‘Big Brother 27’s Adrian Rocha Says Vince and Zach Are ‘Running Scared’ for Evicting Him

Big Brother’s house is open once more! Every week, Parade’s Mike Bloom will be bringing you interviews with this season’s houseguests as they get evicted from the game.

Going into Big Brother 27, Adrian Rocha seemed to be the most “bready” to play. But he felt no “knead” to make big moves early on, opting for a game based on honesty and loyalty. That tactic, unfortunately, got him up on the block in Week 2, starting his “crumby” time in the house. After escaping the block, Adrian thought he could keep rolling for his shot at the “dough.” But, after a hefty amount of back and forth, Lauren Domingue put him up as a replacement, having him question, “Rye?” Facing athe “BB Blockbuster” for a second week in a row, unlike yeast, he unfortunately failed to rise to the occasion once more. And despite how much “loaf” the house had for Adrian, the majority opted to get rid of him, officially making his game toast.

Adrian touted in the preseason that he would become one of the greatest Big Brother players of all-time, as the carpenter felt he built a solid foundation to support a game valued at $750,000. So it was a bit surprising to see him be so laid-back in the first week, instead banking his strategy on sticking to his word and gunning for the “liars.” It was this mentality that caused Adrian to purposely vote to keep Zae Frederich, despite knowing the door-to-door salesman would be on his way out the door. Unfortunately, purposely voting in the minority gave Jimmy Heagerty an easy reason to put Adrian up. While initially a pawn for the week, house targets Keanu Soto and Kelley Jorgensen both won Vetos through their respective powers, all of a sudden putting Adrian in the line of fire. But, for the man who built and practiced his own wall comp at home, he had no problem having his back up against the wall. Adrian won the Blockbuster, securing his safety to fight another week.

Despite having a new HoH in Lauren, the next week seemed like more of the same for the house. Keanu, Kelley and Cliffton “Will” Williams all went up on the block, and Keanu once again got the Veto. Lauren was heavily torn between putting up Adrian and Ashley Hollis as a renom, ultimately choosing the former to not piss off Ashley’s allies. Indeed, it was her and her allies’ desire to not makes waves that proceeded to sink Adrian’s game. With two sides developing in the house, after Kelley once again won the Blockbuster, Adrian could have had the votes to stay in a tiebreaker. But swing votes Vince Panaro and Zach Cornell chose to flip, becoming part of the group that went through great emotional turmoil to send Adrian out. And so, through an immense amount of tears and hugs on all ends, Adrian walked out of the house, with the only “bread” he won tucked underneath his arm.

Now out of the house, Adrian talks with Parade about how his preseason approach was different than his actual gameplay, why he chose to be so vocal about getting out the “liars” and his reaction to the vote nearly being tied in his favor.

Excited to talk with you, Adrian! You walked out of the house with some bread, just not the bread you had hoped for.
No, not the bread I was hoping for! But I was excited to walk out with some bread.

Well, it was clearly an incredibly emotional night for you. When you find out Kelley won the Blockbuster, we see you embrace Will for a long time. And it seemed like, through the eviction speeches, there were so many people near or in tears. Did you have a sense that you were going as soon as you lost the Blockbuster?
Yeah, I knew that it was hard for me to get votes. If everyone stuck to their word, I would have had enough votes at least to break a tie, and I believe Lauren could have broken that. But it was risky, because Lauren had done me dirty all week long. She put up Kelley, she put up Will, and then she put up me to put the nail in the coffin. So it was a long shot to win that vote, and I kind of knew I was done. Will was such a good pawn to put up. Everyone loves the guy. No one’s threatened by him. And I was seen as too, too big of a potential comp beast. And also, at the same time, I was close to Kelley and Keanu, which were the two other biggest targets in the house.

So, yeah, it was very emotional, because I loved everyone, and I believe everyone did love me. It was hard to see me go. I mean, Will, oh man, I love the guy. I didn’t want to see him go. But I didn’t want to see myself go. I had a lot of fight in me. I’ve trained for these comps. It was so hard not to talk about comps. Everyone was theorizing the comps. So people were like, “What was the name of this? Who was this winner? Who played this?” I knew all the answers. “Oh yeah, that was Season 24; this was Season 20.” I knew all the comps, I knew all the names, and I knew the best strategies for them. But I had to shut my mouth, act like I didn’t know. Like, “Hey, what competition are you talking about?” So I was trying to, like, downplay my knowledge of the game, but that didn’t really help me too much in the long term.

