'Big Brother 26's Matt Hardeman Gives His Reaction to Angela's Rant and "Creative Disses"

Big Brother ’s house is open once more! Every week, Parade.com’s Mike Bloom will be bringing you interviews with this season's houseguests as they get evicted from the game.

"If I'm on, I've got two opportunities to get off. I don't know if I'm the best person to take that chance with. Also, I feel like, with the relationships I've built in the house, I'm gonna campaign. And even if you wanted me, [if] I was your target, I feel like I could campaign off."

Matt Hardeman said this to Angela Murray during their one-on-one prior to her nominations. His attempt to clear the air after getting off on the wrong foot with the first HoH only served to build the storm raging inside her. Feeling the tech sales rep had threatened her, she went after him during an out-of-nowhere morning tirade, and backdoored him to boot. Despite the shock, Matt's so-called "crazy eyes" were still on the prize, and he felt confident with the alliances he had built. But, unfortunately for him, both of the claims he relied on from the above quote fell through, leading to his blindside as the first boot of the season.

Matt came into Big Brother wanting to prove there was more than meets the eye, a kindness and authenticity housed within a young, fit body. He quickly bonded with Kenney Kelley , as the former undercover cop (who was undercover about his job) bonded with him over his police officer father. Unfortunately, Matt did not start off so well with the other older houseguest. Angela came in hot about Matt's hotness, declaring publicly that he'll wind up in a showmance. Though he was taken aback by her statement, that did not deter him from gaming hard, as he took up hours of storage room meetings to make (and subsequently out) alliances. His scheming only furthered Angela's preconceived notions about him, believing he was organizing the entire house to take her down.

Their conversation before nominations was the last straw. Though Matt evaded the block, avoiding a Friday speech, he got an even bigger one on Saturday morning. Angela came down the stairs bright and early, launching into a rant about how Matt had "threatened" her, accusing him of being in everyone's ear, and pairing together him and Makensy Manbeck . After that shocking turn of events, and nominee Lisa Weintraub's veto win, Matt knew he was in danger. He offered up other houseguests to Angela as pawns, but not only did that not change his fate as a backdoor, but it served to anger the rest of the house even further. Between the mystery of the "AI Arena" competition and Kenney admitting he'd rather leave the game over Matt, it seemed like he was set up to survive Angela's wrath and live another week. But Matt's eyes failed him in the competition, leaving him on the block. And many of his alliances were, to quote the sign-off of his newly-made Barbershop alliance, "BS." So, to cap off an absolutely madcap first week of Big Brother , Matt was surprisingly sent out.

Now out of the house, Matt talks with Parade.com about his surprise at the eviction votes, his intention in some of his targets, and his reaction to finding out Kenney is a former undercover cop.

Related: Everything to Know About Big Brother 26

Let's start with where things ended. At one point, you had said after you had gotten backdoored that you felt bad for Kenney and Kimo, since you had the votes to stay. So how surprised were you when it turned out you were the one to be evicted?
It was a surprise. But at the same time, it's Big Brother , and you gotta expect the unexpected, man. And so you never know if you're actually going to get to stay. You never know if you're going to go. I am thankful at least I tried to keep that demeanor and put confidence where I felt like I had confidence,to put in in certain places. But at the end of the day, I'm thankful. I looked at the game as saying, "You never know." I tried to take in being in the house just as much as I could before I got to leave. I got to spend a little time with Makensy the day before. I felt like, all the ways, obviously, you would do things differently. Bbut at least that I had that little bit of, you never know if you're going to get to stay in this game. But I was definitely surprised, yeah.

One of the reasons why you're sitting here is a lot of the strategizing you were doing this week. When the feeds came up, it seemed like you were holding office hours in the storage room, spending the entire night making and even outing various alliances. That also included you and Makensy going after Angela, even though she was the current HoH. Did you every worry that you were overplaying?
Well, from my perspective, I would go into certain points in the house and then sit there, and then one person would come. And it probably did look like office hours for me. Sometimes I was like, "Yo, I came in here to get a immunity shot," and it's like one person after another. I am just a talker, right? And I felt like a lot of these conversations I was having, we'd be talking about, real life experiences and lessons, and then that would transition over to talking game. And, for the most part,  didn't even really know who I wanted to play with. But when it kind of got to the point of, after the situation with Angela, I was like, "My game has now turned. My cards have to be shown." And, for the most part, I tried to play the game where my cards were always going to be shown, especially after that experience. But at the same time, man, I was a really bad Big Brother player. [ Laughs .] I think for the most part, I at least wanted to go out and think that if somebody were to vote me out, they would have had to look at me prior and lie to me. And, for the most part, I can live with that. And I think it was a great move. I'm not mad at anybody. I was hoping to play a little bit longer, but I had a great time in the time that I did.

You mention the "situation with Angela." Let's get into it. It's rare to see someone's game get called out in front of everyone on Big Brother . It's even rarer to see it happen the first week. Talk me through your reaction to her rant against you on the stairs.
Well, we hear clapping. And we know Angela's had, mentally, a really difficult time as HoH. She had some high highs, low lows, a lot of different emotions on that roller coaster. And so she starts clapping, and we're all hoping that she has a better day and and wanting to contribute to that, me as well. And she comes down clapping. [ Starts clapping .] I'm clapping. I look over at Tucker, he's clapping. And then she calls my name. And I really thought she was gonna say, "Matt, would you get up and dance? We're gonna start this day off better."

