Yuku free message boards

"I Truly Thought I Played a Good Game" - An Interview with Big Brother 9's Sheila

by David Bloomberg -- 05/19/2008

Sheila was somewhat of the odd person out in Big Brother 9, as she felt like the house mom compared to the other kids on the show. How did she manage to make it so far? What was her strategy and how was it affected by the couples twist? What does she really think of Adam? And what about Joshuah? Sheila had plenty to tell us in this exclusive RealityNewsOnline interview, so read on!

It took Sheila a little longer to talk to RealityNewsOnline than a few of the others (Adam, Joshuah, James, Matt, and Parker), but she had some more settling in to do than they did, as she was of course the only parent among them. But when we sat down to talk, Sheila had plenty to say.

RealityNewsOnline: You and Adam could easily have been the first couple booted, if it hadn't been for Jacob's stupid move. But you and Adam both made it as two of the final three. To what do you credit that turnaround?

Sheila: Honestly, I think it was people were really targeting the stronger couples and couples that were getting along and basically seemed like they were teammates. And Adam and I were not. It was really a joint effort for Adam and I - the fact that we didn't get along and the fact that the target was off of us after Jacob's move. He definitely saved us. Honestly, we just were kind of like, we were no longer the target - it was the stronger couples that were winning competitions and basically getting along. Adam and I didn't.

RNO: When did you first realize that not getting along would be to your advantage?

Sheila: Probably after the second week, when Parker and Jen were evicted and Amanda and Alex were evicted. I knew that that point, all the really strong couples are going and people who seemed to be a threat. So probably the second week into the game, I realized that we had to keep up this façade.

RNO: How annoying was Adam over the first few days?

Sheila: On a scale from 1 to 10, 11. The thing that people don't understand is that I was offended by what Adam said about the children, so it was very difficult for me to even want to stay in the game. I was ready to be evicted. Did Jacob save us? He did. But I was ready to walk out of the game after what Adam said and did.

RNO: What did you think of the news when you came out of the house that he had been fired?

Sheila: I thought it was the right thing to do. I felt Adam really - there is no sour grapes with Adam, I think deep down inside he's a good guy, but I think it was the right thing to do. Adam had claimed he only worked for the foundation for five months and he was using it as a tax write-off. He was telling the other houseguests if they wanted to donate to the foundation he could get them a tax write-off.

Even at the end, I wanted to help him out, and I would have if I really felt that was real. But after what he said about these children, I was questioning whether he even worked for this organization, because it was such an insensitive statement. I've heard through the media and haters of me, they felt like I made a bigger deal of it, but I don't think I did. I think if it happened again, I'd do the same thing and call him out on it like I did.

RNO: When do you think the relationship changed to something resembling friendship? Or was it all strategy?

Sheila: It changed the minute we became singles. I realized I could play the game with him, but in a separate situation. The minute we became singles, people were still targeting people as couples - they couldn't get over that, they couldn't wrap their heads around people being couples. And it made sense because it was a forced situation.

I really felt it was unfair that we were playing as couples from the beginning of the game. It forced us to be in an alliance with somebody we really didn't want to be in an alliance with. But I had the best partner because I knew he was a strong player and a good player. He was throwing competitions and he really was flying under the radar. And he had good relationships with everyone in the house. Not necessarily with the females, but with the males.

RNO: Did you have a specific planned strategy coming into the game?

Sheila: Yes, I did. It's interesting, because my strategy was to befriend everyone in the house, find the strongest player, and start an alliance with that person - I was only going to pick one person.

RNO: How did your strategy change once you got in the house?

Sheila: It changed because Big Brother had this twist of us being couples and Adam would not have been my choice. My choice might have been James or Natalie or Matty at the time - of course Matty turned out not to be such a good player; I thought his game was bad. James and Natalie were some of the strongest players in the game. They were great at competitions and they were great at strategy. Initially that's why I attached myself to Natalie and Matty, because they were extremely strong. It was really Natalie who was a better player.

RNO: What about the various other twists, such as splitting the couples and bringing back James?

