Keanu Soto might not have won Big Brother 27, but he did win the hearts of America. Keanu was awarded $50,000 on the September 28 finale for taking home the America’s Favorite Player prize.

This award is voted on by the fans and awards the houseguests who fans loved watching the most with a hunk of cash and the coveted prize. Keanu was in the top three with Rachel Reilly and Cliffton “Will” Williams.” Keanu received over 65 percent of the vote.

Taking fifth place, Keanu would not have received any award money if he hadn’t taken home this prize. He voted for Ashley Hollis over Vince Panaro to win the game after Vince wronged him too many times.

Keanu talked to TV Insider about receiving the award, Rachel’s betrayal, his thoughts on the finale, and more.

How are you doing?

I’m doing amazing!

Congrats on winning America’s Favorite Player!

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Did you ever expect to be given that prize?

I had an inkling. After my little eviction interview with Julie [Chen Moonves], she told me her son was rooting for me. So I was like, “Oh, dang. Okay.” So, I had a little bit of an inkling. I’m not gonna lie, but it doesn’t make it any less exciting and amazing for me. Even if I was expecting it, 65 percent of the votes is insane. So, it’s very nice to know that my personality and my style of play are validated in that sense.

Do you have any plans for the $50,000?

I wish I had a sexy answer for that, but I’m probably just going to invest it. I will take a little bit of a vacation here and there to decompress and have some fun, but nothing too crazy. I just plan on investing. Nothing too crazy.

Is there anybody that you were thinking, if it wasn’t you, would have won it?

Man, the way Morgan [Pope] stepped up and once she got her own threepeat with the vetoes, I was like, “Oh yeah, we’re gonna have to watch out for her.” I know we’ve been trying to get her out. We couldn’t. So I was like, I thought for sure she was a lock to win.

Is it hard to gauge how fans perceive you in the house? Do you think about that while you’re in there?

Yeah. I mean, I definitely think about it. I like to think that being my authentic self comes across relatively well. It obviously did. So I definitely appreciate the people who voted for me. But, you always have people like Rachel, every once in a while, who would tell me, “Hey, you can’t say that. You can’t talk like this.” And I was like, I was like, “Wait, I didn’t think I was.” I feel like a little bit of validation there. I always told her. I was like “If I got to tone it down, I definitely am not above humbling myself to do that.” But yeah, I had no idea what to expect coming out of here, but when Julie told me her son was rooting for me, I was like, okay, that’s huge, yeah.

Why did you choose Ashley to win over Vince?

I said at the jury roundtable that if Ashley wins the final HOH, and in my opinion, makes the biggest move of the season by taking Morgan out, I won’t have a choice, because I liked Ashley’s game. I just didn’t like that she didn’t make any big moves, so for her to then finally round out her entire game on the very last day by taking out Morgan. I had to award that. So, that’s ultimately why I went for her.

During the finale, Rachel revealed that she would have stayed true to the Judges’ Alliance instead of your Frenemies final two. What was your reaction to that?

Yeah, I mean that obviously hurts a little bit, but I feel like I did that to myself when I turned on her. The only reason I did that was because I felt like she was prioritizing her own game. Obviously, in this game, you have to, but when we made that alliance, we did say that we would consult with each other on all the big moves, and she didn’t consult with me on sending Riley [Jeffries] out of the house, which, at the time, was bad for my game. So, I then tried to make my own big move by trying to get Vince to get her out of the house. So, it hurt to hear, but I can’t blame her for that.

What was your reaction to the finale? Did you think Ashley would win in a six-to-one vote?

Once I saw Morgan walk out and that she was the last juror, I had a feeling that Ashley was going to win by a landslide.

Do you have any regrets or anything that you would change about this season?

I want to say that my biggest regret would be how I handled Jimmy [Haegarty], saying that everyone was calling me a liar. Obviously, that was the moment where I stood up and said I was going to pick everyone off one by one, so that made a huge target on my back that was intentional. However, the only reason I did that was to take the radar off other people that I was working with at the time, and only to find out that those people were also targeting me because I made my target a little too large. So definitely, if I get a chance to play again, I will not be doing that.

You just mentioned coming back. Would you want to play again?

Oh, absolutely, I’ll go back in there right now.

With the same cast or a new cast? 

New cast. Season 28, let’s go right now.

What are you looking forward to the most now that you’re going home? Family? Sleep?

Definitely looking forward to — I’m from Miami, so I’m going to go visit my family. Have some fun with them, but first, I gotta get some cuddles for my dog. So I’m probably going to spend a week at home there, outside of Dallas. But I’m just looking forward to just living life again. I feel like being in there, I took a lot of things for granted, even just going to my favorite breakfast spot every Sunday. I’m looking forward to that. So looking forward to some good hash browns. I haven’t had good hash browns in a while.

What is the biggest takeaway that you would say you learned from this experience?

Man, I feel inclined to say that you don’t have to change who you are. I know that there’s like a stipulation. “Oh, you’ve got to be a liar. You’ve got to do this to win this game.” And I didn’t win, so maybe it’s not a winning formula, but even though I didn’t win in the traditional sense, I do feel like a winner having America’s heart; that’s nothing to sneeze at. So, I definitely want to say to kids out there that may be reading this, you don’t have to be something you’re not. So that’s my biggest takeaway. I really appreciate everyone who voted for me, and it definitely means a lot.

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