not pay me back for that, but I will certainly be happy with second place.
I think in the future, the BB historian in me, when we look back, sometimes seasons are considered good by whoever wins them. The public can be in their emotions and their feelings right now about me and think Morgan is so much of a nicer person, but in five years when people watch BBOTT back, they will realize that I played more than Morgan did and that should have won. But that’s the difference between America choosing a winner and a jury choosing a winner.
How was finale night and whom did you spend time with?
I spent some time with my mom and dad. They’re here. Da’Vonne and Lawon and a lot of BB alumni were there, so I spent time catching up with them. I definitely hung out with my friends from the season.
I definitely put myself out there to the other side of the house, I came into this going, ‘Okay, I’m going to say hi to everyone and try to get a hug from everyone and make sure everyone is good,’ and I think that maybe some of the Ball Smasher girls are just a little bit too bitter to, I don’t know, be polite.
Even Morgan? She won $250,000, so I figured she’d be feeling pretty happy.
I got to know her a lot in this last week and that’s why, if it was someone other than Morgan, I don’t know if I would be as happy for her. Obviously I wanted to win, but Morgan is a really, really nice girl.
So with Morgan, she’s probably the one who straddled the fence the most and sort of talked to everyone and could get along with everyone. But she’s also on Cloud Nine right now, so it might be easier for her to get along with everyone because she just became a quarter of a millionaire.
You were so close to winning. Looking back now, is there anything you regret saying or doing knowing it could have cost you first place?
It is what it is. I’ve always said, ‘No regrets, only choices.’ I think the people that really understand my personality and my real fans understand that I’m not really PC; I’m not very kosher, so sometimes I go way over the line, but a lot of things are also meant in humor. If you really pay attention to me, I’m not the most serious person. So if I say things like I’m going to erase someone’s Social Security number, we all know I clearly don’t work at the Social Security office.
The people who know the sort of personality or persona that I give across more on Twitter just realize that I’m just being messy and I’m just snatching wigs. If you can’t laugh at yourself or take any type of criticism or comment about yourself, I think it’s more of a reflection of you, because I’m here listening to everyone’s comments about me, people saying I’m worse than Evel Dick and stuff. I’m taking it all in stride and saying it’s fine.
People can think whatever. I know who I am. If anyone’s comments affect anyone that much, I think it’s more about their own security with themselves, because you can call me whatever, and I’m going to be good.
If BBOTT had a jury like a regular “Big Brother” season, would your gameplay or actions have changed? With BBOTT, you don’t have to be nice to everyone as he or she is going out the door.
As a pre-juror from my season I knew that these people go out and they start their own campaigns on the Internet, and they’re talking and ruffling the crowd’s feathers and getting stuff going. A lot of people can think that maybe I wasn’t very nice to the people that was leaving, but I like to send everyone out with love whether they show that or not.
I try to have a conversation with everyone letting them know it’s just game, it’s just this and that, don’t worry – on the outside things are going to be like this. All these newbies don’t know what this process is like. I have been through it and I can tell them a little bit like, don’t worry, everything’s going to be okay.
I definitely still wouldn’t have not won if there was a jury, because clearly my side of the house was always the minority. We never had the numbers. Maybe as the game progressed we may have had the numbers in one week or the other, but when you break down the season of 13, it was really six vs. seven or however the math worked. It was always Cornbread and Monte and that whole side with the girls vs. the Misfits. I’d like to think that America and the viewers of this show would support the Misfits, but sometimes they just want a good old Plastic.
Now looking back, I know Justin was always viewed as this social threat, but do you think you would’ve had an easier time winning if he was in the Final Three?
I’ve had people say that to me, but when you really look at it, I only had one option and I could only save one person. If it was Justin, then Kryssie and Morgan would’ve battled head to head. It was clearly a very physical comp; Morgan would’ve won. Then it would’ve been the same scenario but me and Justin vs. Morgan. Me and Justin probably would’ve split the Jamboree fans’ votes more than me and Kryssie apparently did. So the way that it sort of turned out, there was no way to get us all there in the Final Three.
You’ve played both “Big Brother” and BBOTT. How was your experience different on both shows, and is there anything you liked about BBOTT that you could see translating well to a regular season and vice versa?
I definitely enjoyed both experiences. They are very different. In BBOTT, you’re in there and definitely very confused at times about why America does things.
I think the best thing that possibly could transfer over would be America voting for Have Nots. In normal BB, we don’t really see anything about the Have Nots anymore. That would be, not a game-changer, but would show a little bit of what America thinks but would also give America one more thing to vote on. And it’s something that’s not really that important or not going to get that much screen time.
I’ve had someone tell me that I’m the Danielle Reyes of BBOTT, so who knows with BBOTT in the future if America will be voting and who knows if some type of jury scenario wouldn’t also exist. The reason we have a jury is because of unjustified winners.
When will you finally get to watch the end of BB18 and watch this season?
I had to leave for this right before the end of BB18, so I think the last thing I saw was maybe Corey’s eviction. I definitely need to finish that up. Someone in my house was told by press who did win, so eventually that was figured out in the house that Nicole had won.
It was very strange as a “Big Brother” superfan; I have never not watched a finale live. Here I was having no idea about what happened during 18, so it was definitely strange going in saying, ‘We didn’t even know how this last season wrapped up.’
Did Da’Vonne tell you that hers was the last vote revealed to give Nicole the win?
And I said, I called it! I said, I knew Da’Vonne would end up voting for Nicole. I think Nicole played a strong game. I think Paul played a strong game. It may not be as much of a, I don’t want to say Morgan did absolutely nothing, but for me in the house it looked like Morgan did absolutely nothing.
Do you feel like you are the Paul of BBOTT?
Watching 18, clearly Paul and Nicole were both doing things. There is definitely reasons you could say that both of them have justifications. I was definitely a Paul fan and would have preferred him to have won, but you could definitely see that they were both doing things, whereas this sort of just came down to Reddit vs. Twitter and online messiness and people blowing everything out of proportion, because that’s what we do.
I think this is kind of a different scenario, but I guess Paul and I are both are brethren in that we both were robbed.
