‘House of Villains’ Exit Interview: Jax Taylor Thought He Was Going To Win This Whole Thing “Hands Down”

The E! series House of Villains features a who’s who of reality TV’s most manipulative and/or cunning stars. The competition series brings together ten personalities, including reality TV regulars Omarosa, Tiffany “New York” Pollard, and Jonny Fairplay, and places them in competitive situations where they have to outwit one another in challenges of both mental and physical strength. While many of the competitors on the series are known to lie, cheat, and scheme their way to victory, Jax Taylor found himself out of his depth and was the first to be eliminated from the series. As Vanderpump Rules‘ number one guy told Decider, when he first arrived in the house, he thought he had this thing in the bag. “I thought I was gonna win the show hands down,” he explained, and then added, “I couldn’t have been more wrong in my life.” Once Taylor realized the brilliantly manipulative minds he was up against, he knew he wasn’t safe, and he knew this was no ordinary competition. “When they designed this show, [the creators] knew what they were doing, they knew that there was gonna be no competitive edge for anybody. It’s anybody’s game.”

While he was disappointed to be the first to go, he’s also not surprised, saying, “I’m the type of guy that you want to get rid of first, let’s be honest.” Still, Taylor understands the rules of the game better now and doesn’t have hard feelings against most of his competition; not even Jonny Fairplay, who literally drove Taylor off course during their golf cart challenge, which resulted in Taylor landing on the chopping block.

DECIDER: Let’s just jump right into it, do you feel like Jonny Fairplay set you up? Do you hold him responsible for getting you kicked off?

JAX TAYLOR: Well, I know he set me up. He told me. As far as getting me kicked off? No. Well, maybe! Because I came in last [in the golf cart challenge]. So, yeah, I guess you’re right.

Have you spoken to him since you left the show? Do you have any hard feelings?

Yeah, he’s one of my good friends. We’re actually on a little bit of a tour right now. We’re doing viewing parties across the nation right now. I don’t have any hard feelings, I’m not that kind of guy. It’s a game. Someone’s gotta go. And the reason that they wanted to get rid of me is because I’m a threat. I’m a big threat. I’m a big guy. I’m athletic. I’m physical. And I want to win. I’m competitive. I’m the type of guy that you want to get rid of first, let’s be honest.

So you feel like they did the right thing?

Of course. I would have got rid of me, too. Maybe not first though. I would definitely wouldn’t let a guy like me win, but I would have let me hang out a little bit longer because I felt like I had a good rapport with a lot of people. There’s a lot of other people on that show that should have gone first. Probably there’s a good two or three people that should have gone first.

Like who?

I would probably put up Shake [Chatterjee]. Shake first, Corinne [Olympios], and Anfisa [Arkhipchenko] for sure. They didn’t do anything.

I wasn’t even going to bring Anfisa up in this interview, but since you mention her, she feels like she hasn’t played a role on the show yet. What was she like in the house?

She didn’t play a role there either. She was in her bedroom the whole time. She only came out during competitions. We call her the Silent Assassin, I couldn’t figure her out. Couldn’t figure out whether she wanted to make you a sandwich or if she wanted to kill you. She’s a unique individual, that’s for sure.

You and Shake butted heads. You had an antagonistic relationship. Was that purely born out of him talking behind your back?

First of all, I didn’t know who anybody was on the show. The only person I did know from TV was Anfisa because my wife watches 90 Day Fiancé and of course I got sucked into it. We got to use our phones from 12 at night until we got up in the morning, so I used that time to Google people and figure out who people were. I researched Shake a little bit, I Googled just to see why he was a villain. I wanted to know what everybody did. And when I Googled him and I saw what he had done on his show [Love Is Blind], he’s just kind of a disgusting human being. I mean, you can be a villain – villains are what make TV, villains are a necessity – but then you could be like, a terrible person. And he kind of falls along the line of terrible person.

Is there anyone else on this show that you feel is a terrible person?

No, no, I loved everybody on the show. Everybody had their reasons for doing everything. I took it personally in the beginning. But again, I don’t come from a competitive show. I’m coming from a docu-series world. So at the end of the day, I can’t be upset, because everybody has to go home at some point.

So as you said, like you said, villains make good TV, and I think a big part of it their ability to craft amazing insults. There were some amazing insults lobbed at you.

There sure were.

Tanisha [Thomas] had a good one when she called you “the most beautiful douchebag she’s ever seen,” but New York really struck a nerve when she called you a “demon possessed.”

Yeah, I thought that was a little aggressive, considering she’s never met me before. But if you do your research on on New York, that’s her shtick. That’s what she does. I kind of was taken aback by it because I’ve met these people for five minutes, and they’re already kind of labeling me and tagging me and I felt really vulnerable. I have no idea why she called me a demon. I’ve never had anybody in my entire life, even people that I’ve done a lot of hard things to, ever call me a demon.

Those girls are so intimidating. Tanisha, Omarosa, New York, God bless them. They are very, very good at what they do. They are icons. You don’t want to go up against them. I learned a lot from them. I learned what what to do what not to do. I learned how to talk, how to scheme. They are legends in what they do. And there’s a reason why they’re on that show.

Would you say that being the first person eliminated from this show makes you the nicest of all the villains? It seems like it’s actually kind of a good thing.

Well, I’ve been calling myself a reformed villain lately. It’s so weird, I finally got to go on a show where I’m allowed to lie, cheat, steal, scam. And I did the polar opposite. I just couldn’t do it to people I’ve never met my life. It’s a little easier to do it to people that you know.

House of Villains airs Thursdays at 10pm ET/PT on E! and catch up on the E! app.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.