Brittany Hoopes reveals the Big Brother endgame we never saw
Brittany Hoopes was hoping to come in and hypnotize the competition, but the 32-year-old hypnotherapist was finally voted out of the game on Thursday's live eviction episode of Big Brother. Brittany tried to pitch to Monte Taylor that she was the smarter play to keep around, but the lone vote holder did not agree, sending her to the jury in the final episode before Sunday's finale.
It was a topsy-turvy season for Brittany, who formed a close alliance with Michael Bruner, only to sit there and watch Michael come out swinging against her when they were both on the block. Brittany stayed then, but lacked a true ally in the game, so once she could not win a second straight Veto, was sent to the jury.
We spoke to Brittany the morning after her ouster to find out why she thinks she could have "crushed" Monte in the final Head of Household competition, whom she would have brought to the end, why she screamed out for Michael, and more.
CBS Brittany Hoopes on 'Big Brother'
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You said you were confident you would have crushed Monte in the final HOH competitions. Why is that?
BRITTANY HOOPES: You know, let me clarify. I am confident that I most definitely would've crushed him in the mental comps. Talking about what would've happened throughout the season, things like that, I've been studying since day one. And I feel very confident in those type of answers. The other types of comps may have been different, some of the more physical type comps. I think he would've done very well against me, which was part of my pitch for one of the reasons why he should've kept me in the house. I think he would've been able to win in those for sure. We probably would've come head-to-head in that final part of the competition, and hopefully I would've pulled out the win if I would've been there.
Michael burned you hard during his final speech, so why did you scream "This is for you Michael!" after winning the veto?
You know, it is so crazy. You trust people so much in this house. I was still grappling with the fact at that point in time when I won the Veto, I thought that he had said what he said in his final speech to warn me, like to let me know that the house was talking about me. Because I knew he was aware of the conversations I had been having with other people. We had talked about that.
So at that point in time, I guess I was just so naive. Like, I thought he was literally warning me and was trying to do me a favor and it just felt so good to win that veto to not have this plan of trying to evict me that week happened, to know I'm gonna last another week. And it just felt like I was doing it for him. I have since come to learn some information that may have suggested he was not trying to help me, but those are questions that I have for Michael, definitely next time I talk to him.
CBS Brittany Hoopes and Michael Bruner on 'Big Brother'
What was going through your head when Turner confronted you in the bathroom about your vote to keep Alyssa?
[Laughs] "Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. What do I do? What do I do? I can't say too much." I knew when he confronted me, I knew this was gonna happen. I knew this was a conversation that was gonna be difficult, but I wanted to say as little as possible. Because if there's anything I know about, it is that he will run upstairs and tell Monte, tell Taylor, tell anyone who will listen to him what I said. So I just wanted to try to not give him anything to work with. I know my brain was fritzing at that moment, definitely. And I can't even remember what I said. I think I was like, "Thank you for your feedback," or something silly like that. I literally didn't know what to say. I just wanted to give him nothing to work with.
If you had stayed instead of Turner and then won the final HOH, whom would you have chosen to sit next to you and why?
Oh, most definitely 1,000 percent Taylor. I know it seems crazy considering I flipped the vote on her. I've already told her all this, we laughed about it already. She understands it was a game. She understands my perspective. She had a final three with them too. So we both were playing lots of different games. But if I could have had my choice, and I know deep in her heart, she feels this way too, to sit next to each other just would've been a dream come true. And that's most definitely who I would've picked to sit next to final two.
CBS Brittany Hoopes on 'Big Brother'
Finally, critique your own game. What were your strengths and weaknesses?
Ooh, that's tricky. I would say in terms of strengths, I think I was really able to have deep conversations with the other houseguests, get them to open up, build that trust and rapport — especially the first two-thirds of the game, or at least until Michael left — and really develop those deep relationships.
As far as weaknesses, you have so many different conversations and so many of them are just like "Uh-huh, uh-huh." And you just know it's bogus and you just kind of put it outta your mind. Even if I know said conversation wasn't true or didn't matter, the people that I'm working with may question it. So I wish I would've gone directly to the people I was working with saying, "Hey, I heard this, I had this conversation. I don't believe it. You know that I'm with you."
And I just would've wish I reassured them in those instances because I knew what I believed and what was true and in my own mind, but you gotta remember that everyone's dealing with a lot of different information and they don't know what's true. So I wish I could go back to those people that I'm really working most closely with, who I feel loyal to, and just let them know of things that have happened that I kind of just put in the spam filter of my mind — let them know so that they know that it's bogus too.
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