Hisam Goueli Reveals if He Would Have Stayed Loyal to the Professors on 'Big Brother 25'

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 there was one word to describe Hisam Goueli's approach to Big Brother, it would be "right." The 45-year-old had a whirlwind three-week stay in the house, consistently preaching how he was playing with honesty and integrity. However, he took that as permission to also speak freely--and bluntly--to his friends and enemies. Hisam was the undisputed challenge beast, winning three competitions in a row. But the fact of the matter is, the biggest challenge he faced was coming from inside his own alliance. Hisam was stunned to be the victim of the season's first backdoor at the hands of the Professors. By the end of the week, the geriatric physician had fallen, and he couldn't get up.

The first week was a series of highs and lows for Hisam. While he created a one-sided rivalry with Cory Wurtenberger, his rage became more substantially focused on Reilly Smedley. He heard the HoH had created an eight-person majority, and became the most passionate member of the opposition alliance. As Hisam began his three-competition winning streak, his goal was to make it clear to Reilly and her alliance how wrong they were in leaving him out. And when he was next in the HoH suite, he took aim at the previous administration. He was brazen about Reilly being his target, to say the least, insulting her HoH reign and criticizing her "crucial errors." It all culminated in his speech at the veto meeting, where he blamed Reilly for prematurely splitting the house and called upon everyone to vote her out.

Hisam's speech left the entire house fired up, most crucially the trio of Felicia Cannon, Cirie Fields, and Izzy Gleicher. Despite Hisam being in their alliance, they were unhappy with his domineering attitude, not listening to them in strategy talks, making side deals, and even implying to others that he felt he couldn't choose the alliance. And so, though Hisam won the battle in Reilly's unanimous eviction, he was about to lose the war. When Felicia came through as the next HoH, Hisam confidently sat back, assuming the other side would continue to get dismantled. But under his own Kangol hat, a massive blindside was being planned involving everyone but him. When Jag Bains won the veto, Hisam's game was clucked. The oldest woman to ever play Big Brother backdoored the geriatric physician, leaving him stunned.

Now out of the house, Hisam talks with Parade.com about whether he would have stuck with the Professors if he had stayed, his veto speech against Reilly (and his immediate regret from it), and where his side alliances fell in his intention to play with honesty and integrity

Related: Everything to Know About Big Brother 25

Let's start where things ended. We saw you so passionately talkable to the Professors, as well as to us in the DR, that if you stayed, you would be loyal to them. That being said, I certainly know when you were campaigning, you were also revealing the Professors to the other side of the house. And revenge is a dish best served cold. Should you have stayed last night, were you with the Professors until the end? Or was revenge in your plan?
I was with the Professors to the end. I'm a loyal person. I've always been a loyal person. And if they redeem me, then, of course, there's a response to that, right. And that response is my loyalty. And I mentioned that. My pitch was, "You saved me. You will have my loyalty." And I demonstrated that throughout the game, right? It wasn't just like, promises, promises. This was exactly how I was playing like. And, although it hurts to be backdoored, there's forgiveness basically as connection. And, of course, I could have been reconnected with that.

I'm not sure if you know this, but actually, a couple of times, they were pretty close to flipping things to keep you. There was one hold out, though: Cory. So talk to me about this relationship. Go back a couple of weeks when you're saying, "I subconsciously hate this guy. "We had heard rumors of there being some sort of conflict, after Luke's expulsion. Talk to me about your thoughts on him.
I mean, the truth of the matter is that, when Cory and I first met, we thought we could work together. And then shortly after, he ended up in an eight-person alliance, and that separated our communication, and I could feel that, right. And then, as time went on, I was trying to figure out where it was coming from. And ultimately, Cory ends up deciding what's best for his game, and that is evicting me. And as much as that sucks, that is the reality. And I did know that Cory was the holdout, right? I make a last pitch to Cory in the storage room to be like, "Please save me. If you saved me, I will be loyal to you. I promise not to come after you." But I think at that point in time, his mind had already been made up.