Well, I can reveal to you that it did look for a while that the vote would be tied and that Lauren would vote to keep you. But Vince and Zach, along with some pitching from Ava, ultimately chose not to force the tie, both to not put Lauren in that position, as well as to not be associated with the other people who voted to keep you. What’s your reaction to that?
I mean, I understand. I didn’t want to put them in a worse position and ask them to vote on Will’s side to save their game. But at the same time, I had to save my game, right? It was a possibility that I could have still stayed in the house and rally the votes against Will, but everyone would have had to stick to their word. But again, they’re running scared. They’re scared to go against the house. They say they’re not afraid to make moves. I let them know who I believe is going to come after them, to give them the best knowledge moving forward. I told Zach and Vince who I think [is] coming after him. I said I would win, and I’m not afraid to take that shot. They knew that I was a competitor, and I was hoping that they would still vote on my side in order for me to still play this game and fight along their side. But I mean, it speaks that they’re running afraid. But, I mean, I guess that’s the game of Big Brother. You know, maybe I should have just played with people that have some guts in the game. But I guess they saved their game. They’re playing it safe. This is no fun. But I guess they’re still in the house, and I’m not, so we’ll see.

We watched your preseason interviews where you were shot out of a cannon. And, as perhaps the biggest superfan going in, you had a clear plan of how you wanted to play. So it surprised a lot of us that you took a more laid-back approach and based your game on loyalty and honesty. Was that always the intention, or did something change going in?
Honestly, it wasn’t planned. I didn’t bring this whole concept of being honest and loyalty into the house. It was just something that I just am. In real life, I’m very honest. I love honesty. And I just knew that people were gonna start lying, and they’re gonna lie about the vote, they’re gonna lie to your face. And I didn’t want to play that game. And I knew that long term. I believed it would have helped me out in the long run. And I still stand by my statement. I think it would have come in handy. Everyone told me, “Adrian can’t lie. He just doesn’t lie. He can’t lie.” So I think it really did help me in the game when it came to people trusting me with information. They’re like, “He won’t lie. He’s giving me his word. I truly do trust him.”

The only downfall was I was associated with other people that played way different games. Kelley, she played super hard. She was a huge target. She was instigating things. And people didn’t like that, but I was associated with Kelley pretty right off the bat. Same thing with Keanu. Keanu has been known to lie. He lied to me even though he voted to keep me. He was the house’s biggest target. People saw him as a huge physical threat. He’s lied in the past, and they just associated. Since Kelley was close to Keanu and I was close to Kelley, we just kind of kind of got bunched together and say, “Hey, these are the three biggest targets in the house. We need to get them out.” So I guess that was kind of like the downfall.

But if I had to go in there, I would still like to play the same way, but probably just win the first HoH and not throw it. [That] would my huge difference. Because one of my rules is, rule number one, you gotta create or join the winning alliance. Obviously, that didn’t really go to plan. But the best way to do that is from a position of power, and that’s winning the first HoH. But when I got in there, I changed my mind and decided that I wanted to play low key, kind of fall in the background, type of game. But the problem was that I was already seen as too big of a threat for getting close to winning the first competition. It’s either you win it all completely, or you completely throw it; you can’t have in between. The best place is probably third place. Season 16’s Derrick said it perfectly: You want to come off strong, but not too strong. Second place is just too strong for it. And I kept getting second place. I was the comp beast that never won, which makes no sense. [Laughs.] But, I mean, that’s how they viewed me, and they saw me as a threat.

What probably didn’t help was that you would go around the house saying that you wanted to “get out the liars.” Considering how many people lie in Big Brother, it had a lot of houseguests thinking you were coming after them. Talk to me about that tactic.
I wanted to drive kind of the stigma that, “Hey, don’t lie to me or I’m coming for you. So you can be honest. If you don’t want to tell me the truth, fine. Just don’t tell me.” If you don’t want to give me your vote, that’s fine. But don’t say you’re going to give me it and then lie about it, because then I’m coming after you. And I think with that, for the most part, most people came to me with the truth, but I knew who liars were. I knew Mickey seemed to be pretty open about working with me and about how she saw the house. But I knew she lied to me about that power. It has yet to been confirmed to me, but I know she has the power.

I can confirm to you now that it is indeed the case. And it’s quite the big power.
I mean, yeah, she had the power. I didn’t ask her if she had the power. I set it up in the way so she could not lie to me. I said, “Do you know who has the power?” So that she’s not directly telling me that she has the power. And she said, “No.” I knew she had the power. But other than that, I really did believe she would keep me safe. I would have loved to work with Mickey, but the only thing is she wouldn’t give me her vote. And I knew that from the start. I was just planning to win, because I felt like if I did win, I can still make it far in that game, as long as I won and I wasn’t up there against Will last night. But I didn’t win. Of course, I got close, but close isn’t good enough.

To finish, give your rapid-fire thoughts on each of the remaining houseguests. Starting with Ashley.
No sense of urgency. No sense. Love her to death.
Ava.
Floater.

