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Reality Rally, Apr 15-17 Part Four: Ragan Fox talks Big Brother

Tuesday, April 19, 2011 23:34

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Regan Fox, the bow tied college professor and former Big Brother 12 alumnus sat down with me to discuss life in and after the show at the Reality Rally in Temecula, CA. He’s back to teaching bachelor and graduate students and living in Los Angeles, the land of everybody’s been in front of the camera. Life has gone back to normal. “Because I live in LA and so many people do reality in LA, it hasn’t really phased my students or the people in my life,” he reports. Still, he has his fans to this day. “Big Brother fans are rather unique because they make a big investment in the show, you know? ‘Survivor’ has a bigger audience than us, but if you look and see the number of say, Twitter followers for somebody who won survivor vs somebody who got evicted off Big Brother, even within the first four episodes, it’s a huge difference. The Big Brother fans are super duper passionate because they’re not just watching us once a week … sometimes seven days a week on the live feeds.”

Regarding cameras 24/7, Ragan feels that’s it’s different in that the lenses hidden in the walls or mounted in the corners of every room vs the obtrusiveness of a person holding a camera and shooting allows the cast to relax and be themselves. “What was weird was the house was alive in a way. So if I’m walking from one area to another the house moves. It follows you.” Getting used to the auto focus whirring sound took some doing, but he did overcome the situation. Think crickets if you move from the city to the woods.

Ragan feels fortunate regarding BB relationships now that the season has wrapped. He explains, “We had a really wonderful cast of people and we had some heated moments in the house, but by and large everybody is friends. Even Rachel, Brendan and I had big blowouts in the house and we got over it, and I’ll even admit it, surprisingly soon after the game ended.”

His take on the house is it’s designed to drive people crazy. A fan for over a decade, Ragan still questions why they continue to do things like ‘have nots’ and ‘slop’ because “People don’t get how horrible it is. I was a ‘have not’ for 24 days of my season which was a little over a third of my time there and I was consuming less than 500 calories a day.” That type of condition doesn’t translate to the viewers. In fact, this slender built man lost over 20 pounds, something he could ill afford. Sleep deprivation was another grueling factor. The lights remain on day and night because the house is, in effect a sound stage. Add to that being removed from everyone in your personal life, “That stuff gets to you, so the house is strategically designed to bring out your best and your worst qualities.”

Everything in the house was definitely situation driven. Upon reflection Ragan sees that “Even the fights that I had with Rachel, I mean that’s probably the most memorable fight, I can kind of look at it and say OK, the situation is what it is and Rachel was different in the house, as I, too was different in the house and as long as we’re cool outside that’s all that matters.”

There were some creature comforts afforded the contestants in the juror house. Books and dvds were allowed, but no phones nor current magazines. A Dean Koontz fan, reading brought solace.

He continues to keep in touch with Britney Haynes, now living and working in New York. “Every time we talk or tweet it’s almost as if we’re just back in the house. Not because we talk a lot of game stuff, but because Britney and I would spend hours and hours on the hammock just ripping on people and making jokes. It’s how we communicate.” It’s also how they got through the experience. Talking trash was a coping mechanism for them both. “People don’t realize it’s not just an excuse. If you really stop and think about how the house is designed to make you do this stuff, the first week in the house is actually 13 days. So by the time Annie was evicted, I was away from everything for 22 days, and that’s allot. That’s almost the entire time of ‘Survivor.’ I don’t think people quite get the brilliant torture of Big Brother. I call it brilliant torture because I love it.”

Would Ragan do it all over again? The answer is a resounding yes. He’d love to do an all-stars season because he believes the participants would be more genuine. Ragan would play a much different game were he to come back. Where in season 12 he didn’t want to get blood on his hands, next time around, he’d have no problem doing so. Lying low would not be an option. “I would be allot more myself and I definitely would not throw challenges.” That’s the one thing that he regrets.

What does Ragan think of his nemesis Rachel now? ”I think Rachel was more aware than anyone in our season in that she recognized only one person can win and it’s better to be a compelling interesting character.” Consistently through the season, Rachel laughed off her detractors. ”Big Brother is a place you need to turn it up to an 11, Ragan claims.”

One good thing that came of his experience was all the down time, forcing him to deal with his father’s passing. “I was crying allot toward the end, thinking about my father,” he notes. He wishes his dad was able to see him on the show and hopes Dad would have been proud of how he fought through the challenges.

Regarding CBS? “I have nothing but respect for that show and I do get upset when people talk trash about the house guests. I hate it when fans of the show come down on production and casting because they are outstanding and I have nothing but respect for the people who are behind the scenes of the show.”

For now, Ragan is back in the classroom, moving on with life and quietly hoping for that phone call to bring him back to the madness known as Big Brother.

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