By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

She played a hard game but perhaps too hard. Mickey Lee, the 35-year-old event curator, got caught playing both sides and perhaps got tripped up by her own confidence.

John Powell: It’s great to be talking to you this morning. You must have had a roller coaster 24 hours. How are you feeling?

Mickey Lee: Today? I’m feeling great today! I am well rested and I feel like I’m getting closer and closer to my crab legs and my espresso martini!

John Powell: Well, I have to get one thing out of the way really quick as it is important. I’m no fashion guru by any stretch of the imagination but we’ve got to talk about the hair and your iconic look on the show. There’s been many comments about it. I mean, you even had houseguests helping you maintain it. How important is it to you?

Mickey Lee: Oh, my gosh! It was so important to come into this house being unique and uniquely me. I love my hair! I love my locks! It was nice to see they saw something different. I could tell. I got to teach people in the house about locks. And, you know, they were hip by the time it was all over. (laughs)

John Powell: Well, some of them need some fashion sense. I’ll tell you that much. You missed the jury by a week. When I’ve talked to former houseguests some are kind of bittersweet about it. How are you?

Mickey Lee: Honestly, I’m feeling good. I feel like everything happens for a reason. I am a big person about peace and intentions and my game ended last night for a reason. I am done playing the game for a reason. I think that means that something exceptional is waiting on me at home. I can rest up, gear up for finale night and just root on everyone else that’s still in the game.

John Powell: You may not know this but the reason why people voted against you is because they got this sense that you were good with one side, you were good with the other side and that troubled them quite a bit. Did you get any sense of that in the house that they may be starting to get wary of you?

Mickey Lee: Yeah, my discernment is pretty on point. I had sensed some things for about a couple of weeks now. It’s funny, you say that just because I think a lot of us in the house were good with both sides but I think it was because I was good with both sides. I was actually somewhat good at the game and I think I was a little bit of a target. I mean, it is what it is. But no, I’m not surprised. Not a shocker. I think a lot of people fear strength and that is all of me.

John Powell: That’s what happens on a season where you have a lot of like players playing scared. When you were campaigning is that there was this talk, especially with how Vince was going to push you to do this, but he was sure you were going to throw the Block Buster. You were that confident. Did you throw the Block Buster? Did you think about doing that?

Mickey Lee: To be honest, I didn’t throw the blockbuster. I didn’t give it the hardest of hardest tries just because the balls were kicking my ass, let’s be honest. Like, I’m like, what? I’m like, oh my god, oh my god. I didn’t throw it, no. Everyone knows me in this game. I was a hustler. I was a go-getter and I was out there to win, so I did try my best. Could have gone a little bit harder, yes, if I had a more of a strategy but no, he won that and kudos to Vince.

John Powell: I’ll let you address this but when you put up Jimmy, you said that it was a “faith-based” decision and that confused some people. Explain to them what you meant by that.

Mickey Lee: So, “faith-based” meaning, like I had prayed on it and I felt content with my decision. So, obviously Jimmy’s tactics in the house were somewhat damaging my game a little bit. He wasn’t defending me and a lot of things he was doing could have sent me home, which is what was so scary. I could have been home already, honestly, if I hadn’t done that. That’s kind of what it was like. I knew I cared about him as a person but what’s funny is the biggest person in the house that told me to separate personal and game was…Jimmy! Lo and behold, I took his advice and I did just that. So, I prayed about it and I felt content with what I was doing.

John Powell: We saw how hard it was for you because you had that discussion with Jimmy, that one-on-one in the backyard where he expressed his frustration. We saw that you were being torn, like, here’s a friend, but I have got to play my game. For a lot of people, it’s hard to distinguish between the two. Was it hard for you in the house?

Mickey Lee: I did. I’ll be honest, I really did. I think that’s also what bit me in the butt because at the end of the day, I’m a softy. I’m a human, of course, as we all are, but I am big on loyalty and I’m big on sticking with people that stick with me. Jimmy had me torn because I love Jimmy. I still love Jimmy and I think that we were exceptional together but knowing that I was being betrayed really hurt me which is also why I didn’t vote out Morgan because I was trying to be loyal even though I really don’t want her in the game anymore and that is what it is. I’m loyal to a fault.

