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BBCAN5 - Neda Kalantar Exit Interview
April 17, 2017
When you were evicted, you told Arisa that you were sad because of how badly you screwed up. Now that you had the weekend to think about it, where do you think you went wrong?
Neda: Honestly, let’s be serious, I had no chance of winning this game going in with this huge huge target on my back, and making it even bigger with the immunity. People say I should have laid low. Maybe I should have but if I was going to lose the game anyway, I may as well make some big game moves on my way out.
If it was a normal week and not a double eviction night, do you think you could have talked Sindy out of making the move against you?
Neda: If I even had 10 or 15 minutes extra, rather than just 5 minutes between the veto and the veto ceremony, I would have definitely been able to change some minds. Give me 20 minutes and I can convince some people to not vote me out of that house.
Heading into the house, were you on good terms with Ika, or did you expect to clash like you did?
Neda: We were on decent terms. How she is in the house is her amplified how she is in the outside world. Sometimes she will just not talk to me for a month. I’ll be like “wait, what’s happening? Are we not talking?”. She will be like “oh, I was mad at you but now we are okay”. I’m like “great, what did I do?”, so in the house that was constantly happening. You had to check in on her every single day. It was very emotionally draining working with her. I even told her that inside of the house. She does understand. We just clashed because of maybe even the way the game went. We were in the same alliance but we were taking two different sides of the house. That made us clash a lot more.
Who deserves the credit for getting you out of the house, Ika or Sindy?
Neda: Ika 100%. That was a good game move for Ika because we both were becoming skeptical of each other and targeting each other. Sindy just did it as a television move more so than a strategic move.
On the feeds, you told Canada not to hate you once you heard them cheer when you were eliminated from the HoH comp. What do you make of the audience’s reaction towards you?
Neda: I played the first time being nice and still came out to really bad comments. I went in this time being like “screw it, I’m going to do what I need to do and I’m going to backstab anyone I need to backstab”. I even said between hero and villain I am going to be the villain, but I’m a normal human person. Anyone who hears a cheering crowd against you, it hurts your feelings. That was my robotic Neda game mode put aside. My human side was kind of coming out there.
In preseason interviews you said you can’t lay low this time since you are such a big target. Did it ever cross your mind to lay low once you found out you had immunity until jury?
Neda: Oh 100%. I was really going between should I be laying low and doing absolutely nothing, or should I do some big game moves? I went with the latter because I thought if I did get to the end of the game and I had laid completely low and done nothing, I would disappoint Canada and I would also have nothing on my resume. People would say that I was dragged to the end of the game, and I also might end up in jury with people that were trying to get me out. I was trying to get out my biggest targets, people like Cass and Gary who were targeting Bruno and Kevin who were part of my major alliance. I was trying to keep them safe as well as myself safe. I feel like once my immunity was up, people were coming after me either way.
Looking back, do you think having immunity helped your game or hurt your game?
Neda: Looking back, I can definitely say it hurt my game. I’m more than grateful for it though. Thank you for anyone who voted. It really did make me feel good about myself. I never thought I would win something like that.
Did you ever worry that evicting big targets such as Dallas, Cassandra and Gary would only make the target on your back even bigger?
Neda: No, because we had plenty of big targets in that house. We had eight crazy ass vets and some crazy newbies. One is a heavyweight boxing champion. I didn’t think it was going to make the target bigger on me, cause those guys were coming after me once the immunity was up. I was happy to get rid of them before that.
You often compared Cassandra to Sabrina. Had you not already played the game with Sabrina, would you have wanted Cassandra out as badly as you did?
Neda: It was a mixture of things with Cass, but yeah. If I hadn’t played with Sabrina, I don’t think it would have been as bad with Cass but that wasn’t the main reason. The main reason was Day 3 she was yelling at me in the pantry, during Mark’s eviction she was yelling at me in front of a room full of people and then threatening to backdoor me before I had immunity. She was building a side alliance with Jackie, Dre, William, Gary. We weren’t working together inside of the house and that’s it. When you are not working with someone, you have just got to get rid of them.
You talked about Cassandra playing too hard, too fast. Do you think you tried too hard to get your way early on, and did you feel you could do that since you were immune anyway?
Neda: Honestly, I never felt like I was getting my way in that house. If I had gotten my way, I would have won. I feel like I didn’t play too hard, too fast until Week 3. Her, when I was saying too hard, too fast, was literally on Day 3. Screaming at someone inside of the pantry and threatening to backdoor them was not the best route to go.
How long did you plan to stay loyal to Kevin, Bruno and Sindy, and who did you want to get to the end of the game with?
Neda: You know what, I went into that and even the first couple of weeks I still wanted to get to the end with Ika. Once her showmance started developing, just because I know what a love connection is like in there, I knew she couldn’t be my #1 anymore. Kevin and Bruno, I wanted to be loyal to as long as possible. Getting out Cassandra and Dallas was better for their games. I was considering that 100%. I know it made Ika mad but Cassandra was going after Kevin and Bruno as well as myself. Sindy, I flip flopped on her in the beginning. I went into the house not really sure of her. She kind of grew on me but then I saw the game she was playing, which was the middle ground game of taking information from one side to the other. She was kind of the informant. I didn’t really respect that kind of the game. To her, I don’t think I would have stayed that loyal. To Kevin and Bruno, I would have stayed loyal.
Which of your two evictions was a tougher way for you to leave the Big Brother house?
Neda: Hmm. You know what, they both kind of sucked but I think this one was definitely way harder. The first time I was like “this is my dream, I am living it, this is amazing. If I lose, whatever, at least I got to play Big Brother”. This time I went in with so many expectations, so many people expecting me to do well in the game, and this huge target on my back which made it no fun. This time was a lot harder.
Who do you think is the biggest threat to win the game right now, and why?
Neda: Honestly, everyone is a threat right now. There is so much game left to play. You never know who is going to pull off some crazy moves. Maybe Kevin. I am hoping Kevin.
Big Brother Canada airs on Wednesdays at 9 PM ET/PT, Thursdays at 8 PM ET/PT, and Mondays 9 PM ET/PT on Global.
Check out our other Big Brother Canada 5 Interviews: Mark Chrysler | Dallas Cormier | Cassandra Shahinfar | Gary Levy
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