Let's flash back a week to your HoH reign. When it came to Reilly, of course, you were not shy in letting her and everyone know that you were going for her, including this big veto speech that caused feathers to be ruffled, particularly within the Professors Alliance. We were only given a small slice of it; from what I heard, it was quite extensive. Talk to me about what exactly you expressed in that meeting, and why you decided to use such a public forum to say what you want to happen.
The first thing I want to say is the speech went too far. Right? Because of that, I gave Reilly an apology immediately afterward. Because I had recognized that the intent basically went into coldness or unkindness, and I never wanted to be that way. And so the speech was basically intended to basically explain who my target was, why that was, and what I hope to accomplish. That's what the speech was about, right.

But sometimes, tone matters more than content. And I think that what people felt was a tone and a seriousness that then could be assessed as cruelty. And that was never the intention. Right? Which is why Reilly gets an apology, why other people in my alliance get an apology, why I spent so much time doing damage control about the things that I said. Things could have been quite different if I had just said less. [Laughs.]

Let's talk about that communication style. You got a heavy dose of reality once you were backdoored, and Izzy even broached the subject with you this past weekend. The way you were talking with people, particularly in your alliance, was perceived as very blunt and domineering. Was that something you were aware of at the time? What's your response to those critiques?
I agree. I thought it was too much. I have self-awareness, right. So, you know, in the middle of that, I was like, "Man, Hisam, you're talking a lot. It would be great if I talked a lot less." The thing was, in my HoH reign, it was really clear to me that the target was Reilly. I didn't think there was much to talk about, to be honest. And that was sort of my opinion. Now, the truth is that people need to be heard, right, and they need to share their opinions. And I didn't do a great job of that, right? I could have done a better job of hearing people out, explaining my reasoning, and being more patient, right. I think that I moved too fast. And because I moved too fast, I lost track of some of the more interpersonal signs. That was pretty cruel. And for that, I regret that. I'm sorry about that.

One of the smoking guns for your allies to target you was you telling the Professors to not make any side deals, and then information coming out about you making a deal with Jag and Blue. You were someone who consistently preached playing with honesty and loyalty. How do you ultimately look on that decision, and being perceived as someone who does not practice what they preach?
Yeah, I mean, I think things are complex. And everyone's playing their own game. Some of that was coming from the fact that I was afraid that I was vulnerable from the other side. I just sent Reilly home, or was about to, and so I was trying to make sure that I would be safe. But also, I did tell the Professors. The minute the thing happened, I told them immediately that I had done [it], right. It wasn't as if they weren't expecting it.

I think some of the conversations I had, I didn't give as much meaning to. Which then basically, in conjunction with this thing that happened with Jag and Blue, they basically were like, "Oh, he's making side alliances with everyone. He's not with us." But all of my actions really for those two weeks was [to] basically support the Professors and to continue to keep us together and moving forward. And so, from my standpoint, I thought some of it was they would look upon all my actions, right? But the game is really complex, right? And so actions don't always make the difference. And sometimes just subtle conversations of like, "Oh, by the way, I've talked to so and so" make all the difference, and I just didn't understand.

Give me your rapid-fire thoughts on each of the houseguests. Starting with America.
I think I think she's beautiful. And I hate to actually use a characteristic like that. Actually, the word I want to use is vivacious. She's a vivacious person, right? She's lively.
Blue.
Sassy
Bowie Jane.
I think she's friendly. Friendly would be the word. 
Cameron.
I just think "country."
Cirie.
Motherly.
Cory.
Young.
Felicia.
[Pause.] It's just a lot more complicated, right? I mean, she's got a great laugh. She's a lively person. Maybe lively is the right word.
Izzy.
Smart.
Jag.
He's got a really great social energy to him. He's captivating. Captivating's the word.
Jared.
Sold. Rock solid.
Matt.
I think he's disciplined, right. I think that he's hard working. A great representative for the Deaf community. That's more than one word, but, yeah.
Mecole.
Sophisticated. Poised.
And finally, Red.
Red was just fun, right? Red's just fun.

Next, check out our interview with Reilly Smedley, who was evicted during Big Brother 25 Week 2.