Sheila: Of course I felt splitting the couples should have happened sooner. I felt it happened too late in the game. I felt Parker and Alex really got shafted because of their partners. Jen was really coupled with Ryan and that was really unfair to Parker. Alex was another one who could have been extremely competitive and could have made it to the end had he not been coupled with Amanda. When I became separate from Adam, I realized I could really play the game even if I wasn't great at competitions. I knew I was good at befriending people and gaining their trust.

RNO: What would you do differently if you had it to do over again?

Sheila: I would have gone into the house and done the same thing as far as befriending everyone and finding out who I could trust and maybe gotten closer to Natalie in a sense, like a girlfriend kind of thing, and went with Natalie to the end, or I would've done the same with James. But you have to understand, neither one of them would have taken me to the end because we were couples. Everyone was still pretty much as couples when we were split up. That's what made the game impossible, truly.

RNO: If you had won the final HOH competition, would you have taken Adam or Ryan?

Sheila: I definitely would have taken Adam, no question about it.

RNO: What would you have told the jury about why you picked him?

Sheila: I would have said the reason I chose Adam was this is a guy who played an extremely good game. He really did. If you look at everyone who was evicted, they were playing on a couples level, which Adam never was. Adam never played as a couple with me, which is what got him to the end. He threw competitions, much like Dr. Will. Throwing competitions makes you a smart player because it takes the target off of you.

I wanted to talk to James about that. James made a bad move coming back into the house and saying he was coming after everybody. Had he just come back and laid low and not been such a threat - yes, he had to win things to stay in the game - but I think he could have made it to the final two. People did things stupidly because they were hooked up with people. Adam was always playing as a single, even when we were couples.

RNO: What would you have told the jury about why you should have won?

Sheila: I truly thought I played a good game. I did have people's back. The only person I really truly evicted, though James claims otherwise, is Natalie. But I had to evict Natalie because she was one of the strongest players in the game and if she stayed, Adam would have taken her to the end or she would have taken Adam. I couldn't risk it. But I would have said I did everyone's back. But James said when you vote for somebody, you vote them out of the house. You might not literally evict them, but you're part of it. If that's the way you look at it, then I had evicted a lot of people out of the house.

Here's the thing, when each person walked out of that house, I had already made up with them and had a great relationships. You won't see that unless you've seen the live feeds or the Showtime. Each and every individual that walked out of the house, I had a really good relationship with, even with everything that happened, with Joshuah and James. They both cared about me and said if you make it to the final two, you're going to get the money. That's why Ryan and Adam couldn't risk taking me to the end. They both told me. After the second part of the final HOH competition and Adam won, he said, "I will not take you to the end because you would get the votes from the jury house." He pointed to each of them and it was pretty much everybody.

RNO: You mentioned Joshuah - have you talked to him since the end of the game about the way he treated you and some of the other women? What did he have to say for himself?

Sheila: I actually hung out with Joshuah after the wrap party. He's so devastated over the bad publicity that he really didn't have much to say. You have to understand that Joshuah basically said he played the game that way because he was afraid of people targeting him and bringing up his personal life because he was gay. I asked why he did that to other people, it didn't make sense to me. "Do you understand that's why I wanted you out because you were attacking people in their personal life? You went over a line that you shouldn't cross ever, even in a game." He crossed some boundaries. You couldn't really get your head around it. It was too brutal and painful. He is now suffering the consequences. I can guarantee you. He's traumatized. He's devastated.

I don't hold any grudges, I realize it was a game. I think Joshuah realized how horrible he was once he removed himself from the game. It destroyed him. He was still being the nasty Josuah in the jury house. I think Joshuah really didn't realize how brutal he was until he removed himself from the game.

In hindsight, he would have played different if he had walked in as a single too. Everyone really didn't get to play the game as it played out, the real game, the real true Big Brother game, because of our twist. I don't think anybody got to play it the way they would normally play it. Maybe others won't admit it, but for me, it was truly not - I thought it was a horrible twist. Maybe I wouldn't have made it as far had I not been teamed up with Adam, but you never know.

