Big Brother 15 host Julie Chen doesn’t know when she’ll be forced to have her final exit interview with HouseGuest Aaryn Gries but when it happens, she’ll be prepared to speak her mind. When Aaryn is evicted from Big Brother 2013, Julie plans on confronting the 22-year-old Texan model wannabe about her repeated racism-tinged remarks on the show, including slurs against Asian cast member Helen Kim and black HouseGuest Candice Stewart.
The Big Brother host says Aaryn has no idea “what kind of — pardon my French — sh*t storm is coming.”
Pretty blonde, blue-eyed Texas native Aaryn Gries has become the poster child of Big Brother racism and homophobia in season 15 of the CBS hit reality TV series. Aaryn, along with several other HouseGuests (including GinaMarie, Spencer, Amanda and recently evicted Jeremy) have all outraged viewers with racist and homophobic remarks aired on the 2013 Big Brother Live Feeds. Very little of this has been shown on the CBS network show and almost all of it that has been aired has focused solely on Aaryn.
“The sad thing is no one intentionally says things to hurt people, for the most part anyway. No one intentionally tries to be the bad guy,” Julie Chen told the San-Antonio Express News. “There’s a big level of ignorance there. I need to shine a light on that a little bit, but not in a harsh way. In an eye-opening way, so she can say, ‘Wow, was I that hurtful to so many groups of people?’”
Due to her derogatory comments on Big Brother 15, Aaryn has been let go from her modeling agency in Texas and was removed as a spokesmodel for Bella Petite Magazine. In the real world, Aaryn’s family has hired a public relations expert to help deal with the backlash of Aaryn’s controversial statements on the show.
“It really is. It’s crazy; it’s our 15th cycle of the show. I’ve got to hand it to her (Gries). We’ve had people of all ages, from all parts of the country from all walks of life… Yet, we’ve never had someone who’s so in the dark about their intolerance for people who are not like them,” Julie added. “That’s kind of shocking to me.”
Inside the Big Brother 15 house, Aaryn has no idea of the damage to her reputation and possibly to her future career opportunities. While she has begun to suspect that CBS may be portraying her as a racist based on questions production has asked players in their Diary Room sessions, she doesn’t incredibly concerned about it. Aaryn has stated repeatedly to other HouseGuests that she is the farthest thing from being a racist and denies she has said anything that would imply she is. She appears to honestly believe there is no way people out there could possibly believe she has said anything that offensive, even when directly confronted about things she has said by other players.
Although Big Brother USA host Julie Chen says she feels a “level of compassion” for the nasty slap in the face Aaryn will get when she rejoins the real world, she does not feel like anyone should gloss over what she’s done. And when Aaryn does finally emerge, Julie Chen is not going to just smile and ignore what’s been going on.
“Every week I struggle with: Is this going to be her week that she’s coming out? … I want to be fair and open-minded and want to be able to make her feel comfortable enough where she speaks the truth and doesn’t say what she feels she has to say to cover her butt.”
“You need a family member like her mom or a mom figure to say, ‘We love you and we support you, but here’s why you were wrong,” Julie said. “ You were wrong, you were so wrong.’”
Source: San-Antonio Express News
