Cameron Hardin explains harsh Big Brother words to Bowie Jane: 'I was upset'

For Cameron Hardin, getting voted out of Big Brother was so nice he had to do it twice. Chaos Cam was first evicted from the house back on Sept. 21, but a "zombie" twist put him right back in. Even though he defeated Jared Fields in a competition to reenter the game, Cameron still remained a huge target due to his challenge prowess and lack of strong social bonds in the house.

His closest bond was with Bowie Jane, so when the Aussie DJ became Head of Household, Cameron at least seemed safe for this week. But after Jag Bains convinced the HOH that Cam was untrustworthy and then won the Veto competition, Bowie Jane put Cameron up on the block as a replacement nominee and he was unanimously voted out — again.

Cameron had strong words for Bowie Jane after she put him up, but how does he feel about her now? Why couldn't he convince people to keep him around? And what was his biggest mistake in the game? We asked the 34-year-old stay-at-home dad all that and more the morning after his ouster. You can watch the interview above or read it below.

ENTERTAINMENT WEKELY: After Bowie Jane put you on the block, you told her "What you have shown today is your character, and I hope you can live with that." What did Bowie Jane show with that move?

CAMERON HARDIN: In hindsight, I wish I wouldn't have said that. I was upset, but we talked it through afterward and I'm really proud of the move that she made. The character that I believed at the time that she had shown was that she would put up someone that really had her back this entire game. And I don't mean just [from] a gameplay standpoint. I mean that I truly looked after her and was really there for her in really rough moments that she had with her own alliance members, including Izzy and Felicia and the way that they treated her sometimes.

And I took her in every point of the game with me. I never left her behind. I gave her trust, and I told her every move that I was making. Even the times when I was leaving her out, there was a reason. And I told her, she understood it. So when she put me up, what she showed the house was that she'll put up anyone. She'll do anything as long as it's going to get her another week or favorability with another houseguest or whatever. I know that the words were taken harshly by her, and I apologized to her for that. But what I meant was she'll do whatever it takes. And I think that she showed everyone that.

Your argument to stay was that Matt and Jag were going to steamroll the house and people needed to keep you in the house to beat them. Why do you think folks weren't receptive to that?

I think that at a certain point, everyone was just ready for me to go. It was agreed upon by both sides of the house — however many sides of the house you want to paint that there were. I believe that at a certain point, everyone goes, "Alright, he's had his run, he's had his fun. Let's get this dude out of here and see if we can actually play some game without him in here." So as much as I wanted to make a run, I tried multiple angles and nothing stuck, which basically told me — end of the road.

At one point, you were targeting Cirie and her allies in the house, yet we saw you offering her some advice on your way out this week. Why did she fall off your radar as a target?

If I remember specifically, the times that I was targeting Cirie, it wasn't that I was targeting her. If I wanted to target her, I would've put her on the block early on. What I did want to do was target the entire alliance as a whole. She was the head of what I considered a core group, and I wanted to dismantle it. I wanted to take apart all the pieces of it. You can't just cut the head off the snake. So I had to take pieces of it apart.

So she might've been my focus, but she wasn't my target. She was just the leader of the group that I knew needed to be taken down. And I had to start with Izzy, and eventually, Jared got taken there, and I knew that Felicia needed to go, and that was my target for my third HOH — didn't work out, they took down Mimi instead.

I wanted Mimi to stay around a little while, but I didn't have an opportunity to vote that week. So that's how it went down. And I knew Cirie eventually was going to be the last one. And actually, at a certain point, she turned into even more of a friend than I had remembered her being for me, and being a mentor. So my focus shifted from wanting to target her and get her out and do really bad things to there's an opportunity to work with Cirie.

And Jared turned out to be one of my really good friends in the house, and that was the only request that he made of me on his departure. And being who I am, I said "I'm going to do something," [so] I was going to do it. So leaving the house, the last piece of advice or any kind of thing that I could give her, that was the least that I could do to honor my buddy Jared and to give back to Cirie, who had given me so many words of mentorship and advice as well.

What was your biggest mistake in the game?

Oh, my biggest mistake in the game wasn't a particular move or a shift. It was exactly what I talked about when Cirie gave me my biggest piece of advice, which was you don't have to tell people what you think about other people. So my biggest flaw in the game was the fact that I spoke too freely on occasion with specific people, with the understanding that certain words weren't going to go beyond our conversation.

It wasn't that they turned around and told someone else immediately. It was just that their view of me changed once I spoke on a particular topic. And once you speak on that and someone's perception of you changes, you can't put that back in the bottle. So that was my biggest flaw: speaking too freely. If I had that to do all over again, if I get an opportunity to run this thing back and go play All-Stars, that will be the biggest part of my game that I'll change up.

Which was harder, getting evicted the first time or the second?

Oh, the second time getting evicted was absolutely the worst because I knew it was final. The first time going out, granted, I didn't have the transmission decoded by that time, but the fact that I had not had it decoded meant that something was waiting for me outside of the house. So I knew that whenever I got evicted the first time, I was probably going to have an opportunity to come back in as a Battle Back or [something] like that.

So I was a little bit more calm leaving the house the first time. The second time, I was like: This is it. But at least I'm going to jury! I made it to that point, and I was proud of the benchmark that I made, proud of the mark that I believe I made on the game, and the impression that I hopefully [made] with the fans.

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