Azah Awasum was “one question away” from winning the “Big Brother 23” final Head of Household (or at least going to a tiebreaker question), but without that win, she ended up in third place. She tells Heavy in her exit interview that she does have one regret from the game, and also reveals whether she’ll be friends with Derek Frazier outside of the house after the fairly harsh things he said to her during the final week of the show.
Azah Said She Felt A Little Shell-Shocked During the Finale
Heavy: Was it tough to make it all the way to the finale and get evicted right at the end?
Azah: It’s a shell-shocking moment. You have to process your emotions for the entire duration of the show, so you know, you can keep it up with your interview with Julie [Chen Moonves], but after Julie, you meet the jurors and then you watch the winner get crowed and it was a difficult process, I would say, for me. But at the end of the day, I had that shot at that HOH and I’m proud of my performance. It was very hard processing everything happening at the same time, but I’m very happy and blessed to have gotten as far as I did and I’m incredibly thankful.
How Does Azah Feel About Derek F. Now?
Heavy: Were you shocked about the way Derek F was characterizing your game at the end? The fans were pretty shocked that he said he carried you.
Azah: At the time when he said those things, I said OK, you’re free to have your opinion. When it was said repeatedly, that’s when I stood up for myself and I put my foot down and I said nobody carried me. We all contributed in our own way to get to the placement where we are. And as someone who ended up winning the final five HOH and part two of the HOH competition, I did feel validated to have a spot in those final two chairs. The great thing about it is that while the opinions of people whom I care about is deeply hurtful for me, at the end of the day, I can’t look to the outside for validation on my gameplay.
When I look deep inside myself, I know I tried my absolute best and did the best that I could do with the skills I had in this game. I know the house is a pressure cooker and the perceptions that people might have is a bit difficult for people to possibly see other people’s structure, see other people’s gameplay, so I’ll give grace with that. But I do want to take some time to reflect and decide what’s best for myself regarding my relationship with him.
Heavy: If you had won the final HOH, would you really have taken Xavier? Because I think if you take Big D, you win.
Azah: Yes. If I take Big D, I win. You’re absolutely correct and that was my plan. That’s what I planned to do up until the last couple weeks. He had been saying a lot of things, he didn’t think I deserved to be there and this and that and those things were hurtful at the time, but they also made me think. Let me think about this word ‘deserve.’ I personally, as a fan of the game, I did like the game that X played and I didn’t feel like he deserved third. I just didn’t. And with the faith that I have, I feel if God has me to win this competition, to win this game, I win next to whomever.
For me, I wanted to make sure with this being such a large amount of money and something that’s going to affect the rest of my life, 20, 30 years down the line, am I going to look back on this and regret this or am I going to look back on this and feel completely sound in my decision? And that’s why I wanted to take Xavier because if I did get to final two, I would want someone next to me in the final two who did believe that I deserved to be there and did play the game in what I feel as a fan of “Big Brother” played it well. So even though it was something where it seemed like I would be throwing away $750K, for me, as a fan of the game and for values that matter most, he seemed like the best option after mulling it over.
Also, we have nothing to do. I had days in that house to mull over and thinking. I really sat and rolled in my head, ‘Alright, I wanna win this money. Easy option, I take Big D. But like, is this the right thing to do? I don’t know.’ I honestly would’ve taken Xavier.
Azah Regrets Not Being Honest With Hannah Chaddha At Final 5
Heavy: During your HOH, you could have kept Chaddha in the game. Why did you target her?
Azah: So, when I was starting to think about my position with six … I was seeing how things were happening in the house within the six. I could see that Tiffany and Hannah were very close, and I could see that they also had something close with Kyland as well too, from me looking at things socially. I knew that it would be difficult for me to get in that way. I knew that what I was needed a guaranteed two votes if I was ever to be put on the block.
Now, I was close to Big D, that was pretty much my duo partner with Britini being gone and I knew that him and Xavier had a close kinship that they developed in the beginning, and I just walked up to Big D and I was like do you guys have a final two? And they were like, yeah, we do. And from what I had seen in gameplay, Big D had been loyal to me, and from what I’d seen from Xavier, he had been loyal to the alliance, so I decided to propose a final three with them so that I would have those two votes when we got to six. But still knowing that the final HOH, I would have to win the final HOH if I wanted to have a shot at winning.
That seemed to be the best option for me at the time because I felt that if I had joined forces with Tiffany and Hannah, while Tiffany would definitely be someone who would work with me, I was targeting Ky at the time and I wasn’t certain that I was gonna get that with Hannah. It seemed like the best shot I would have was with Xavier and Big D.
Heavy: Would you do anything differently if you could or do you have any regrets?
You know what? The only regret that I can say I have … is I should’ve been more transparent with Hannah at the final five. I think that No. 1 left a mark on my gameplay because up until then I could’ve said I had an honest, relatively transparent game. And I kept on thinking at the final two, I wouldn’t be able to say that with such conviction with the fact that I had lied to her. So I would’ve definitely done that … I came in this game wanting to work with women and wanting to form a woman alliance and I told myself, ‘You took a sister! You really took a sister out at five!’ But the options that I had, I didn’t have any other option. I already had been playing the game where I was keeping up with all my deals, and I wanted that also as a resume-builder at the final two, so I had to, for the time being, let Kyland go and because of the final three [deal] that I had with Xavier and Big D, unfortunately, Hannah was just the casualty and it sucks, but at the time, with the info I’d been given and with the loyalty that I had, it seemed like the best option.
Azah Said Going Out in 3rd Place Left Her With an Itch to Return
Heavy: Would you return to Big Brother if they asked you?
Azah: Man, whew! I don’t know. In the house, I said, oh I’m not gonna come back … but whether people respect my gameplay or not, I was playing to win. I was gonna win that final HOH and I was gonna get in those final two chairs. Now that I’m third, it’s like you’re in a desert and you almost had a nice, beautiful drink of water, and then it got taken away from you and it’s just like, “Dang!” I was one question away. Literally, one question away! So, would I come back next year? No. Would I come back years and years from now? Who knows, possibly? But it’s like an itch — I’ve just left the house and it’s like dang, what would happen if I came back?
“Big Brother” returns this winter with a third celebrity edition, then season 24 should return in the summer of 2022.
READ NEXT: ‘Big Brother’ Winner Xavier Prather Talks Kyland, Tiffany and Returning to the Show — Exit Interview
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