Exclusives

Big Brother Exit Interview: Jess Gowling

jess gowling big brother canada exit interview
jess gowling big brother canada exit interview

Jess Gowling, the 35-year-old visual artist from Cranbrook, British Columbia, was the second houseguest to be evicted from Thursday’s (March 31) special double eviction episode of Big Brother Canada.

Jess spoke to us about where they think things went wrong from them, clarification for the “Tianna” comment, and who they’d like to see go far.

When do you think that things just went wrong for you?

Oh, things went wrong day two when I was on the block, and no one wanted to talk to me. And then I put a check mark on Hermon’s highlight of me being a powerful player by saving myself with the Power of Veto. So, it started day two and then I just could never get off that island. I tried to swim, but it was a big ocean.

It got very petty.

Yeah, I think there’s like a popular crowd “moment” going on there. I definitely felt like I was reliving a bit of high school where I was the, you know, “the odd one out,” but I’m always going to own my uniqueness. And, you know, the kids can hang out with the kids that they want. I just wasn’t one of the kids.

There wasn’t anyone backing you up.

Yeah, I don’t think anyone wanted to overtly back me up. I think having to name it out loud [during the Chain of Safety] was a problem. If we had ran into the Diary Room to say it, maybe that wouldn’t have mattered, but I think it still would have been revealed who you would have been saving, so it had to be out loud and in the open.

Are you still confident with your nominations?

I knew that if I decided to put up someone like Tynesha, Summer, or Betty, then they would have been going out and Moose would have stayed anyway. So, I had to take that big shot a very powerful player, but I knew I was hedging my bets on half the house being very upset with me so once the Chain of Safety was announced, I knew I was going to either run with the chain around my neck like that Power of Veto, or be totally chocked out by it.

You also wanted Tynesha to go home over Moose, correct?

I did. At the end of the day, I do think Moose didn’t have as much agency at all. I think Tynesha was the glue amongst many people in that house. I had originally tried to play it to her as maybe a ruse of the “Siblings” and try to test the trust there. But they all pitched every single name other than themselves. They never were really giving me ideas that were for the Siblings as a collective and so it became very clear to me that I was just another contingency plan for them. And if I was going to go out, I had to make sure that someone very powerful went out with me – and maybe that gives other people that are kind of lost, puppies like myself, a better run.

Could you please clarify what Tynesha meant with the whole “Tiana” thing? Not all viewers might have been familiar with something that could have happened on the live feeds.

Sure. So, we were in the bedroom during the second week and I said “Tiana,” which actually is a combination of the start of her name and the end of her daughter’s name. I immediately corrected myself and said, “Oh my goodness, Tynesha, I know your name.” And she said, “Oh don’t worry about it,” and played it off. I said, “No, it matters. Names are important.” So, she actually used my own verbiage back at me three weeks later.

If it was still a problem for her, I wish she had, you know, the compassion or the gall to approach me about it. I have been very open with people about expressing their issues with me and holding me accountable. I will always unlearn and learn.

So, I did think that [what she did] was you know, a little sassy, maybe a little emotional. I can give that to her, but as a non-binary person who had already struggled with my name being Jessica on the wheel when it should have been Jess. When she had used the name Jessica to me several times throughout the game and me correcting her more than once, I thought it was kind of interesting and a bit hypocritical.

Did you get a chance to talk to anyone when the votes were being cast in the Diary Room before you were voted out?

Yeah, all my chats were just “Thank you and good luck.” It was very clear that Gino would be saved. The blowback from Tynesha leaving was way too intense and how no one wanted to vouch for me or give me a link during the Chain of Safety made it very clear that if I didn’t sort those ping pong balls fast enough, that I was done. So, all of my little jump in’s in the rooms afterwards, not sure if that made it to the episode, but I would just go in and say “Hey, thanks for your kindness. Sorry, that I can’t do any more for you.” And I wished the best of luck to a few people. Even people who didn’t have my best interest. I still gave them the love I try to give everyone.

Are there still any friendships that you’ll think you’ll have outside of that house?

Yeah, Kevin, for sure.. Josh, for sure. I think other people if they can get over, which I think they will because the game never stops playing and people keep screwing others over and lying to each other. They’ll know that it was just a game, and hopefully they can see through that.

I even hope Tynesha can also see that it was just a game and that she was just very, very, apt to win and very well insulated, so I hope so…but also, I don’t need more friends.  I have a lot of great friends and hopefully there’s some of the existing BBCAN family that love me. But I don’t need validation from someone else. I can validate myself and I think everyone in that house can say that.

Who are you hoping goes far in this game?

I hope Josh goes far. I think he has a lot of roads that he can travel and is very well loved. I also hope that Kevin goes far because I think he’s really smart and clever and still always kind of showed me the time of day, even though I think he had his fingers in a lot of pies.

Is there someone you don’t want to see go far?

Oh yeah, y’all know who it is. It’s Hermon. He made my life very difficult. Nominating me Day 2, lying to my face saying it was a cease fire the night before the next HOH. He even made a mockery of that nomination, even when I gave him the respect of telling him prior to putting him up. So, I don’t owe him anything at all.  He was even petty enough to not hug me when I left. Everyone else gave me a hug. So, I may not give him a hug when the season’s all over, but I still try to be kind to everybody. If he can get over the ego, then maybe there’s a friendship there.

Big Brother Canada airs Mondays and Wednesdays at 7 p.m. EP/MT and Thursdays at 8 p.m. EP/MT on Global. Catch up with episodes and watch the live feeds at BigBrotherCanada.ca. Episodes also stream on STACKTV, the Global TV app, and on demand.

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