'Johnnie Rotten' speaks out about being the first Big Brother villain

Johnnie Cass talks about his experience on Big Brother in 2001, how his villain portrayal affected his mental health and why he would go on reality TV again.

Seventeen years ago Johnnie Cass appeared on the very first season of Big Brother Australia, and was one of the first openly gay men to appear on Australian reality TV. However, it didn’t take long for him to be portrayed as a villain, with the media labelling him as ‘Johnnie Rotten’.

Johnnie says that he had no idea how he was being edited while he was in the house because the contestants don’t get to talk to any producers. The only people that you can communicate with on the show is Big Brother, and an off-camera psychologist.

“What we experienced in the house is very different to what the rest of Australia was seeing,” he says.

“We thought we were so fucking boring. We were waiting for the producers to tell us to pack our bags and go home because we didn’t know where they were going to construct a story from.”

As the only openly gay contestant on the show, he says that he was disappointed with his portrayal as the villain because it associated homosexuality with negativity.

“It was hurtful to come out and think that my experience was very different to the other contestants' experiences because of the way I was edited,” he says.

“I’d like to hope that they didn’t plan on making the only gay man the villain. Maybe the producers thought that I could deal with it and it wouldn’t get so crazy, but it could’ve been a whole different thing.”

While the show was being aired, Johnnie’s flatmate was an entertainment lawyer, and contacted Channel Ten’s legal department accusing them of vilifying Johnnie. Even though this changed the way that he was being edited and portrayed, the tag ‘Johnnie Rotten’ had stuck.

“I did briefly consider defamation charges after the show, but at the end of the day I agreed to go on the show and handover those rights, so I didn’t think it was worth pursuing,” he says.

Coming off of the show, Johnnie experienced both love and hatred from the public for the next 12 months. He says that he became depressed because life after Big Brother was not what he had expected.

“You don't really hear about the downside, but there is so much pressure after the show,” he says.

“You don’t know what you’re going to do because you can't go back to what you did before. You have to be prepared for the consequences.”

He says that Big Brother taught him how to deal with the pressure of the media and the negative press, and he has since been travelling the world as a motivational speaker and presenter.

While it has been almost two decades since Johnnie appeared on Australian TV, he said that he would go on reality TV again to challenge himself and have fun.

“When I was on Big Brother, we were all very naive, but it’s a whole different mentality now,” he says.

“As reality TV has gotten more contrived, I think people now know that they actually plant characters for being more controversial and dramatic. The producers always have a story which they will edit to the angle they want to put forward.”

Johnnie says that he wants to use his platform to enlighten others about the authenticity of reality TV, and teach not to believe everything you see.

"Reality TV is never really real, and anybody who thinks that is kind of kidding themselves.”