Even as you find out she helped push Vince and Zach to flip their votes?
She was never going to give me the vote. I knew she would never give me the vote. And she was scared of physical threats, and I knew that. I don’t see her making big moves. She’s not really socializing a lot with the house. And every time you try to talk game, sometimes she pretends and says, “I’m clocked out.” I don’t really see you’re making big moves. I see you’re just kind of like falling in the background, trying to stay off people’s radar, which works. But it’s not someone I wouldn’t want to work with long-term. I would want someone that had guts. I want to take shots. I want to make big moves. [Someone who] isn’t afraid to take a shot at the other side. I was trying to win. I was going to plan to win the next HoH so that my side starts gaining some power and I can knock out some numbers from the other side.

Jimmy.
A freaking liar! The biggest liar in the house. One thing he loves more than lying is the spotlight, and the greatest way I was going to return that favor was put him on the block like he did to me, but I never got that chance.
Katherine.
I like Catherine. I do trust her. I would have protected her and Rylie in the game. But unfortunately, the house was playing scared to keep me in.
Keanu.
Ah, Keanu, love the guy. Love the guy. If he’s still target, I hope he gives the house a piece of his mind, because he could do it if he could keep taking himself off. I hope he doesn’t get backdoored like I did. But I just hope he doesn’t get paired up with Kelley, because I want both of them to go kind of far.
On that note, Kelley.
I love Kelley so much. It stinks that we had to distance ourselves to try to take the target off my back. But I wish I could have told her more about games, like strategies for different competitions potentially coming up. The BB comics, wall comp, the spelling things, there’s so much strategy I know about different competitions that I wish I could have informed her [about]. I remember, before the laser comp, I told her, “This is going to be lasers. You’re going to get low.” And then I guess in the storage room, she was literally practicing going under cabinets over brooms. She was practicing so much, because I knew exactly what competition it was going to be. Of course, she didn’t win. But I knew a lot, so I tried to give her the best help I could.
Lauren.
Oh my gosh. You’re either lying to me, or you’re running freaking scared, man! Ugh. I tried to tell you I had your back. She wouldn’t listen. She was too scared. If her goal was not to get blood on her hands, she accomplished it perfectly. But if her goal was to make it to the end, I don’t know how well that’s going to work. Because I know there are some sides that I would say are stronger, that are willing to put her on the block, whether she voted with them or against them. So we’ll see how far she goes.
Mickey.
She’s probably the most well-positioned in this game, especially with that power. She’s planning to work on jury. She’s trying to get people out that she knows she can’t work with, and ones that she wouldn’t have the jury votes to win this game. She’s well-positioned in this house. The only thing is, she lied to me. So I let some people know who she was going to target, just to make sure that I knew she wasn’t going to vote my way, and I knew that I could trust her. I think we could have worked well together, except that I knew that I was her number one person to take with to the end. So I made sure that my close allies knew what her targets were, to just help them stir the pot a little bit, make people take shots. You’re all going to come after each other eventually, so I hope my side takes a shot first.
Morgan.
Oh, I knew she was scared of me. She knew that she was scared to compete against me. I knew she wasn’t giving me her vote. She’s kind of well-positioned in the house, but I know she has a brewing target. We didn’t talk much game. She didn’t really lie to me too much, but I know she wasn’t telling me the full truth. I would probably target her pretty soon.
Rachel.
Rachel, Rachel, Rachel. We didn’t talk much in the house. It was just hard to connect with her. I think she wanted me to be more of an open book, especially about more details about my family. I love my family, but I didn’t want to put their lives on the internet. So I try to keep it a little bit under wraps out of respect [for] my family’s privacy. But for her, I don’t know if I could have trusted her, but I really do wish her the best in this game. I told her right before I left that I wished her good luck. Because I know she doesn’t believe she’s going to be the first two-time winner, but I don’t want to lose hope. I wish people the best, and I hope she does well.
Rylie.
I mean, I love the guy. I freaking love the guy. He voted on my side. I trusted him. I felt that he had my back, and I knew he was an honorable player. I love the guy. He’s crazy, maybe a little too crazy. But, I mean, I plan to see him outside of this house, though, for sure.
Vince.
Oh, Vince, I don’t know who you’re playing. I think he’s well-positioned. I see him walking in rooms with Morgan, Mickey and Jimmy. And then he’s close to me, Kelley and Zach. He’s pretty well-positioned in the house.I think he’s trying to play both sides of the house, just because he’s quiet. He’s not naming names; he’s trying to keep a low profile so he could make it far. But he just gotta be careful that his side wins before Mickey or Ashley or Rachel take that shot first.
Will.
I love Will. He’s so fun. Oh my gosh. I mean, we would just talk. He’s so fun, especially if he’s drinking a little bit, he’s an open book. Love Will to death.
And, finally, Zach.
Ugh! Me and Zach were supposed to run this game. We were supposed to make it. I wanted to work with strong competitors; I knew he was one. But he just didn’t have a lot of opportunities to play in this game. So unfortunately, we didn’t get to see that. The only competition we really competed in together was the “in the dark” comp, which was a lot of luck. I tried my best, but we didn’t pull out a win in that HoH