XM Marks the Shaft for Apprentice's Clay

The fat lady — or, more accurately, Jidé, a fit Nigerian male — has sung for The Apprentice's Clay Lee, whose performance was a bit bitchy (to paraphrase Randy Jackson) for Donald Trump's liking. Here, the 28-year-old Texan talks with TVGuide.com about flirting, awkward sexual positions and, in a way, Alla's bottom.

TVGuide.com: Was it rough being characterized as — let me make sure I get it all — the "bitchy, anti-Semitic, hard-to-work-with gay candidate"?
Clay Lee: Well, let's see here: I'm the gay cross between Napoleon and Hitler who's a bitchy woman-times-1,000 who's impossible to work with and is a roadblock. I think that's all of it.

TVGuide.com: Oops, I forgot "roadblock."
Clay: Yeah, you've got to get them all! You know, it was tough at times, but at other times you have to go, "It's a reality-TV show and these people are not trying to be my best friend, they're trying to get the same job that I'm trying to get," so you have to take it with a grain of salt. I can't go the Markus route and get mad about it and say I've had horrible editing and stuff like that. Things are obvious to the general public and you just deal with it.

TVGuide.com: During your team's "Sex at Work" seminar, Felisha called you the "king of awkward moments."
Clay: What's interesting is, as George said in the boardroom, "How can you talk about sex and it not be awkward?" What's funny is that Adam complained about being pointed out as the Jewish kid and the only reason those comments were made is because about halfway through the class, I was pointed out as "the gay guy who will give the gay perception of it." So I was actually asked to say the things I said. Sex is an awkward thing — there are awkward positions, there are awkward talks about it and it's going to be awkward for some people [to discuss] — and people like Felisha, who are followers and not leaders, are going to think those [topics] are awkward. Alla was all for talking about sex but we all know why; Adam, well, if you haven't ever had it, you're not going to feel comfortable talking about it. All of my friends know that I'm comfortable in my own skin and I'm going to say it like it is. That could be a tragic flaw of mine, but I will always be honest.

TVGuide.com: It's kind of a shame you got slammed for being anti-Semitic when you were only following Adam's lead.
Clay: He would never have taken offense to [what I said] had Alla not told him to take offense to it. He's being Alla's puppet and I think the coming weeks will bring the slaughter of the lambs. At one point I said to Adam, "What is that smell?" and he was like, "What do you mean?" I said, "Oh, that's Alla's ass."

TVGuide.com: Were you surprised when Trump claimed not to know you were gay?
Clay: Yeah. I was like, "C'mon buddy, are you the dumbest guy on the face of the planet, or what?" Everyone else knew! Even George and Carolyn looked at him like, "Um, have you been drunk lately?"

TVGuide.com: Were you really flirting with the photo-shoot assistant on the Star Wars task?
Clay: I thought he was cute at first but I was not flirting with him; I was trying to figure out which shots we needed to cover. People are going to say whatever they can to try to make you look bad, and Alla was trying to take credit for [the win]. What's interesting is that I got e-mails from the other guys after they watched the show, and they said, "Clay, that was your creative idea, why did they give Alla credit for it? She was a hindrance to the whole process, yet they wanted to give her credit for it." Hey, c'est la vie! The executives touted me in the boardroom at the end, saying "Clay did a great job presenting" and "He was wonderful," but they didn't show any of that.

TVGuide.com: Do you feel that you got booted not so much for your work on the XM Radio task, but more for your overall rep as being hard to work with?
Clay: I was voted out because Mr. Trump decided it was a popularity contest. Maybe he doesn't like the other team at all and figured, "I like the looks of Rebecca and I like the looks of Randall, so I'd better keep these two around because it's getting down to the end." You think Clay Lee can be bitchy and grouchy? He's 10 times worse. Why wouldn't he want someone who's going to fight and get results? If you look at it, I have the best record this season,and I'm in like the top 5 of all-time for Apprentice. So if you're going to talk about record, let's talk about results and not talk about popularity, because business, as he would tell you, is not about popularity.

TVGuide.com: What was your favorite reward?
Clay: When they got to go to Michael Kors — but I didn't get to go! [Laughs] That would have been fabulous. But I guess getting to go to Montauk because that win [for the Dick's Sporting Goods task] was so sweet after Josh said that I wasn't a strong player and then we beat them so bad. Regardless of the fact that I don't fish and I'm not a big seafood fan, it was just nice to get one of the most elaborate rewards of the season. And then to watch Josh get fired that night!

TVGuide.com: What's next for you?
Clay: Selling real estate in Bryan/College Station [Texas], as many houses as we can. Our market is growing by leaps and bounds. USA Today rated us as the most undervalued market in the country. We have a $170,000 median price range for a 2,000-square-foot house, so....

TVGuide.com: Your bio says you're a Harry Potter fan. Are you going to the premiere tonight?
Clay: I'm a fan but I'm probably not going tonight because I refuse to wait in line with a bunch of 12-year-olds. I'd rather go on a Sunday night at 10 o'clock when they're all in bed, and watch it without them!