Exclusives

Big Brother Exit Interview: Da’Vonne Rogers

davonne rogers big brother 17

davonne rogers big brother 17

Da’Vonne Rogers, the 27-year-old poker dealer from Los Angeles was the second houseguest to be evicted from Big Brother this season. Mama Da’ chats about her favourite twin from this season’s “Twin Twist,” how the house should evict Shelli and Clay and why the rest of the house if afraid to put up Audrey.

It was so sad to see you go! We miss not seeing you.

Aw, thank you! Oh I know, I wish I was still playing. There’s still so much fight left in me.

You certainly made an impression on the audience and have your fans. Was it your strategy going into the house to be your bold self? Most players downplay their emotions and don’t really let their personality show in the first few weeks.

That was the goal actually. I had planned on just flying under the radar and just express myself in the diary room but you know when you actually get in there and get in that situation, the strategy goes out of the window. You just live in the moment. Here we live life day by day but in the Big Brother house, you live second by second!

Looking back do you feel that you could have played the Audrey situation a bit differently? Maybe not call her out.

Yes, I definitely wouldn’t have called her out. The thing in my head at that time was if I leave her in this room with Vanessa who is too talkie, she’s going to manipulate her way into Vanessa’s mind and say that I’m the liar. And then Vanessa’s going to come after me. But if I could get some witnesses to say “No! She’s lying to all of us,” then that would make her a target. But this backfired in my face.

You were quick to figure out the twin twist. Did you ever consider confronting Liz/Julia yourself instead of telling Jason.

No because at that time, Jason was my go-to. That was my partner in the game. I was more loyal to him than anybody else in that house. I know that he knows a lot about this game so by me telling him, I was like “What can we do with this gift?” He’s a historian of Big Brother but I didn’t know he was going to run and spread it to the house like wildfire. I just thought he was going to give me some advice. Going back to it, I would have kept it to myself. I would have confronted Liz and been like straight up “I need you. You need me. I know your secret. I’ll protect you. We can work this thing out. I need you to keep me in this house.” I would have threatened her and told her “If you don’t protect me, I will expose you on my way out that door.”

You’ve spent time with both Liz and Julia.

Yes, I’ve spent time with both of them.

Who did you feel was the easiest to get along with?

Okay! Julia is the one who did not cast the vote to evict me, right?

Right.

She’s the one I call Stick ‘Ems because she has nice big breasts, right?

You said it.

That’s her! That’s Julia! I love her! She’s goofy, upbeat and loud. We clicked. We used to play pool and work out. That was my girl.

The other one, not so much.

Who would you like to see be evicted next? 

I would love for Clay to go home. On a personal level and strategic level, I would love for him to go home because at this point, he’s kind of running the house! He’s sitting pretty while everyone who is supposed to make decisions, for whatever reason feel like they need to go through him first like he is Big Brother. No! Send him home!

How do you think Clay and Shelli rose to power? How would you suggest dismantling their influence and control over the house?

I feel like they [the house] needs to put them up. They need to put them up alongside their best friends. You put Shelli and Audrey alongside Clay and Jeff… But I see that Jeff may be going out this week, otherwise, I would have put Jeff or Vanessa up against Clay on one side and see who makes it out. Those four are dangerous.

You’ve mentioned that the nobody in the house really wanted to actually send Audrey home because of who she is as a person (transgender) and how they would be perceived by the audience. How would you have gone about doing it if you were still in the house? Would you have made it clear to Audrey and the house that you were putting her up as the player and not the person?

Absolutely. While I was in the house, I was known for talking to the cameras. So the people knew that it was something that I was struggling with. I was like “Look y’all, don’t hate me. It’s not personal. It’s not who she is — I’m just trying to win $500,000 and I know that these people are going to let her slide to the end.” So if I had to fire the trigger and send her home, it would have had to happen. I would have just put her up like I would have. In my mind she’s just a player in the house like everybody else. There’s nothing different about her. I would have put her on the block and sent her home.

I support Audrey. I think she is extremely brave for doing what she did. But as a player? No. She has to go home.

How does it feel being on the first season of such a big American reality show where there is a transgender person in the house as we are seeing more of this across television with shows like The Bold and the Beautiful and Transparent?

That’s the thing about it… Once she said it, it was like “Oh, okay.” It was just a moment because she’s Audrey. It was never like “Oh, that’s Audrey and she’s transgender.” It was never that type of situation. It was just like “Oh, that’s Da’!” She was just with everybody else. That’s the one thing that I love about our cast. Nobody isolated her like that… Except when it came time for putting her up.

Big Brother airs Sundays and Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Global and CBS.

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