The seventeenth season of Big Brother concluded on September 23, 2015, with Steve Moses taking home the coveted $500,000 prize.
The seventeenth season introduced a twin-twist, with twins Liz and Julia Nolan switching in and out of the house until the fifth week of the game, when they were eligible to play as individuals.
Liz took home the runner up prize, winning $50,000. The twins talked to The Daily Reveille about Big Brother secrets, and their plans outside of the house.
The Daily Reveille: Liz, you were in the Big Brother house for the longest time in the history of the show… so what’s it like being outside of the Big Brother house for a few days?
Liz Nolan: Being outside of the Big Brother house is so surreal. Getting caught up on all the new technology that has come into light, all the current events that we’ve missed. It’s just so insane. Being in a house that’s full of just drama…no phones no television… it’s just really awesome to integrate back into the real world and see cars again, and see nature. It’s just really fun. Being out and having all these cool fans. We didn’t even know that we had such a good following, so it’s awesome.
TDR: So you go into the house virtually unknown to the general public and once you come out you have mega fame to a cult of fans…How does it feel to be instantly famous?
LN: It’s so insane.
TDR: What’s the one thing you missed from home while being in the Big Brother house?
LN: The one thing I miss is food. In the Big Brother house we had to cook for ourselves and we had a restock of groceries every week. I just miss different kinds of food because I’m such a foodie. As you saw on Big Brother I cook all day, every day. I just miss going out to eat and getting different kinds of food. Like sushi, Thai, Italian, different types of food. Also, we’re from Miami so we have grown up by the ocean and I really miss the ocean, I miss the beach and all the ocean-like activities because being in that house all we have is a pool, a Jacuzzi and fake grass.
TDR: How gross was the water in the Jacuzzi?
LN: The Jacuzzi would get so gross – they always had to have chlorine and some days when the chlorine would run out it would turn green so yeah, and we didn’t know how often it was cleaned. The worst part of the Big Brother house was the shower. It was so disgusting. Imagine sharing a shower with sixteen other people. It never got cleaned. Me and Julia were the only ones that cleaned it…it was so gross. The one thing I don’t miss about the house is definitely the nasty bathroom and shower. And we had one toilet stall. Bye.
TDR: How do you act casual being watched 24/7?
Julia Nolan: A lot of the time you forget that you’re constantly being recorded. I think for the both of us we had never really watched the live feeds, so we had no idea the extent that everything we had done all summer was recorded. And that was the hardest part coming back and realizing “Did I say that? You know, I regret saying that.” Because it will forever be on the Internet. I think that’s the problem with social media now and the Big Brother house because years ago, social media wasn’t such a huge thing, but now that social media has taken over, every part of our life was filmed for 24 hours for the past 98 days. That’s the hardest part. Going on the Internet – seeing all the stuff that you said and did. That house will drive you crazy for sure.
TDR: Would y’all do it again?
LN: Yes, Absolutely we would love to go on “All Stars.” Just anything, even “Amazing Race” would be so much fun. We just want to get our foot in the door with more reality.
TDR: Were y’all nervous about being on the show with Jeff Weldon and Jackie Ibarra from “The Amazing Race?”
LN: At first, when we heard about Jackie and Jeff coming into the house all of us were kind of intimidated, because they were coming in as a duo, I mean me and Julia were coming in as a duo, but no one knew that at that point. I thought that they were going to be a huge target from the beginning because they were coming in together and they definitely stuck together. They were really close. Steve said that he watched “The Amazing Race” season that they were on and they were really lovey-dovey, they made it known that they were kind of a commodity together. They did a good job of not making a huge target on their back…People just quickly overlooked the fact that they were a duo and they were one of the ones that were in the eight person alliance in the beginning and we weren’t so they did pretty good for themselves at first.
TDR: You guys are from Miami, what are you guys doing at the moment?
LN: Post TV life. We live in Coconut Grove. We are unfortunately back at home with my parents for now. We are planning on moving out to LA toward the end of October and we are going to pursue more modeling and acting. And we both had jobs – I graduated with a business degree from Loyola. Julia graduated with mass communications. So we had jobs before this – I worked at a newspaper in Miami and Julia worked at a PR firm. We’re young, we just did this awesome reality TV show, we’re twins, and we want to make a name for ourselves and we feel like there’s more opportunities in LA. We were born and raised in Miami, not going to lie, kind of sick of it. So we just want to explore a new realm. And then after that we want to raise our kids in New Orleans.
TDR: When was the last time you’ve been to New Orleans?
LN: Julia just went there for Mardi Gras last year and we’re both going again this year…Hopefully we get on a float for Mardi Gras, how fun would that be?
TDR: Would you guys like to do a meet and greet in New Orleans?
LN: Absolutely. There are so many fans that are like “We want to do a meet up in New Orleans” and they know how much we love New Orleans and of course Miami, so we need to start getting on the meetup train.
TDR: What made you decide to go to Loyola University of all places?
JN: For me, I was researching good schools that had a college of mass communication, and Loyola is really known for their Mass Communication program and I always knew I wanted to do journalism. I was looking into it, I applied. I got in. I got a scholarship, and I told Liz, “You should apply too they have a good business school I think it would be great for us.” At the time we were going to Florida International University in Miami and we wanted to finish college in another state and it was probably one of the best experiences of our lives and we grew up so much not living at home. Liz got in. She got her scholarship too and Loyola was one of the best decision of our lives.
LN: We loved the small community all the classes were small the teachers knew everyone, and it was a great experience for us.
TDR: Have you guys ever been to Baton Rouge or an LSU game?
LN: Yes. We’ve to an LSU game. It was so much fun. I don’t know where we went, but we were obviously tailgating. It was just a bunch of these tents. It was so much fun, all these tents with people partying and drinking. It was so much fun.
JN: We saw Mike the Tiger’s cage. It was so much fun.