Big Brother Canada 5 interview: Ika Wong on incredible run to final 4
What is incredible about our exit interview below is that Ika doesn’t just take you through her moves this season — she also shares her philosophy on the game, and why her thinking on certain subjects brings the show back to the root of what it is: A social experiment.
CarterMatt – I know you’ve gone through this experience before of leaving the house, but I have to imagine it’s different this time after being in there so long.
Ika Wong – You’re right. I’ve played this game before, but two completely different experiences. It feels brand new. I just appreciate all of the love.
I think you knew that people found you very entertaining from the first time you played, but this time around it was so much more. Did you ever expect that you would have such a big role in the season?
I told myself coming in that I was going to play week by week, and if the house changes, I’m going to change with it. I’m not going to stay with something that’s not great for me. I’m going to change and keep working. It’s a social experiment. I’m going to focus on that, and forget about what people think about Big Brother — the ‘masterminds,’ the control, the power.
Obviously there’s the whole romantic aspect of your relationship with Demetres, but I think one of the things that worked the best about what you to had was that you balanced each other out, and you both helped each other get much further in the game. Taking the romance out of it, do you have that same assessment?
For sure. I’m not the kind of person who’s going to be like ‘I’m this great amazing player and I would have done this on my own.’ No. This house is about building relationships. If you can find someone in this house who can help you, you should take the help. There is not one way of playing this game — you can play it however you want.
Were it not for him, I wouldn’t have gone as far as I did and vice-versa. I definitely needed him in this house for my sanity.
One of the things that you did really well at the beginning is that you didn’t have any ego, and you were willing to work the newbies and get them on your side. What went into that?
Honestly, when you’re in a house with a lot of people with big egos and it shows, people appreciate when someone is not like that. These people walk around like they’re better than other people, and then you have someone from the exact same group who is not like that. People will appreciate that more. I was just real and genuine, and I knew that this house is a numbers game and a peoples’ game. You have to get those people to like you. I focused on building a connection rather than building their numbers.
There are really two moments over the course of the season that blew my mind in terms of what you did. The first was getting Sindy to nominate Neda. How were you able to execute that, even though that move probably wasn’t good for Sindy’s game?
Leading up to it, I had been throwing little things out there, saying things like ‘Neda’s attitude is kind of bad’ and touching on stuff like that. Other people were seeing it, and you have to lead with stuff like that. Also, when Neda was mean to Sindy or when people were saying that, I put in that extra time giving her compliments every single day. I knew that there would be a time [I would need her].
I put in more time with Sindy on our friendship and always keeping it real with her. I remember when she threw a comp and everyone was so angry at her for it, I instead was like ‘I believe you Sindy. I don’t think you [threw it],’ even though I was pretty sure that she did. Just little stuff like that matters in this house, it matters a lot.
When it came to that double eviction and I was like ‘let’s take this chance, let’s do it right now,’ I remembered that weeks before I had been planting these seeds and all of these things were helpful. You are going to need somebody at some point. It’s just work that you have to put in over time.
I don’t know if there’s been any thoughts on it overnight, but do you think you would’ve beaten Demetres? I know that personally I would have voted for you.
I did something a morning show today, and I think only three people said that they would have voted for me over Demetres. I would not have won over Demetres; the jury is not very pro-Ika (laughs).
Would you have taken Demetres to the end over Karen?
100%. He deserves it. I started this game with him, and I honestly wanted to finish it with him because we were the two most-deserving people to sit there. We worked really hard, and I would not have taken it away from him for $100,000.
Again, I see this game a little differently. When I went into this game I had no respect, and people wrote me off. I didn’t have $20,000 or $100,000, so if I left this game with some respect and dignity and $20,000, and the person I was with for the entire game won $100,000, I would have been really happy for him.
One of the other big moves in the game was seeing Karen opt to get rid of Dillon over Demetres. Did that surprise you when she decided to do that?
I remember when Kevin won that HoH. I was like ‘we will not campaign and speak to him at all. We will spend all of our time with Karen.’ I knew that Dillon would’ve flipped over to Kevin, and it would piss her off. She would then realize that we had stayed loyal to each other and to her, and it would pull on her heartstrings. It worked! I thought that if he used the Veto on me, he was going to put Karen on the block. That’s why I was so upset at him and calling him a coward.
That was the better game move — to put up Karen. When he put up Dillon, I knew that Karen was going to keep Demetres, even if it was not in her best interest. In her eyes, we remained loyal and true and we kept to our word. That mattered to her. She knew that we weren’t taking her to the end and that we were taking each other. If we had gone over to Kevin, she would have said ‘they deserve to go’ and it would have really pissed her off. Keeping Karen happy was the best move at that time.
I feel like we don’t give Karen enough credit. She played the entire game through the eyes of the fans. In her eyes, she thought that the fans would want to see Demetres and I around longer because we deserved to be there. I am honestly happy that she was in final two. She deserved it.
Final thing: Are you glad that you and Demetres can have more of a normal relationship now without people watching your every move?
Oh my god, I value privacy so much and there are things that we’ve said to each other where I’m like ‘I cannot believe people just heard that.’ It’s so embarrassing, but I am looking forward to that [normalcy] for sure.
More Big Brother Canada news
Interested in a little more insight from the various houseguests, including our interviews with the final four? Then be sure to head over to the link here! (Photo: Global.)