“Everything You Say Or Do Can (and Will) Be Used Against You in the Court of Public Opinion” – An Interview with Beauty and the Geek 5’s Joe

RealityNewsOnline: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us at RNO. You were one of the most colorful characters this season. Were you happy with the way in which you were edited?

Joe: First off, thank you for taking the time to talk to me today. Without you and everyone else out there watching us, we’d have no reason to do what we did out there. So thank you - the fact that we’ve kept you entertained by our exploits means the world to me, and I appreciate you thinking enough of us to want to talk to us today!

I think “colorful” is the nicest way anyone’s put it lately. And in a way, I’m sure that I brought something new to the show... but that’s beside the point. I suppose that going into something like this, and ultimately watching the end product, I don’t have a whole lot of room to complain about the show. Going into something like this, you realize that you are but another character out there. And, as these things go, everything you say or do can (and will) be used against you in the court of public opinion.

But after working in television for the past two years, I acknowledge that - and went in with that understanding. Are there things I would have preferred that they showed as opposed to others? Absolutely! But that’s just the experience - and I’d rather take the experience, both good and bad, and be better for it than to not have done it at all. In short: I don’t mind how I was portrayed on the show... except for the whole bit about having a crush on my partner. Because that was completely and totally untrue.

RNO: Were you constantly aware of the cameras, or did there come a time when you could set aside the fact that you were being recorded?

Joe: In that situation, the cameras are on you at all hours and at all times. You don’t ever get an escape... even at night! But I think I was grateful for the experience of the cameras being on me at all times - it made me a lot more self-aware, and made me start acting like a better person for it.

RNO: Your relationship with Tara appeared fraught with conflict. Is this an accurate assessment, and do you think you’d have gone further in the game if you had a different partner?

Joe: Oh, Big Sister and I fought an awful lot - but that was just the nature of our relationship. Something that they didn’t show an awful lot of was Tara and I getting along. When we were on the same page, we had a powerful team, believe it or not. But when you have two very strong-willed people who are so much alike in so many different ways... that’s just asking for trouble.

And a lot of our fights weren’t as bad as they showed on the television: we’d go back and forth for a few minutes, one of us would walk away to calm down, and then we’d apologize and get back to work. We were never “fraught with conflict,” as it were. Rather, we fought a lot like brothers and sisters do. But at the end of the day, when everything was said and done, I knew that come Hell or high water, there would be one person that always had my back: Tara.

Would I have gone longer had I been with a different partner? I doubt it. In fact, I probably would have gotten kicked off a lot sooner had it not been for Tara. But seriously, Tara was an amazing partner to have, and I was grateful for everything she taught me in our time together, and how she made me want to be a better person. In retrospect, there is still no other human being you could name that I’d rather be partnered with for this experience.

RNO: Going into the show, was it mostly about winning for you or did you have other motivations besides the money for applying?

Joe: Money was never the motivation for being on the show. Not at one point was I there because I wanted to win a share of $250,000. Granted, there would be a lot of doors that the money would have opened, but if that was my motivation, then I would have been there for all the wrong reasons.

The biggest reason I wanted to be on the show was the fact that I wanted to actually become a better person out of this. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been socially awkward. I’ve always had issues moving with the crowd - and in a lot of ways, that’s held me back. This gave me the chance to work on those, put them aside, and be a better person for it. I think that, in a lot of ways, I completed that goal - I feel a lot more confident, I feel stronger, and more prepared to deal with whatever life wants to throw at me. In my opinion, that’s worth more than any amount of money you could offer me.

RNO: When you watched the season play out on TV, what surprised you most about your cast mates? Was there anyone who came off differently on the air than who they were in the house?

Joe: You know, there wasn’t a whole lot that surprised me about my cast mates in watching this season. I think that all the geeks were pretty much genuine to who they were, and played themselves at face value. The beauties... there were moments in their interviews that surprised me, but I don’t think this is the appropriate forum to speak about that, so I won’t.