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Daniel Durston says treatment of Taylor on Big Brother 'sits terribly with me'

Dalton Ross
·10-min read

"Please vote to evict me. I'd rather hang out with Nicole and Paloma than any one of you bozos. This place is a circus and you're all a bunch of clowns." Those were some of Daniel Durston's final words in his speech on Thursday's live eviction episode of Big Brother, and the Houseguests were more than happy to oblige him.

Daniel was sent out of the house in an 8-1 vote, and he didn't stick around to say goodbyes, practically sprinting to the door and only offering a hug to Terrance, the person who voted for him to stay.

What was up with Daniel's speech and sprint? And what does he make of the cutting goodbye messages from Michael and Taylor? We asked the fifth player out about all that as well as putting his biggest alliance partner, Nicole, on the block and telling Taylor to "f--- right off." (Also make sure to read our weekly Q&A with host Julie Chen Moonves.)

BIG BROTHER
BIG BROTHER

CBS Daniel Durston on 'Big Brother'

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How many times have you replayed that decision to put your best friend Nicole up on the block and then watch her get voted out?

DANIEL DURSTON: Well, I replayed that quite a bit with Nicole. So, having talked through it with Nicole was helpful to understand that in order for us to move forward with a bigger group of numbers, we need to make this decision. And hopefully it helps us. Unfortunately, with Indy and Alyssa, they didn't align with it, or I still don't know what happened, but it didn't work out. And I told Nicole if we were gonna go home, we were gonna go home anyway. So let's just try to make this move and hopefully it works out.

Let's talk about your speech, calling people clowns and bozos and saying the season would get boring the minute you walked out the door. What was behind all of that?

Half of it's true, and half of it's me just being a clown myself. I'm a super fan, and I feel like, although people are playing their version of the game, I miss the strategic part of it. And I feel like a lot of people aren't playing a very strategic part. At least that's what I'm getting from it. Although they created the Leftovers, and I respect that, it's still a mass alliance that I'm not a big fan of. To me, that's a boring season. So that's basically what I'm saying in that speech.

Why basically sprint out of the house and not say goodbye to anyone but Terrance?

Terrence is my boy. I absolutely loved him. And he kept me sane this last week. Me, him, and Nicole were an alliance called the Night Shift. And he's the only one I truly got along with towards the end. And Jasmine, but she was already transitioning to make sure she was in with the other side of the house, and I respect that on a game level.

And I kind of just didn't wanna hug people. People tried to make nice with it, but I knew it was strategic beforehand. They were trying to say, like, you know, "Whatever happened here, you know I'm still your boy," or whatever, but I knew it was strategic so that I wouldn't blow their game up, especially Michael and Monte. But, ultimately, I know when we see each other in October, we will all be level, and hopefully we can all hear each other out and be friends and all the things that we hope for at the end.

Big Brother
Big Brother

CBS Daniel Durston and Kyle Capener on 'Big Brother'

Let's talk about some of your goodbye messages. Michael said you were part of an idiot sandwich, and Taylor had a pretty great clapback about you not having to talk to her until finale night. What did you make of that?

Oh my gosh. Michael's was fun. I was laughing so much. I kind of didn't hear all of it, but I love him. I respect him so much as a player, and he's such a good dude. So whatever he was saying, I was on board with. Taylor's was amazing. I thought it was gold. I would've said the same thing if I were her. So I just respected it.

Speaking of Taylor, you were super harsh to her after she actually tried to comfort Nicole, when Nicole was upset about having to throw a challenge. And I get that you were acting based on what Nicole told you and you didn't realize that Taylor was actually trying to genuinely help her and was concerned about her, but you told her not to speak until the finale. You told her to "f--- right off." How does that sit with you now?

Leaving the house, obviously it sits terribly with me. That's not how I want it to be done. That's not how I wanted to be portrayed. But I am such a loyal person in my real life. I didn't know it would carry over into the game. Life in that house is what you've been told and what you've experienced personally. So with what I was told, I thought I was on the right side of things. Unfortunately, it seems like I'm not. I look forward to watching it back and correcting my wrongs. Absolutely.