About Joshuah, once we became couples, I think that destroyed his game too. Nobody knows what happened to Neil, you're not supposed to even talk about this guy. Why is that? What's going on? I want to know. Joshuah got Sharon as a partner. He's a gay guy playing in a straight game, he was forced to start an alliance with Sharon. She's a great player but he never really trusted her. She could have taken him further in the game but he wanted James to be his partner.

RNO: We've seen you say good things and bad things about Adam. So what are your true feelings for Adam after everything you've been through?

Sheila: I really wanted to be honest with Julie when I walked out of the house. My true feelings were this guy was just playing a game and he played a good game. But after watching the game - I've only watched it on the internet, up to about 13 episodes and then I watched the finale. I probably won't have a relationship with him now because my true feelings about Adam are he really deep down inside maybe is not the good guy I thought he was. If this was truly a game and strategy, when it was all said and done, he would not even thank me or acknowledge that I was part of why he was at the end. He felt like he brought me to the end. That truly showed me his true colors. He did not even acknowledge me at the wrap party. To me, that's disgusting.

I would have had a friendship with him had he just come up to me after it was all over with and said, "I'm sorry, it was a game, I did my best, maybe it wasn't meant to be." But to not acknowledge that I was part of your partnership really hurt me.

When we became singles, it was my idea to keep up the façade that we hated each other because all the couples were being targeted. He doesn't want to acknowledge that and that hurts. He thinks because he threw competitions and did whatever with people; he doesn't even acknowledge that I was part of his game play. That's why we probably will not have a friendship outside of the house. All I wanted from him was, "Hey, sorry it didn't work out, but I really care about you and hope we keep in touch. I think the reason he is not doing that is that he was probably told right after the show that he was fired and he thinks I'm responsible for that.

RNO: Actually, I was the one who told him. He apparently had inklings about it, but nobody flat-out told him about being fired and the press release they put out and all that until I did when I interviewed him.

Sheila: You know what, I don't feel bad about that at all. He said it.

There were a lot of people who wanted to evict him - it was mostly the women, not the guys. The women acknowledged that Adam was a strong player and that he was throwing competitions. I helped keep him around.

RNO: In the jury questioning, you seemed angry at Adam, and some of your fellow jurors who I talked to - as well as Adam himself - though you might vote for Ryan to win. At what point did you decide to vote for Adam instead of Ryan?

Sheila: When Ryan was put on the hot seat, basically - you're sitting there and there's fire being thrown at you and the way Ryan answered every question that was thrown at him, I didn't like his answers. I felt he was still lying, he was still pretending to be somebody that he wasn't. When Adam was under pressure by the jury, he answered everything extremely truthful. I got to know Adam as a person. I knew that everything Adam had answered was really the truth. I didn't like how Ryan was answering.

And the show was edited that way, [to make it look like I might vote for Ryan]. I gave Ryan some crap too. I said, "I hate both of you, I don't know who I hate the most. I think you both screwed me." I knew after the roundtable that I was going to vote for Adam. Plus I was going to vote for Adam anyway. It was a given. I had given Adam my word. I wanted to believe that it meant something in the game. I told him before I knew I was being evicted and he had just won the second competition. He said, "Ryan's going to take me," and asked, "Will you vote for me?" and I said absolutely.

RNO: What was the most surprising thing you saw on TV that you didn't know about while you were in the house?

Sheila: How Adam felt about me and what he did ultimately at the end of the game devastated me. How he was calling me a 46-year-old bag and making comments about my age, etc. it just really devastated me. I wouldn't have done that to him, never would have. Not at the end, there was no reason for him to make those comments about me. I understand he had to manipulate Ryan, but it was uncalled for. And I had no idea that had happened.

And how Ryan was too, behind closed doors, his going around and making alliances with Sharon and this person and that person, it made me sick. Ryan was very two-faced too.

RNO: When you were in the house, what did you think viewer reaction would be to you?

Sheila: I thought they hated me. I thought I was definitely hated. Because I was asked who would play me if a movie was made of me and I said Sally Field. You love to hate her - she's a talented actress but she's a loudmouth. I knew people would not really like me because I was with a bunch of 20-year-old kids and I was out of my element, they were not peers. I was the house mom. I felt like they should have kicked me back $50,000 just for cleaning up for these kids. I was amazed when I did get out of the house that I have thousands and thousands of fans, a huge female fan base. Blown away by it… blown away.

