Big Brother Baddie Gets Beaten

James Rhine of Atlanta kicked off the sixth season of Big Brother with shady playing that included plenty of lying and deceiving. Doing so made the 29-year-old loss-prevention manager (who claimed he was a teacher) a huge target for the houseguests. They tried to evict him multiple times, taking out his beloved show partner and real-life girlfriend, Sarah Hrejsa, in the process. But the tough player kept winning the Power of Veto and used his skills at manipulation to pit the two alliances against each other. After his luck finally ran out last Thursday, he spoke with TVGuide.com before heading to the sequester house — and showed off a surprisingly softer side.

TVGuide.com: For a bit, it seemed like the two alliances were more concerned about taking each other down than in ousting you.
James Rhine: Unfortunately, they didn't completely forget about me. [My plan] was working for a while. [Later] I felt deep inside that it was a lost cause, but I felt like I was going to try to take out as many people as possible.

TVGuide.com: You sound defeated, but on TV it didn't seem like you gave up hope.
James: Oh, I would never give up hope. I knew that, as bad as it sounds, I was dealing with people who weren't really that intelligent. So they made some of my work easy.

TVGuide.com: At least you made it to the jury, which is pretty good.
James: [Sighs] If I had been knocked out in Week 3, when they were trying to get me out the first time, at least I would have lost competing. That's what bothered me about this backdoor plan — I lost because I was going up against cowards, six people who were scared to compete with me. That is the part that sucks. I didn't go out on my terms; I went out because they were scared of me. HOH is a big responsibility. If you are going to nominate somebody, you'd better have the b---s to stand behind your decision. This backdoor plan.... [Pauses] I'm trying to be nice.... I love competition and I hate poor sports, and I think that was a display of poor sportsmanship.

TVGuide.com: Did you feel that there was anyone in the house who could outmatch you in terms of strategy or competition?
James: No. The thing that hurt me was that Sarah only became my partner three days before we were supposed to go to the show; I had another partner who backed out at the last minute. One of the issues I had was that I took [things] personally because a lot of people were attacking my girlfriend in order to get to me. If I weren't with her, it would have been a lot different. With this other [original partner], we would have destroyed that house.

TVGuide.com: You would have been even more aggressive?
James: Oh, completely. In the beginning I was doing things to create dissension among everybody. The whole reason Ivette and Janelle hate each other is because I told Ivette on Day 2 or 3 that Janelle told me she was coming after her. That was completely made up, but it gave me an ally. I had the dumb alpha male with my original partner, Eric; he could take heat, I could place heat on everybody else. But the moment Sarah found out what I was doing, she got all upset with me for playing "dirty."

TVGuide.com: Sarah does seem very nice.
James: She's an amazing woman. There is not a man luckier. I mean that sincerely. She doesn't belong in that game.

TVGuide.com: That's so sweet. We didn't get to see this side of you.
James: When you have 12 people attacking me personally and physically, you aren't going to get the sweet side of me. One of my mistakes in listening to Sarah was that she wanted me to be that nice guy.

TVGuide.com: What did you think of your alliance falling apart?
James: Howie made the biggest mistake in Big Brother history. In his own words, he's the biggest dumba-- in this entire show. I almost feel bad for him in a way, because when he gets out people are going to rip on him. We had a very, very powerful team with the Sovereign Six. After [they evicted Sarah], I wasn't going to trust people. It was an emotional a--kicking [and] I wanted to take as many people out before these idiots figured out how to backdoor me. It only took them seven tries.

TVGuide.com: I was surprised that it was April who managed to take you out.
James: That is the most disgusting part about this. Her and Jennifer I have no respect for, because of what they did to Mike. When they retracted their sexual-assault accusations after he left the house that really, really struck me. I was an adamant supporter of getting Mike out of the house, and I said some horrible things about him because who would make up something like that? That is the most deplorable tactic I have ever, ever seen. April and Jennifer are just vile people.

TVGuide.com: You had said you'd like to keep in touch with Ivette. Is there anybody else?
James: Kaysar. When he came back in the house, I know he had no idea what was going on. He made a very stupid mistake. Aside from [that], Kaysar is a very smart person, idealistic, and I enjoyed the conversations I had with him. He was the only person in the house I could have a discussion with that wasn't about their outfits or their plastic hair falling out. And I owe Michael a huge apology.

TVGuide.com: Are you dreading going to the sequester house?
James: Yeah. I'm with two of the worst people: Jennifer — I think she's a vile creature — and Rachel, who is just not very exciting. She doesn't stray from her schedule at all. There will definitely be some arguments at the sequester house. If they allow me to tell Jennifer what I think of her, then she's got something coming. The first thing I'm going to do if she asks me what [getting ousted] was like is to tell her it sucked, but that it was great to see Sarah and that she got to spend the night with me at a hotel. It is all bull----. But I'm going to ask her if she got to see her boyfriend, Dan. I'll derive some enjoyment from that.

TVGuide.com: Among the guest who are left, who would you least like to see win?
James: April. She's a disgusting person.

TVGuide.com: Would you be happy with anyone winning?
James: Really, I don't care. I have to vote for someone, but I wanted to vote for someone who was a good competitor. Right now I'd have to say Janelle, who has been herself from Day 1. She's put up with a lot of crap... but her goodbye message really p----d me off. She is the one who approached me about selling out Howie, not me approaching her. I'd vote for Janelle because it would drive the rest of them crazy. If Ivette won, I'd be happy for her.

TVGuide.com: What are your plans after this is all over?
James: I don't know. The houseguests, or "the guinea pigs," used to say to me, "They are going to put you on Survivor." If there was an opportunity to do something like that, I'd do it.

TVGuide.com: And hanging out with Sarah more?
James: I'll never leave her. She's amazing.

TVGuide.com: OK, good luck in the jury house!
James: Thanks. They can't vote me out of there.