John Powell: Speaking of your allies, you’ll get to see this obviously when you go home and you go back through the episodes, but for the longest time now Ashley’s been in the Diary Room and she has not been happy with her relationship with you. She said that she doesn’t feel like you’re collaborating but you’re telling her what to do. Did you get any sense in the house that that’s how Ashley was feeling about your game relationship?

Mickey Lee: I know for a fact that she was definitely advocating or campaigning against me during my HoH, so I knew that. I’m no silly duck, obviously. I was aware of that which is why I was comfortable with voting her out this week. I didn’t really trust her but I tried to keep her close until I could throw her away. Basically, obviously, respectfully, I might have started as pretty on point but sometimes you have to keep your enemies closer and that’s exactly what it was.

John Powell: Morgan has kind of drifted away. How did you feel about her gameplay? Like with Zach, she’s, getting really close to Vince, physically not just emotionally. What was your take on that?

Mickey Lee: It was very interesting to watch. I will say that just I think Morgan was kind of attached to the little triangle in the house earlier on with Zach and Lauren. They kind of shifted to Vince. I think it was a lot of strategy attached to it. I think that was smart to do. It obviously worked for her. The closer she got to Vince the better her game got and it’s interesting as a lot of people want to play for Vince and I think Morgan might unfortunately find herself very soon being evicted because of it. I think most people want to keep him over her.

John Powell: Now we saw a couple of nights ago, Vince sitting on the stairs, rubbing his eyes furiously trying to get some tears out. Do you think part of his game is kind of trying to get sympathy, playing the sad sack?

Mickey Lee: Absolutely! Vinnie is very good, very good at crying his ass off. The man cries more than me and I am a crybaby! He was crying week one when I first met him. He’s definitely a paid actor. (laughs) I’m not sure what movies he’s been in. I haven’t seen him yet but he definitely is taking the cake. Oscar goes to you, baby, for sure!

John Powell: We saw your big move in the game. One of your big moves was because you played a very strong game. You took away Riley’s HoH, at the right moment. It was the perfect moment you were in danger, very serious danger. At that point you could have gone home. Riley got very upset about that. You dealt with that with a cool head and kept your calm, kept your patience. How hard was that in that moment, with all the emotions that were going on then?

Mickey Lee: That was the toughest moment of my life, standing up on that couch when I had to reveal myself, I was about to pee on myself! (laughs) I was terrified! I’m like, Oh my gosh, this man is going to kill me! So that was my only thought process. I was scared! I was and like in that moment, I felt alone, because I had to do a ‘big girl’ moment and I had to put on my ‘big girl’ panties, is what I said. I had to stand there and stand strong and I was terrified. That was hard. But after I did it, I felt strong and confident in what I needed to do and I saved my butt.

John Powell: It was the right move 100% because you were definitely in the cross-hairs. Riley had discussed this. Another person you had an up and down kind of relationship with was Rachel. I know you’ve only had some a little bit of time to think about things. There’s this person and the game player that often goes hand in hand. What did you think your assessment about Rachel and her gameplay? I mean, we all got to see how she kind of the one big moment was with Keanu during the competition when she kind of interjected herself onto him. That was a big moment. What do you think about her and her gameplay?

Mickey Lee: I love Rachel. I think she’s a great person overall. I just think that her gameplay is very interesting. I think a lot of it is mainly intimidation based on her being a Big Brother legend and I think that helped her. Then, a lot of people were scared to take shots or even just say anything indifferent towards her, right? I think it was easier for me because I’m not familiar with her gameplay or her likeness previously so I treated her as a normal person and I don’t think she liked that. I think that’s kind of where I fell very short, because I treated her like a normal person. She didn’t like that. But, um, gameplay, I think it was just based on the fact that she was a legend and people just needed to “bow down” and it worked for some and it didn’t work for a lot of others.

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