First, I have to ask: How are you doing? I feel like I already know the answer.I’m on cloud nine. I got $800,000. Tonight I’m chilling.And a cruise, and 100,000 Instagram followers, and an E! award, and a shoutout from Lays!Okay, wait. I got a little hint of the social media award. It was from E?Yep! You won the TV News Scoop Award for Best Reality Star, beating out Kim Kardashian and Crishell Stause.Wait, Chrishell?! That’s the furthest thing I expected getting into this game. That is insane.Listen, I’ve been doing this for a long time. And I don’t think I have seen such a united front of love and support from all corners of the Big Brother internet. In a very fractured world, Taylor, support for you seemed to be what everyone had in common. I imagine it’s an incredibly overwhelming feeling. And you’re going to find out once you talk to more people. But I want you to know how loved you were, especially through some of those low moments in the house.Wow. You can see the moments where I felt at my rock bottom in this house. So to know that there was support, and to know that people saw not just my side but my entire energy and the truth, that means the world. Because it’s very easy to see it from everyone else’s perspective, as the rest of the house did.Well, let’s get into how this night concluded. When Monte took you to the Final 2, what did you think your chances were of winning?Oh, I think it’s 5-4 Monte. I think for Monte, I am positive that the people on this jury are going to feel like my speech is going to be a guilt trip for them. I’m positive that the people on this jury are going to look specifically at statistics, because you have a lot of hardcore Big Brother fans that are on that jury, and they want a good strong solid winner. I just didn’t think that a story, a journey, was going to be anything worth overcoming or pitching to a jury. Big Brother fans and players really like to stick to what they believe is the trueness of the game, which is competence and strategy. And I had no strategy! And I had very little competence compared to Monte and Turner. So yeah, Monte played a very true, honest game, and I thought that’d be more respected than “I was bullied,” with myself telling that to my bullies.Was there a particular moment when you began to realize that the tide was turning in your favor?So Indy says, “I’m voting for my favorite person.” And I literally pat Monte on the back. I’m like, “That’s yours.” I knew Turner would vote for Monte. And quite frankly, if I were in Turner’s position, I would have voted for Turner. I think he’s played a phenomenal game. And he saved me, so I appreciate that. But then there were people like Terrance and Kyle that voted for me. Monte has very, very strong personal connections with this jury. It looked like it was his jury up and down. And for him to have the confidence that he had and to make the choices and decisions that he had, it just made sense from what I’ve seen in the past trying to prepare for this game that he would be the winner of this game. And to pull out this win just by telling the truth of my experience in the house, to fulfill the mission that I came into this house to even do, it just…it felt right. But I didn’t know if it would resonate.It really did, not only with the jury, but with the fanbase at large. Some are calling it the best jury speech they’ve ever heard. Was that something you planned to say for a long time, or did it come with the passion and fire of the moment?I definitely practiced it. But it is fire and passion in the moment. It’s the fire and passion of the 82 days I was in the Big Brother house. I have won competitions. I lost nine vetoes, but I have won competitions that were crucial to my staying in the game. I won the HoH that secured my safety in the Final Three after my best friend and ally turned her vote against me. I have had moments when it comes to the mechanics of the game that makes sense. But when you’re comparing that to Turner or Monte, given the game decisions they made in evictions, I just don’t add up. But when it comes to my experience in the house, when it comes to the relationships that I had to take a very long time to form, I didn’t even see it as a social strategy. I saw it as personal. I just want people to understand I’m a human being. I remember even having a conversation with Brittany, talking about how I felt like I had to join the Breakfast Burrito club with Monte and Turner in exchange for Turner to keep me in the house. I remember Brittany saying, “It’s a really good social move.” And I just felt like that’s not a social move! I just had to do something to stay in the house. So at this point, I feel like I’m still learning the game. I didn’t acknowledge my own risks and strategies that I had, because I just was trying to be a human being amongst all these people. So for the speech to resonate so deeply, and for the speech to apparently light up the internet, I’m very happy, because all it was was the truth.Twenty years ago tonight, Danielle Reyes made the Final Two of Big Brother 3. And she’s the last Black woman to make the Final Two until you tonight, where you become the first Black woman to win the civilian version of the show. Given that representation, and the tumultuous journey you took to get here, what do you want people to take away from your Big Brother story the most?Perseverance and resiliency is also a way to win this game. It doesn’t have to be the biggest move that’s visible and tangible. It doesn’t have to be the biggest betrayal that happens in the game. Good TV, good gameplay, can also just exist as a full-fledged human being. And as a Black woman who has seen countless Black women play this game and get disrespected up and down the wall, I was willing to carry that burden and be that person. Because I just proved everything that I knew would be the case as a Black woman coming into this game, and I still persevered. I forgave more than I probably should have. (Laughs.) I was resilient, and it paid off in the end. I was willing to carry that bag so that in the future, women like me won’t have to do that. And I want that to be the case for Black women, for women of all different ethnicities. But specifically, it was very important for me to carry out and carry the baton from Danielle, Next, check out our interview with Brittany Hoopes, who was evicted in Big Brother 24 Week 11.
