Andrew Gordon, the 27-year-old restaurant manager from Calgary, AB, was the latest houseguest to be evicted on Big Brother Canada. With the Head of Household power belonging to Canada this week, Andrew was voted out 7-2, by his fellow houseguests after being put up on the block alongside Sabrina Abbate, his close friend in the “First Five” alliance.
I caught up with Andrew following his eviction to discuss how it felt being nominated by Canada, how he was perceived by Canada and some of the other houseguests as well as what he would like to say those he may have offended like Heather, Ika and Paul.
That was an intense week. How are you doing?
You know what, I’m still recovering form it. It’s been a crazy week. It was emotionally and mentally challenging. It’s still going to take a little bit of time, I think [to get over it].
Can you describe how you felt when you found out that Canada put you up on the block?
It was honestly a devastating experience to be put up on the block by your country. There’s no other way to really explain it.
You originally said that you wanted to go into the house as a “gentle giant,” but that’s not really what happened. At what point did you change your strategy?
I think the “gentle giant” thing was more of wishful thinking than anything. I would have liked to have been perceived that way, but I am exactly who you saw. There’s very little that I can do to hide that. That strategy fell out of the window as soon as I walked in the door.
After was evicted, Paul told me that you came in telling people that you were a jerk and an asshole. He thought that was just the role you were playing. So that wasn’t gameplay at all?
Yeah. It was definitely not a role. I am a big, loud and sometimes obnoxious, person that can be too much for some people to handle. You either like me or you don’t. The house makes everyone do things that they normally wouldn’t do. I think I felt victim to that on certain occasions just like everyone else did.
Why didn’t your attitude change when you were put up on the block? Especially towards the women in the house (like Heather). Many would have seen your nomination as a wake up call.
That’s where I am sort of concerned. I don’t think my attitude towards the women in the house, or women in general, is a negative one. In the exchange that I had with Heather, it was nothing I wouldn’t have said to a guy in her place. It’s nothing I wouldn’t expect someone to say to me had I made that same decision [when Heather chose Adel to play for the Veto instead of Andrew’s alliance member Kenny]. I was also a bitch at times on the show. By no means would my attitude reflect the gender that it was directed to.
Heather won Head of Household. How do you feel about that?
I feel gutted. I’m a little upset to hear that. This throws a wrench into the hopes that I had [for my alliance]. Maybe Kenny and Sabrina will go up? Good for her, though. She proved everybody wrong. She won the “True or False” competition, well done. That’s all I can say.
You’re still rooting for the rest of your alliance members.
Yes, I am. Well, not Arlie anymore, as I found out recently that he was switching sides!
Can you blame him though? He needs to stay in there.
Yeah, I guess. You’ve got to look out for number one and that’s always yourself. Maybe that was my downfall in the game? I could have been campaigning [against Sabrina] to stay in there, but that’s just not me. I wouldn’t have been okay with myself knowing the promise that I made. I hold my integrity very dearly. Whether it’s a game or not, there are exceptions that people are willing to make and exceptions that people aren’t willing to me. Arlie was willing to make that exception.
How genuine was your showmance with Allison?
At the beginning, there was some skepticism as to how genuine [her side of] it was. I wasn’t sure how much I could trust her at first. Sabrina tried to plant some doubt in my mind. Maybe that was the result of jealousy? But I got to know Allison and the relationship became very genuine.
A lot has been revealed to you since your eviction including Allison being in the secret room for a week as well as Kenny’s sexuality. What has been the most surprising revelation?
The most surprising thing was Kenny coming out and telling me that he was gay [in his goodbye message]. With the secret room, I was kind of already on to the fact that maybe Allison was voted in, so that wasn’t a huge surprise. Kenny deserves to win an Academy Award. He did an amazing job fooling everybody, including myself. I would have never guessed it. I don’t know why he did it – I don’t think it would have affected his gameplay in anyway and it definitely would not have affected our relationship. I look forward to having a beer, or ten, with him and discussing his strategy on that.
That was really a nasty goodbye message that you left for Ika last week. Do you have any regrets on the way you acted? If you could say something to Ika, Heather and Paul, what would you tell them?
I would say that emotions run high in the house and it felt that I was being attacked personally by Ika and Paul. I reacted like some other people would in that situation. It’s hard for anyone to put themselves in my shoes. I also think that Ika had a very good opportunity to realize the situation that she was in [when she was given the option to give the other houseguests letters from home or keeping $5,000]. We all saw Topaz last year being watched by the houseguests in a similar situation. It would have only been a logical assumption that it was going to happen again. So, the fact that she just unleashed and said the things that she did, it fired me up. I responded the same way that I would probably would have responded again if I were put back in that situation.
At the end of the game though, we can all look past that…be friends and shake hands. The same goes for Paul. I found out after the game that he said those things [about me to] just stir things up. Hey, he tried it but it didn’t work out for him! Everybody out there has different strategies for what’s going to work and not going to work.
As for Heather, I got fired up. It was in the head of the moment and emotions were high. I said some mean things. I don’t think those things about her. She’s a great girl. She’s super sweet.
When you’re in a house with everybody 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with cameras, it’s insane and it makes people do crazy things.
