Clay Honeycutt, the 23-year-old Grad student from Texas, was the latest houseguest to be evicted from the Big Brother house. We spoke to Clay about the situation that led to his eviction, if there was a chance he could have saved Jason and Vanessa’s downfall.
You and Shelli were really on top of things. You had the power for so many weeks. What do you think went wrong? Were there players you underestimated?
I don’t think that it was a matter of us underestimating players. I think it all started to go downhill [for us] when we didn’t stick with the plan to backdoor Austin… When Jason became the target for Vanessa and she wanted to switch the target from Austin to Jason. We were loyal to Vanessa and she was in our alliance, so we wanted to back whatever her decision was. However, I think that was the start of the downfall to everything.
Jason’s eviction was a turning point. Looking back, could you have done something to keep him in the house?
Well, Shelli and I were essentially the swing votes to keep Jason. He had come to us the night before and had campaigned to us. Honestly, after the talk with him, we were on the fence about whether or not to go against Vanessa and keep Jason because that’s ultimately what we wanted to do. We weren’t sure what we were going to do that night. That morning we decided that we were just going to stick with the [original] plan and go with getting Jason out because we didn’t want to go against Vanessa.
At the end of the day, we never wanted Jason to leave. We wanted to play the game with him. We were really sad to see him go.
It seems as if you gave up your chance to stay in the game to Shelli. Any regrets? You didn’t even campaign against her, in fact you told others to vote you out.
No regrets. How could I have campaigned against her? This meant so much to her. Not that it didn’t mean a lot to me, but this had been her dream to be on the show. I just couldn’t take that away from her. It was an unfortunate situation that we were put in but we knew that it would happen eventually. One of us had to go home.
I know this meant the world to her and I’m sure as hell not going to campaign against that girl. Maybe it was the Southern gentleman in me to give someone that opportunity instead of taking it for myself.
When did your showmance or relationship with Shelli become more important than staying in the game?
I don’t think I valued the showmance more than staying in the game. I think that it was just the way that I was raised. To see something mean so much for her, I couldn’t take that away from her. I’ve always been a giving person. As much as I wanted to stay in the game or be back in the game, I can’t be the one to take something from someone. Especially when it means to much to them.
There was a moment between yourself and Meg. Did you ever think of leveraging that relationship to keep yourself in the house?
Not at all. My relationship is strictly on a friend basis. I love her to death. She’s such a fun girl to be around and I can’t wait to continue that relationship outside of the house. Not once did I think to use that relationship to leverage a chance to stay in the house. We’ve had a friendship since day one.
We didn’t have anything else go on between us. I know that it was portrayed a little differently on the show [due to editing]. We’re friends and I look forward to continuing that friendship outside of the house.
There was a big blow up with Vanessa before you left. What are your thoughts on her game play? She’s up against Shelli now. How do you see this week’s eviction playing out?
Of course being in the house and seeing everything, I’m a little upset with Vanessa. No hard feelings, but she was someone who I trusted and someone who Shelli still trusts. When I watched her game play, she’s someone who we should have never trusted. She was playing the game really hard and good up until this week — until the blow up that she had with me before I left.
She was in a good spot and I think she was playing too many people in the house and people caught on. I think that’s what kind of led to her demise, however I’m not quite sure who’s going to go home between Vanessa and Shelli [this Thursday], but I do sure hope that it’s Vanessa.
Big Brother airs Sundays and Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Global and CBS.
