By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

Captain Cliffton “Will” Williams tried to storm the Big Brother house with his guns blazing but he soon discovered that a more covert deployment would be more successful so he pivoted his game for good and for bad. Will is joining Rachel in the jury house but not before he spoke with Global TV.

John Powell: You’ve described yourself as a student of the game. May I ask what led you to choose a less aggressive approach to the game?

Captain Cliffton “Will” Williams: I came into this game with a strategy and that strategy was to align myself with various different personalities. Couple of those personalities were someone who was older and somebody who’s young and can win some competitions. Another one who was possibly like a quirky type individual and then coming into the house I aligned myself with with Zach and Adrian and a couple of the guys.

It didn’t work out well. The Burger Boys went away. Willpower went away. Then, I pivoted and then I found myself gravitating towards some of the younger house guests who reminded me of my kids. I felt that might be a route for me to go further in the game. And it worked. I thought that I would do better in some of the competitions but it didn’t happen.

When that happened I started pivoting more to more of a social game and more of a fatherly role, so to speak, in the game. It got me through nine weeks in the game. This game is all about whatever is not working try something else and that’s what I kind of did.

Being aggressive in this game isn’t the right approach, at least for me, because I’m an old head anyway and being aggressive might seem like a threat. So, I kind of backed off and tried a different approach and it got me the top seven. I wouldn’t change anything else different. I wouldn’t. I wanted to come in and be more aggressive and more of the traditional Captain Will so to speak but it didn’t allow me to do so and I changed. I changed my tactics. It’s almost like in sports, like football, if you can’t run the ball, why you gonna keep trying to run the ball? So I started passing more and that’s what happened in the game.

John Powell: I don’t need seven reasons but…of ‘Will’s Kids’ in the house which was your favourite and why? You can only pick one.

Captain Cliffton “Will” Williams: Oh, of ‘Will’s Kids’ in the house, who’s my favorite and why? Ava. Ava Pearl was my favorite kid. She’s my favorite kid. There is no scenario in the world where a middle-aged black man and a 24-year-old flower girl would become close in this house. There’s no way in the world. That’s what happened with me and Ava. Ava’s spirit…I was really drawn to it.

Day one in this house when she said that her brother-in-law, his name was Will and that my birthday is June 5th and hers is June 6th, it there as a connection already. Over the course of time we got close in the house and she was one of the few people in the house who I can actually ‘real deal’ trust. Some of the folks in the house I could trust them to a certain extent but I could trust Ava. She would be the one who I would say was one of my favorite kids or the favorite kid in the house for sure. She’s always welcome at the Williams household whenever she wants, for sure.

John Powell: What was the biggest challenge in connecting with much younger houseguests and did your life experience feel more like an advantage or something that made you an outsider?

Captain Cliffton “Will” Williams: What was the biggest challenge trying to connect with the house guests? It was hard. From day one in this house it was difficult trying to connect with these kids. I had my struggles. (laugh) They are documented. They are for the world to see…but it was hard. It was hard being the oldest one. It was hard because these kids were the time of their lives and I’m struggling just trying to talk to someone because I didn’t have a peer. They had their peers. They had their people. They were four or five strong in the same age group. They were outside sunbathing. They were doing all these different things. And I’m lonely at times, a lot of times inside the house. That was hard. That was difficult.

I’ve never been in a situation where I was separated from my peers. I’ve been away from military schools. I’ve been away in regular life. I’ve been away in employment and so forth like that but I’ve never been detached. I felt detached really the whole time I was in the house. Shout out to everybody who’s 45 and older who try to play this game because they go through the same struggles!

I never got over it. I never got over being an outsider in the house. As the numbers got smaller the kids in the house started feeling some of the things that I was feeling because now their people are being evicted so they don’t have their people. It’s more withdrawn and some of the conversations that were happening day 64, day 65 were: I’m bored. I don’t have such and such. I don’t have these people and it’s really boring.

I was like: Dude, I’ve been feeling that way since day one where I didn’t have anyone! Now that they are feeling the same way, it’s like, damn! This is how it feels! It happen to them towards the end of the game.

I never broke that code. I never broke that shell, cracked that shell of being an outsider. After week two or three I stopped trying. I stopped trying to fit in.

I started changing and pivoting. Instead of trying fit into the 20-something-year-olds I’m going to pivot and I’m just going to be who I am instead of trying to hang with them, or work with them, or whatever term I’m trying to use, I tried to flip it. Then, they started coming to me and when that started happening in the house there goes the experience of living and the funky dad role in the house. That started happening a lot more. Then, Riley started coming and talking and sharing his stories and what is with his family, and Keanu and Zach and Kelly. All those different people. We started talking more and it changed my perception of the game and I think it changed my outlook in the house.

I started becoming more likable in the house and that was also the detriment of me being evicted…I just had to change. I was never going to fit in with these kids. It was never going to happen. So, instead of trying to fit in, I let them fit in with me and that started working.

There’s a lot of tears in this house. Has there been a season in Big Brother that multiple houseguests have cried as much as some of us have cried in this house? I was a lot of deep conversations that were going on in this house and I think I was a great part of that, some of those kids actually opening up and sharing their stories and how they feel. I think experience has something to do with that and they felt comfortable talking to me versus some of the older people in their lives who they just don’t.

John Powell: Was it hard balancing kindness with such a cutthroat game, and what was your toughest ethical moment?

Captain Cliffton “Will” Williams: Yes, it was because you really want to cuss out people oftentimes. There were some moments in the house where some people let it explode and I did not want to do that.I told my family I didn’t want to be that character. I don’t want to be that character of losing my cool, so to speak. I lost my cool a couple of times. I don’t know if it made the show but a couple times. I just didn’t want to be that person. It’s a game of lying. It’s a game of deception. It’s a game of untruths. It’s a game of all these different things but I tried to keep it, keep it kosher with it and try to play a level-headed game.

The toughest ethical moment was keeping the Judges away from Ava. That was the toughest one. I wanted to tell her but I couldn’t tell her because I was locked in with the Judges. There’s so many loose lips in this house. If you say the wrong thing it gets to other people and it blows up. Obviously I trusted Ava more than anybody in the Judges but with that being said the Judges have more numbers and I was going to protect Ava with the numbers that the Judges have.I wasn’t going to blow up that spot with the Judges, just continue to go as far as I could with them while also protecting Ava. Eventually, I was going to show my cards with the Judges, because there was no way in hell I was ever going to vote for Ava to go out this game. That wasn’t happening.

John Powell: Who do you hope follows you to the jury house and why?

Captain Cliffton “Will” Williams: Keanu. I want to say I love the kid, I really do. We’ve connected a few times socially with his family and things. He’s had some low points in the game and I’ve helped him out but game-wise? We have been across the board the whole season and socially he’s just been all over the place. I told him a few weeks ago that if he actually changed his social game that he could elevate into winning this game.

He’s trying because he was bad socially. He was getting in so many arguments with a lot of the females in the house and the way he was portraying himself was not conducive of what a young man should be doing sometimes in the house. He went back into the lab with his pad and tried to change some things. Of everybody who’s left in the house, Keanu would be definitely the one who I hope I see in jury house. I would offer this caveat though. If Keanu gets past the rest of these land mines in this game and finds a way socially to get to the final two chairs, he has a good shot at winning this game.

Reader Alert: Next Thursday is not only a two hour episode but it is double eviction night. This no episode this Sunday. Next Wednesday’s episode will start at 8:00 PM ET and will also be two hours featuring the return of Zingbot.

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