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BBCAN5 - Cassandra Shahinfar Exit Interview
March 31, 2017
Heading in to the vote, did you know that you were going to be evicted, or did the people that you thought were voting for you continue to lie to you?
Cassandra: People kept lying to me and telling me that I had their vote, but I knew in my gut that I was going. It’s funny, I actually said to Gary “do you want me to leave you my contour kit?”. He kind of looked surprised. I just knew in my gut based on how people were acting, so I wasn’t surprised.
When you saw all of the other vets in the house, which one were you most happy to see and potentially align with?
Cassandra: You know what’s funny is I was most excited to see Neda. I loved Neda on her season. Going into last season, I was like “I want to play like Neda”. When I walked in this season and saw her, I was so excited and really did try to work with Neda. I tried to build a relationship with her first week and she just wasn’t having it. When I see a strong player, I want to work with them and have them as an ally. I think she saw me as a threat. Instead of wanting to work with me, she wanted to get me out of the house. With that power that she gained having immunity until jury, that put her in a powerful position to make a move without any instant repercussions or any instant backlash. She came after me the first chance she got and she did it.
Which vet were you least looking forward to having in the house with you?
Cassandra: I was least looking forward to Ika, just cause I saw her on her season and she was a little feisty but I did get along with Ika in the house.
Your comment about wanting to backdoor Neda was prior to the feeds coming on. Can you provide some more context so we know what happened leading up to that?
Cassandra: I tried to work with Neda first week. Right before the first eviction, there was a house flip and everyone was going crazy. Gary had come to me and was very upset and was yelling at me going “you are going against me. I am sleeping with the enemy every night”. I’m like “what’s wrong?”. He said “Neda is going around and saying stuff about you, that you are trying to flip the house and you are blaming it on me and Ika”. I was like “I have never done that”. The eviction is in five minutes. In the heat of the moment, I said “if she is saying this negative stuff about me, then we should backdoor the girl next week”. When he was upset, he went in the room and he said that to her. It was all in the the heat of the moment. It was catching me off guard that she would say anything bad about me or throw my name under the bus. We talked about it after and we were good, but even before that instance I knew that there was a wall there that I could not break. She didn’t want to trust me, she didn’t want to work with me and she had no intentions of ever working with me.
You talked about Neda wanting to go after you because people compare the two of you and say you are the better player. Did any part of you want to take her out to prove you are the better player?
Cassandra: Not any time soon. Maybe towards the end of the game. i wanted to work with Neda. I really did. I tried working with her and she didn’t want any part of that. People compare on social media all the time. That makes me just want to work with the person. People would have loved to see me and Neda work together, and the main reason why I came back was for the fans of the show and for the supporters. When I came out last season, that was the greatest feeling in the world knowing that people admired me on the show and supported me. That’s really the driving force of why I came back. Working with Neda and giving something back to the people that watch is something I was 100% behind and wanted to do.
You were often accused of aligning with everyone. Who were you most loyal to heading in to last week?
Cassandra (laughing): You know what’s so funny about that is that everyone is aligned with everyone in that house. Everyone is doing the exact same thing. It’s just easy to say I am doing it and no one else is, because of the idea people had of me coming in to the house. Gary was my #1 in the house and I wanted to go to the end with him.
You mentioned you wanted to find your Tim. Do you think you found that in anyone? If not, do you think it would have helped you last longer to have that person?
Cassandra: I found that in Gary. Gary was loyal to me but he just couldn’t get the votes. People didn’t want to split the house, they didn’t want to have a split vote. They just want to feel comfortable and didn’t want to take any risks at this point in the game. He had to go with the house or create an even bigger target on his back. It’s just a totally different season from Season 4. I don’t think it would have worked out any differently if Tim was in the house.
After people got in her ear this week, Jackie told you that you are a liar. Were you truly loyal to Jackie heading in to last week or were you using her?
Cassandra: I was loyal to Jackie. I went in to Neda’s HoH and said “Dillon and Emily”. I was like “Neda, it’s your HoH and you do whatever is better for your game. If that is putting Jackie up, then put Jackie up”. I mean, that was smart manipulation on Neda’s part by going to her and saying “Cass threw your name out there”. Before that, yeah I was loyal to Jackie.
Yourself and Ika had an up and down relationship in the house. Do you think it came down to Ika having to choosing Neda over yourself?
Cassandra: That could be part of it. I think it also came down to her not wanting to show her cards. She wanted to feel comfortable with everyone in the house, but that’s not just Ika. That is everyone in the house. They don’t want to stand up and address the line in the sand. The six votes that I was focusing on, we were on one side and they should have fought to keep me. If you want to pretend that you are all one and you are not going against that other side, they are still going to come after you. It didn’t make sense to me but I couldn’t get that across to the other houseguests.
You said you went in there with nothing to prove, unlike some of the other vets. That being said, are you okay with this outcome?
Cassandra (laughing): Oh, you watch the live feeds! I am. Like I said, I came here for the people that supported me last season. I am here for the fans that stood behind me. I wanted to give them good TV and I wanted to play again. It’s fun. You can never turn down Big Brother Canada. If they ask me to come back a third time, I would say yes again. I’m happy with the outcome. It will be fun this time because I will be on the outside looking in and can watch all of the episodes and see on social media the hype that is Big Brother Canada 5, and not have to wait until the end of the season like I did last time. I will get to live it as it is actually happening. I am really excited about it.
Do you think you would have fared better had it been an All Star season rather than a mixed one where only half the cast was made up of returning players coming in with targets on their backs?
Cassandra: I do think so. I do think that would have been easier for me. There is pros and cons of coming back as a returning player, and there is pros and cons of being a new player. A pro for a new player coming in is that we don’t know your game. You can be whoever you want to be. You can fly under the radar and be non-threatening and go with that, like how I was last season. I couldn’t win comps. Nobody thought I was a threat and nobody thought I was smart enough or capable enough to work behind the scenes and make moves. It wasn’t until I was evicted that people started to realize it. This season, everyone watched me last season so they knew what I was capable of. It was harder for me to get through the weeks this time around.
Who do you think is the biggest threat to win the game, and why?
Cassandra: I think right now Bruno. I think he has alliances with everyone just like I did, which his fine cause that’s Big Brother. Nobody thinks that Bruno is capable of doing that. They think that he is an honest guy that wouldn’t lie about things. I could read right through him. I think he could see that I could read right through him. “I know you are working with Dillon and Emily, or I know you are doing this and that". He didn’t like that, and that’s why he would have come after me if he had power.
Who would you like to see win the game, and why?
Cassandra: I would love to see Gary win. Obviously he was loyal to me. The thing with Gary is that he was so close his season. He is loyal and he fought for me this week. I am scared that put a target on his back. I know it did. However, people underestimate him. He is capable of getting way with things that I couldn’t. Everyone thinks he is just doing his contour in the bathroom all day. He is looking around the room, seeing who is talking to who, and he has a good read on the house. He has great intuition and also he is good at competitions. I think he can make it far if he really puts his mind to it.
Check out our other Big Brother Canada 5 Interviews: Mark Chrysler | Dallas Cormier
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