RNO: Speaking of being the house mom, were you upset by the lack of maturity in the house?

Sheila: Yeah, I felt like I was really like Joshuah, the odd man out, because of my age. I didn't realize there was going to be such an age gap. I was told I would be the oldest female in the house, but id didn't realize on what scale. Even Adam, who is 29 years old and turned 30 at the wrap party, was extremely immature for his age. Ryan too, he was 27. Ryan a little more mature than Adam, actually. It was really hard for me to play this game.

RNO: There were times in the house where you indicated that you only cared about getting a book deal, and others where you made it sound like it was crucial to win the money for yourself and your family. Did the priorities change at some point? Were they both true the whole time? Were they just different stories for different people?

Sheila: I basically went in there to win the money because I needed the money for my son and I. My plan was to go in and shoot for the half million dollars. The book deal was never really a book deal, it was a proposal sitting on an agent's desk for six months because there was no buzz. The book was in the makings for ten years, there was never a book deal. I had told CBS this would be an extremely great opportunity, even in casting, and it would give me some exposure. It was never "let me go in the house and I'll definitely have a book deal." That's not how it works in this industry.

It was a combination of both. If I didn't win, possibly try to make it as far as I could and get some exposure. But that was never my intention. I just wanted people to know what I was doing with my life. People [in the house] were curious about your life outside the house. So when I started to tell James about my book deal, he said, "You shouldn't tell people about that because they might not want to vote for you in the end."

Right now it is on a couple publishers' desks because I was on Big Brother. Before, nobody would even look at it. So did it help? Absolutely.

I lived with the owner of Penthouse magazine for 10 years in Manhattan. The whole story is from my childhood until now. They want me to write about Big Brother, but there is a contract saying I can't do that for three years. But it was never about that.

RNO: You've mentioned that you didn't really know much about the game coming in, but during your time in the house, you also made some comments about past seasons. Some people watching thought that meant you were just pretending not to know much about the game. Can you set the record straight either way?

Sheila: I watched parts of a few seasons before going into the house - Seasons 3, 7, and 8. It was bits and pieces, not the whole entire show. It was just like two or three episodes of each. I watched. I wasn't really into season 3, but I loved All-Stars. I saw bits and pieces of Chilltown. I knew who Dr. Will was and how he was playing his game. I thought wow, he's a really funny guy, and he's witty and he's interesting. He was one of the best players ever. And I saw Evel Dick. When I went into the house, I hated Evel Dick because I'd seen him while channel surfing.

Maybe people thought I was trying to play stupid, but I really didn't know about the game. I just picked out people I liked who I thought were playing an interesting game - Evel Dick and Dr. Will. I could see where they could intimidate people, definitely Evel Dick, and his strategy was to break people down. I watched Dr. Will and I thought that's an interesting way to play a game, telling people to put him on the block, who does that? I saw bits and pieces but I didn't understand the whole gist of the game. I knew nothing about the competitions, obviously (laughs) because I was horrible at that.

Everyone in that game knew more about it than I did - guaranteed. Every single one of them but James and myself, we were the only ones who really didn't know how the game was played. Natalie was a fan, Chelsia had been trying to get on the show, Alex knew, Amanda, Parker, Jen. Adam bought every DVD from Season 1 to 8 and watched them before he came in the house. So Adam knew the game more than anyone. Ryan knew the game because of Jen. Did I go in not knowing the game as well as the other kids? I really did not know how the game was played. Neither did James. He was homeless, that was the last thing he was going to do was watch Big Brother on TV. James and I were the only ones odd men out for knowing the game and watching it.

RNO: Do you have anything else you'd like to tell us about your time on Big Brother?

Sheila: Honestly, if I were a little younger and did not have a child, I would do it all over again and play my game differently. If there were another All-Stars and they told me Dr. Will and Evel Dick would be in the house, I'd do it again.

And this time I'd win.

RNO: Thanks again, Sheila!