And so I'm clapping, and she calls me. And then, boom. I'm ugly, I'm dumb. I just couldn't believe. I was very surprised. A lot of her disses on me were extremely creative. So when she's slamming me, I'm like, "So I gotta take it out of my...and then up my..." There's a lot of directional changes. I'm like, "Does Angela actually have a SoundCloud outside of this?" She's dropping bars of disses! So I'm kind of laughing. Even the crazy eyes thing. I thought that was so specific. It was weirdly specific in the moment. So I thought somebody had told her that I said she had crazy eyes. But I didn't know she was telling me. So I kind of stopped. I was like, "Hey everybody. Just so I understand how to be offended. Are my eyes crazy? Or do you think i said you?" I didn't even know how to take offense. I was very lost for the most part. And, if it was a game move, it would have been a great game move. But it just did not have to go to the extent of being personal.

Well, you do talk with her the next day, where you open up about your background and your mom's story. Angela asks you for an alternative to nominating you, and you end up suggesting putting up T'kor or Tucker as a pawn. And I'm not sure if you know this, but one of the reasons why you're talking with me today is, when you told Tucker about this, he was so angry that he really pushed hard for you to go. Talk me through your intention with that tactic.
I mean, I wanted to play an honest game in the beginning. I did not get to tell T 'kor before noms. But, in my opinion, in approaching Angela, I just wanted to say, "Hey, these are what I think your options are. Not even what I'm telling you that you should do or I think you should do. If you're interested, then, yeah, I'll gladly tell you. But I do think these are your options." Of which one of them was put me up, you know? So I was like, "That is one of your options, that I do go up. And I wanted to pitch, if you have other options, this is what could happen."

I liked Tucker, you know. I thought Tucker's a great character. And I hope to be friends after this. But I wanted to go straight to him and say, "Hey man, with all due respect, I think nobody would vote you out of this house. Everybody loves you, and so in the moment, I did say your name, just to be honest." I did not want me and Tucker's relationship to be harmed with him finding out anybody else for me. And so I knew I put a lot at risk there. But at the same time, it was to play the game that I hoped to play. And then when Tucker came back, I never would have asked him to be my pawn. But when he came back and said, "I will be your pawn," I was like, "Whoa!" I would have never asked him to do that. But him saying that, I was very surprised. But I wanted to play honest, and so I wanted him to go to find out directly from me, rather than from somebody else. Just like I would in the real world.

To finish, give your rapid-fire thoughts on each of the remaining houseguests. Starting with the aforementioned Tucker.
New York. [ Laughs .]
T'kor.
Crochet.
Rubina.
Firecracker.
Quinn.
Hair. [ Laughs .]
This is a loaded one, Makensy.
Showmance. [ Laughs .]
Lisa.
Glitter.
Leah.
Miami.
Kimo .
Oh man. Genuine
Kenney.
Father.

I don't know if you've been told this yet. But did you know Kenney is a former undercover cop? That's why he bonded with you so closely, with your dad as a fellow police officer.
No, what?! You're the first person to tell me. I thought Kenny flips brats for a living! Nobody told me that. Wow. He's crushing. We were like, "There's three chefs in the house!" Kenney's gonna get out if they're ever like, "Kenney, you need to cook tonight."

[ Laughs .] Well, let's keep going with Joseph.
Mustache. I mean, that's sort of a reoccurring thing. Leah has a great impression of Joseph. Joseph moves, man. He walks all throughout the house. And Leah, at one point, was trying to flirt with Tucker a little bit. And she's like, "I'm working. I think he's laughing. He's looking at my pajamas." Then all of a sudden...[ Mimes a mustache .] But let's go with mustache.
Chelsie .
Chelsie, oh my goodness. Adorable. I couldn't believe they put me and Chelsie on the same season. I think, with no downgrades, maybe the votes could have been different. We have so much to connect on outside of the house. I cannot wait to talk to her one day.
Cedric.
Personality. I mean, that dude, he surprised me in a lot of ways. He's also not where what he may seem. He's a young dude. He's so fun to talk to. I would say personality.
Cam .
Handsome, bro. You kidding me? I'm like, "Cam's the hot one of the season! What do y'all mean?" That dude is is beautiful.
Brooklyn.
Motherly. She Mama B to me, regardless of if I had her vote or not. I do hope to sit around the table with her and and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson-looking husband.
And last, but certainly not least, Angela.
Angela, Angela, Angela. I would say "scary." She came out with some some bars I just did not think she was capable of. I would not be surprised, really [if you were like], "Hey Matt, Angela actually is a gangster rapper outside of this." She's dropping some heat. So I do hope I get the opportunity to make amends with her. I will always take that road. I'm cheering on everybody just as much, including her, in my perspective, watching everybody outside of the house.

Next, check out the Big Brother 26 houseguests naming the previous players they identify with the most .