‘Big Brother Canada 2’ full interview: Heather Decksheimer on fighting back, Adel regrets, and more

When we spoke with the entire cast of “Big Brother Canada 2” the day after the finale, many of the houseguests were still in an interesting place. They were starting to figure out what life on the outside was like and what the world perceives of them, but at the same time, they had one foot still in the show bubble. It is impossible to have days and days of being in a house told back to you in just a few short hours.

We’re putting up an interview a day from our time at the house (check out the rest of them here), and today, we are casting the focus on someone in Heather Decksheimer who was one of the many surprises of the season, at least in that she went from being a for-sure pre-jury boot to being around near the end of the game thanks to just a few simple moves. Had just one or two things gone differently, she could have easily been in the final two at the end of the game.

CarterMatt – How have things been going for you since the finale?

Heather Decksheimer – Pretty good, actually. I like that this is a slower-paced day.

Have you gotten a chance to talk with your friends and family, and some of the season 1 houseguests?

Yes. I loved seeing my family, and it’s so nice. And seeing some of the other past seasons and some of the past houseguests, it was really cool … It was something I didn’t expect, and the fact that they knew who we were shocked me. I was like fanning out while they were talking to me.

So speaking of things you didn’t expect, what do you think about some of things that have been revealed to you like the War Room?

Allison. Allison and the back room, the fact that there was three of them in there and nobody knew. We were just going about our business wondering why there was only 14 of us in the house, and all of a sudden it was revealed to us last night. I was shocked; I didn’t know what to say. There was just nothing coming out of my mouth.

Did you try the first few weeks [after she arrived] to just run through theories in your head about how she could have entered the game?

I think everyone thought that there was something more behind the fact that Allison came into the game late. We definitely never felt that they were living in the house at the same time as us. Obviously there were so many different scenarios, and she wouldn’t be able to tell us. I was thinking more along the lines of Canada’s Player, but not like Canada voted her in.

Let’s go back here to the very beginning of the game. What was it that you initially wanted to do in terms of strategy?

My first strategy was to be the fun, bubbly, ditsy blonde, ‘I’m an idiot,’ everyone puts me to the side and doesn’t think about it. Then, I wanted to win, win, win towards the end, align myself with one person in the house who I would go to the end with. I aligned myself with the person who didn’t have the same interests as me unfortunately (laughs), but that was my first plan.

Did your strategy at all change the first couple of weeks after everything that you went through in the house?

Definitely. After the whole mean girls thing, I had to start from scratch and think about the different things that I was doing in this game, how I was going to react to everything, and how I was going to get further in the game. Two weeks in, and I had to have a whole new gameplan. I’m just happy that it ended up working in my favor, that Canada ended up being HoH, that I ended up being HoH after, and everything just kind of rolled up together.

Have you gotten a chance to talk with some of the people who were [mean] to you in the game? Have they apologized?

They have, and it makes me so happy. I talked to Andrew and he said sorry, and I talked to Ika. She is so sorry. She’s like ‘Heather, I’m going to cry if you never forgive me.’ I still think that everyone deserves a second chance. We’re in a game, there are strong emotions, and we’re in a house. Just try for the best and look for the good that can come from it. At the end of the day, it is what it is and if I give them a second chance and they are a good person, I would love to benefit from that.

How crazy is it being in this house for so long? I understand feeling overwhelmed, and I’ve only been back here part of two days.

The first week is so much fun, because you’re like ‘oh my gosh, I’m in the ‘Big Brother’ house. But after that, it seems like a really long time until the game actually ends, and it’s really overwhelming. Like, it is amazing being in there, but very very overwhelming being in there for several days in a row.

By the time that I got out, seeing the sun for the first time, seeing real faces and seeing children and animals. It’s very ‘wow,’ like ‘this happened and I forgot what the real world looked like.’

So what is the stress level when it comes to being on the block?

Being on the block is the most stressful part of this whole game, because your game can change in a second, you’re already on the block, so [people may think] ‘why not get you out now’ … It never got easier as time went on. It just became more predictable, and I just had to make sure that I kept aligning myself and making sure those alliances stayed when I was on the block. It was so, so hard.

Let’s talk about Arlie, since this was a big turning point in the game. Was he somebody who could’ve been your #2 in an alliance?

I adore Arlie. He played an amazing game. I don’t think I would’ve ever brought him to the end after I found out what he was doing. I think that Neda and I made the right decision by putting it in Jon’s head that he needed to leave, and as much as I loved him being in the house, it just bettered her game and it bettered my game, as well.

So let’s talk about getting rid of Adel…

Getting rid of Adel is actually my biggest regret. If I hadn’t gotten rid of him, I feel like I would’ve stayed in the game longer. Everything would be different! I definitely feel sad that I voted him out, and I don’t have the same feelings that I do about Arlie at all.

If you and Adel were in the final two, what sort of arguments would you have made?

I think we both had the same kind of upbringing in the house. We both started on a downward spiral in the house and made a comeback. But the fact that we both did it would have made it [interesting]. I think it would have just depended on the alliances we made, the personal connections we had, and the little things we did in the house besides actually coming back. How our comeback [came to be] rather than just having a comeback.

Is it really frustrating to make it so far in the game and to go home, or is it validation that you made it that far?

It’s so frustrating. I love the fact that I made it to final four, but making it to final four and being able to taste final three and having a fighting chance to win is heartbreaking. I don’t think I’m over it yet; it’s going to take some time. But I am happy that I went out fourth and not third. Poor Neda. I’m happy I got to experience jury, and I’m happy I got to be here up until the very end.

Do you think you would have been able to do well in the first part of that last HoH competition?

I think I would have had a fighting chance against Jon. I’m a physical person. I showed that more towards the end of the game … I feel like that’s a reason he didn’t keep me.

Do you guys just spend hours upon hours upon hours studying for the memory challenges because there isn’t anything else to do?

Yes, because there isn’t anything else to do. Ultimately I have a very photographic memory and that helped me out a lot because I love memory games. So when Neda and I would go over things over and over again, it would just get imprinted in my brain. So even when I was over in the jury house [I would remember little things] and they would say ‘you don’t need to know Heather, you’re not in the house.’

Was there any hoping for the jury that someone could return to the game?

I don’t know if the jury was because I was only there for a day, but I know that I was hoping for that when they said it was a ‘special eviction’ [when I went home]. I was like ‘Canada, please save me. Let it be a twist.’

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Thanks again to Heather for her time, and for being a part of the season! We said earlier that we have the rest of our “Big Brother Canada” coverage from the finale here, and you can sign up now to get more TV updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

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