“I Truly Thought I Played a Good Game” – An Interview with Big Brother 9’s Sheila

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.