‘UnREAL’ exclusive: BJ Britt on Darius’ journey, ‘Everlasting’ highs and lows, and upcoming finale

As we near the home stretch of “UnREAL” season 2, we thought it’d be appropriate to touch base with someone who has had been front and center for at least the “Everlasting” part of the story in actor BJ Britt. As the first black star of the show in Darius Beck, he’s experienced highs, lows, injuries, fleeting moments of happiness, and a horrible incident with the police. Now, he faces a situation where he doesn’t want to be there, but also understands that it may be a key component to him having a future.

Check out our full interview with Britt (who was really fun and engaging) below; hopefully, this gets you excited enough to watch this show live as opposed to “The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose”, because if you aren’t already watching this show, you really should be.

CarterMatt – What’s it been like watching the show back and hearing from people?

BJ Britt – It’s funny because people were calling me selfish, a jerk — people like to talk. It’s hilarious.

So you’ve got the situation where people are associating you with the character and being like ‘why did you get rid of Ruby’?

(Laughs) It’s very interesting.

CarterMatt  – Were you ever clued in during the early going as to where Darius’ story would be going this season?

I knew nothing. Every time I showed up at the table read I knew nothing. I was really excited to break into the script to see what the next episode was going to be like and where their character was going to be going. It was a roller coaster. It was one of those things where you were waiting and hoping for something to happen to your character, because it’s ‘UnREAL,’ you know what I mean? Anything is possible.

Specifically, were you told early on about his injury, so that was something you could play into physically during some of the early going?

They gave me a little bit of information that he was going to be injured, but they didn’t say to what extent. Early on, there were going to be things that my character could do leading up to the episode to show the injury, but you wouldn’t know he had the injury, if that makes sense.

They told me before I went down to Vancouver to film. We got in a room with the writers and the producers, and they laid out the storyline for each character, but in a way where you didn’t know everything that is going to happen. They kept everything a surprise.

How do you relate to this guy over the course of the season, because he’s in such a weird situation being on a dating show with all of these women that maybe just a fraction of people get to do? Do you think about that, or focus more on the emotional side of things and how you relate to him there?

He’s coming from a good place. He’s just coming out of a bad situation where his words were misconstrued when he called the lady a b–ch. His words were taken out of context. He’s a good guy, he cares about his family, and he’s coming from a place where he wants to play football and be great at what his passion is. I looked at it from that point.

As for being with all of those women … yeah, that had me on the edge of every episode, wondering what was going to happen between him and the contestants. He’s coming from a place on ‘I want to take care of my family, so if I have to do it this way, I’ll do it.’

We’ve got just a couple of episodes left. Given everything that has happened in between all of the “Everlasting” drama, eliminating Ruby, what happened to Romeo, and trying to get Ruby back, where is Darius’ head at going into the end of the season? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

Man, where do I begin. They’ve definitely dragged Darius through the wringer on this one. He’s just hoping for the best outcome. He’s hoping to rehab his image; from day one, that’s always been his goal, whether it be talking with Romeo, Rachel, and now Jay. Even a little bit with Ruby. All he wants to do is repair his image, and now it looks like he may not be able to play football anymore. Like he said a couple of episodes back, he’d love to do sportscasting if he can’t play football.

He’s hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel. Whether or not he’ll find love, that’s going to be interesting. Right now, it’s going to be hard for him to pick someone.

Jay’s the only person he seems to trust for now. Is there any way that Rachel could get his trust again, or has that bridge been burned now?

I think that bridge is burned, I think that bridge was burned a long time ago (laughs). But, this is Rachel that we’re talking about! Rachel’s very sneaky, she’s very crafty the things that she does and the way she manipulates people. Never say never when it comes to Rachel.

What happened to Romeo was one of the most shocking moments of the season so far. How do you think that is hanging over Darius emotionally?

A lot. I mean, that’s his family. That’s not only his manager, but that’s his cousin right there, so one of the biggest things for Darius is that he’s a human being. He cares about his family. That was the one guy he felt that he could always trust, that he always had on his side. When that was sort of taken away from him, at this point he’s just ready to get out of there, honestly.

Do you think that this experience with the show has tainted his opinion on love?

If there is a chance at love [out there], I think he realized that this is definitely not the way to do it. For me, I look forward to finding someone who I just run into on the street or in a coffee shop, maybe walking to the mall or something. I think that’s more of Darius’ style, as well.

Is there anything you want to say about what’s coming in the final episodes, even if it just in general terms?

The finale had me shocked. Seriously. Even from episode 1, I was like ‘come on, get to the finale.’ I’m so excited for everyone to see [it]. Everyone has been speculating, but I don’t think anyone has actually said what is going to happen in the end. I want to tell you so bad, but I can’t.

[It’s not even crazy] just for my character, but for everybody’s characters! You won’t see this coming.

We saw Adam Cromwell come back earlier this season for a little bit. Is there any chance that Darius would step foot near any of these people again after all of this?

I think he would think, three times, four times before coming back, but anything is possible with this show! I even told them ‘look, Freddie [Stroma] came back, isn’t there a chance Darius could come back,’ and they said ‘you never know. It’s a possibility. He gave some advice, so maybe you will come back next season and give somebody some advice.’

As far as Darius goes, if they invited him back, I don’t think he [would].

Overall, what was your experience like working on the show this year?

It’s been fun. This was my first time working in Vancouver and I love Vancouver. We finished filming, and I know I’ve been back three or four times just to hang out with friends that I met there.

When I got cast Josh Kelly immediately reached out on social media and welcomed me to the family, saying what a great time we’d have. Then he set up a whole golf game with Freddie and myself — we played golf even before I went out to Vancouver. I asked Freddie ‘what advice can you give me,’ and he said ‘just have fun’ (laughs). Freddie’s such a great guy, and Constance [Zimmer] and Shiri [Appleby], once I met them they were like ‘if you have anything you need, any questions, we’re happy to have you here and in the family.’ They welcomed me with open arms and we had so much fun! We had a great time and I enjoyed every bit of it, because a lot of the times when you go on a show, there is already inside jokes and an established cast. Sometimes you don’t get the whole warm welcome. It was exactly the opposite on ‘UnREAL.’ Everybody was so wonderful, and that goes from the top of the totem pole all the way down to lil’ old me.

—

We want to give a special thanks to BJ for talking with us about his time on “UnReal” especially since this is easily one of our favorite shows to cover.