Big Brother 27's Keanu Soto Reacts to America's Favorite Player Win, Explains His Vote for Ashley Over Vince (Exclusive)
Keanu Soto didn't walk out of the Big Brother 27 house with the $750,000, but he did win the hearts of viewers as he was crowned America’s Favorite Player. The fan favorite secured a whopping 65 percent of the vote, something he's still processing in the hours after the finale.
"Yeah, I feel fantastic. 65 percent, that’s a lot. That’s a lot," Keanu exclusively tells Men’s Journal. "It means everything to me, honestly. Just to know that my true, authentic self shined through and everyone appreciated me for who I am. I may not have won in the traditional sense, like you said, but I definitely feel like a winner. 65 percent, like I said, is a lot. So I don’t know how many people voted, but that’s still a high percentage."
Throughout the season, the 33-year-old personal trainer says he assumed the award might go to former winner Rachel Reilly given her huge fan base. "All throughout the season, we were like, ah, well, America’s Favorite Player might as well just go to Rachel. She came in here with a huge fan base," he explains. "But yeah, a couple of the interviews that I had coming in, a couple of my exit interviews, even with the CBS folks, they made me feel good about the type of game that I played. So I had a feeling that I was at least being perceived relatively well. So I was like, oh, maybe. And then once Julie [Chen Moonves] told me that her son was rooting for me, I was like, oh, OK. OK."
Looking back, Keanu thinks his roller coaster run made him relatable to fans. "I had a blast in there. You kidding me? I’ve been telling everyone I’ll go right back in there and do it all over again," he says. "I had a blast playing. I did. I’m new to the game, so I kept telling people inside the house, I’m only passing the test, I crammed. You know what I mean? But now I’ve lived the game. I know what my good reads were. I know what my bad reads were. I know who I should have trusted, and I knew that my biggest weakness was trusting too easy."
He admits Rachel became a mentor figure, even if he didn’t always listen to her advice. "I felt like that’s kind of what Rachel was doing, is being my BB coach, if you will, and I’m the type of person that, alright, I hear what you’re saying, but I’m going to mess up for myself anyway. Now that I’ve done that for myself, I feel like if I get the opportunity to play again, I’ll play a significantly better game."
When it came time to cast his jury vote, Keanu surprised some viewers by choosing eventual winnerAshley Hollisover his closer ally Vince Panaro. "I said during the jury roundtable that if Ashley was able to win the last HOH and make, in my opinion, the biggest move of the season by taking Morgan [Pope] out, that’s going to garner my vote because she played a very good game, an honest game with integrity, and that’s something that I personally look for in a champion – just in general, not even in this game, just champions in general," he explains to MJ. "And she encompassed that, so I felt obligated to give her my vote once I found out that she’s the one that took Morgan out. Had it been the other way around and Vince took Morgan out, I may have voted for Vince because even though I don’t agree with the type of game he played, he did play a very solid game and I couldn’t argue with that. So there was a couple scenarios where anybody won. My vote was not a lock by any means."
He says it wasn’t a foregone conclusion inside the jury house either. "I felt like everybody was pretty much up in the air. I feel like had Morgan won the last HOH, taken Ashley out and brought Vince, she probably would’ve won," Keanu says. "If Vince would’ve won, taken Morgan out, he probably would’ve won. But we got Ashley taking Morgan out and she won. So those were the three different scenarios where I would’ve voted for Morgan, Vince, or Ashley."
Despite some regrets about painting a big target on himself, Keanu says he wouldn’t change the overall experience. "No. No, not at all. Not at all. I mean, I don’t know if I would’ve won America’s Favorite if I didn’t have the underdog story, which was created due to Jimmy [Heagerty] saying, 'Everyone says you’re a liar.' And then I said, 'I’m going to pick you all off.' So I created my own underdog story, but I’m super thankful for that, and that’s probably why America loves an underdog, so that’s probably why I got that.”
As for the future, he isn’t shy about wanting another shot: "I had a blast in there. You kidding me? I’ll go right back in there and do it all over again."
And while he didn’t leave with the grand prize, Keanu says the fan support is more than enough. "My biggest takeaway is, I don’t want to sound like cliché or Prince Charming or whatever, the perfect answer. But yeah, to all the kids out there, man, you don’t need to be something you’re not to be considered a winner," he says. "You know what I mean? Did I win in the traditional sense of I didn’t win $750,000, but I won the hearts of America? And that’s a good consolation, right? So yeah, you don’t have to be anything you’re not. And being your true, authentic self will always be the answer."
source https://www.mensjournal.com/entertainment/big-brother-27s-keanu-soto-reacts-to-americas-favorite-player-win-explains-his-vote-for-ashley-over-vince-exclusive
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