You've only been out of the house for 12 hours. I'm the first interview you're doing, so I don't even know what you know at this point, but you said that a lot of your problems with Taylor stemmed from Paloma. But Taylor actually never lied about Paloma, and Paloma did talk a lot about wanting to come after the guys. Actually, at one point, she talked about wanting you out specifically. I know that's a lot of information's coming at you, but what is it like learning that now in the context of your relationship with Taylor?

Well, ultimately whether Paloma said that or not — obviously I can't wait to watch it back — it's all game. We knew each other ultimately for eight days, and six of them were connecting and trying to get to know each other. It is all so fast. So I respect anything that anyone's gonna say on this show when I watch it back.

We all have our strategy going in, and obviously you have to adapt and change as you go. But yeah, that sucks if I was lied to. Ultimately it was Monte that made me — not made me, persuaded me — to make the final decision of putting Taylor on the block, because he really doubled down on the fact that she was lying. And I think everyone was aware how close I am to Paloma, so they obviously tugged on my emotional heartstrings to maybe target Taylor. Initially I was going to work with Taylor because I thought she was a badass the moment I met her. And that day — day 6, I believe — changed everything because apparently I was lied to and I believed everyone.

Big Brother
Big Brother

CBS Daniel Durston and Taylor Hale on 'Big Brother'

Clearly you were a very emotional player, and you talked about there being "game" and there being "personal." Do you think you crossed any sort of personal boundaries in terms of the way you played?

Yeah, I entered this game hoping to remove all emotion because I believe that is the way to play the game correctly. I am an emotional person at heart in the real world. It's very hard to remove it, and I thought I did. And obviously it got the best of me, absolutely. I didn't know even my loyalty aspect would be so hardcore. I am like that in my real life with friends and brothers, but I didn't see it seeping in until I realized how much I was affected by it in the moment.

Once you're there, you can't even go back, because we're all human and that's who I was at the surface and inside. Yeah, I wish I could redo it and remove the emotion. But even if I did it again, I'm sure you can't do that because you are who you are as far as your emotional connection and attachment to those you love.

You looked so deflated after Nicole's eviction, and in the moments that immediately followed you separated yourself in a different room and were basically saying your game was over and you would be next out of the house. Was the last week going back and forth between having glimmers of hope and then extended periods of hopelessness?

That last week I really meant it when I said, "I'm the next one out." Nicole and I had many talks about it, and I can't wait to see her. And that was part of the positivity of leaving. I saw the positives of both of leaving and staying there, but I will say, Terrance is such a spark of hope throughout this whole game. And he really came through on that last week. Even if he didn't fully believe it himself, I needed some type of hope to play the game continuously until I walked out.

But he actually gave me the hope of possibly flipping Alyssa. And you can imagine how hard that is when you're in a showmance. And she's like, I think, obsessed with him — in a good way. Like head is in the clouds, you know. And being that young and playing this game and falling for someone, I can't imagine what she's going through. But Terrance gave me this hope that maybe we could flip her, and then Joseph will be the final [vote]. And I love this game, so I was like, "Let's play! Let's do it again!" And it was only like 12 hours later I was back in, but I needed that to stay sane.

But then a couple days later I kind of knew it was time, which gave me the moment to step back, appreciate the honor that it is to be the Big Brother legacy, to even walk through that door. And I needed that closure for myself as well.

Big Brother
Big Brother

CBS Daniel Durston on 'Big Brother'

I don't know if you saw this or if they had whisked you off the stage, but they informed the rest of the players they had made the jury and they all celebrated and went crazy. As a super fan, how much does it hurt to not at least make the jury and be so close?

Ugh, it sucks to not make jury, I gotta tell you. I had the full BB experience with first HOH, which is what I wanted. I know that's technically a bad thing, but I wanted it. I got slop for the second week, and I won a Veto and I made a final two on day 2. The only thing I didn't fully get was jury — and winning, of course. But it's been a dream come true. And, ultimately, I did want to leave the house at this point. I was ready to go. So I'm not leaving with any regrets — opposed to watching it back and correcting my wrongs, of course.

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