Chazz Dishes About Love Island, What Happened With Sereniti, And More - Exclusive Interview
Every reality show has a villain. O.G. watchers of "The Bachelor" will remember Corinne Olympios and the drama she brought to the screen, and even Nick Viall fulfilled the role during Kaitlyn Bristowe's season of the popular ABC drama. Reality shows have evolved since those days and now bring a much more well-rounded perspective to even the most flawed of contestants. Sure, Colby didn't always come across in the best light in "The Ultimatum," but even the most cynical of viewers could tell that he was trying his best in his own way.
The same can be said for "Love Island" Season 4 star Chazz Bryant, who entered the villa alongside his sister, Bria Bryant, and struck up a connection early on with fan-favorite Sereniti Springs. However, the "speech," the handshake, the love triangles, and the fan outrage defined more of Chazz's experience on the show than genuine romance, and Twitter rejoiced when the young man was finally sent home.
Every situation, even on screen, — is different in reality than we think, and Chazz knows this better than anyone. Shortly after his time on "Love Island" came to an end, Chazz sat down with us for an exclusive interview and the first thing we did was question him about Sereniti and what really went down between them from his perspective. After doing a deep dive into each connection he made on the show, Chazz explained his tactics and how he approached the reality dating scene. Was Chazz the villain who sent fan-favorite Sereniti home, or was he a conflicted young man who simply wanted his effort reciprocated? You can be the judge.
Chazz starts to break down what happened with Sereniti
Before we get to the elimination and you leaving the Villa, I want to go through each coupling you had and break down what happened from your perspective. Let's start with Sereniti [Springs]. Bria [Bryant] coupled you two together, you let her go for Kat [Gibson], and then there was the speech and the handshake. From your point of view, what happened with Sereniti?
Me and Sereniti didn't have enough time to see eye to eye in terms of how we were feeling about each other. I came into the Villa with my eyes set on Sereniti. I always wanted to ever since I was watching. Before I got thrown in there, I wanted to pursue things with Sereniti because I thought she was a great girl. I wanted to see where things could go.
With Sereniti, everything I was feeling about her was completely genuine. I wanted to go in there and give her my 110% effort because I saw that she wasn't getting the attention or things like that I thought she deserved, because she's a very beautiful girl. I wanted to capitalize off that because I was like, "Man, [the] guys aren't really treating Sereniti like she's the dime piece that she is."
I was happy at the same time, because I was like, "Okay, now I actually have a shot with her when I come in." I went in there, I went above and beyond for her, you guys saw. I was making breakfast for her every morning, doing the things that guys that were already in there for a longer period of time than me weren't doing. I felt that I wanted to make things work with Sereniti despite our age gap, and we weren't seeing eye to eye in terms of what we were really feeling. I know I really liked Sereniti and I was showing it through my actions and going out of my way to talk to her when she was alone.
I was going above and beyond and going out of my way, and she took it as a little bit overwhelming. She was complaining about not getting enough attention. She made a comment to me where she said, before I came in, she had felt like the ugly duckling. That's word for word what she [said]. I didn't see that. I held her in high regard, respected the hell out of her, loved her personality, liked everything about her, who she was, which was why I went after her.
She was feeling a little bit overwhelmed by me going out of my way and giving her as much attention and affection as I did as soon as I got in there. I wasn't getting any reciprocation of the feelings that I was giving to her. We would kiss in bed, and she would have no problem with being touchy feely and having those intimate moments with each other in bed, but then we would go out in the open and then she would have issues with kissing in front of people.
Chazz claims to have not known where Sereniti's head was during their time together
[On Sereniti's approach to their connection]
Now that I think about it, I remember her telling me [that] one of the problems was that she would throw hints and she would say, "I have lipstick on," or something. She would say something along the lines to give me a hint of where she didn't want to kiss. I don't care — if you have bad breath, I'll still kiss you. I'd kiss her, and she saw that as her not being heard.
In my eyes, I was like, "Why would you not tell me how you feel instead of me having to read how you're feeling and assume that I'm not taking the hints? You're grown as hell. I shouldn't have to take hints in terms of when I can [and] can't kiss you." Then we go to bed and kiss each other like nothing's wrong. It was confusing as hell to me. I didn't really know where her head was at. I knew that she was warming up to me along the process, that she did like me, but we just weren't seeing eye to eye.
The night before the decoupling, she poured out her feelings and I was like, "She does really like me." She was scared [of] the fact that she was growing actual feelings for me and didn't know that she was harboring some of the ways that she felt in past relationships and the issues she dealt with in our relationship, the way that she made it seem like I was the problem in the relationship, when it was really on her end.
She didn't know that she was still dealing with some of the things in her past relationships, and she went as far to say that she did appreciate me going out of my way to talk to her when she was alone and the little things that I was doing for her — she did appreciate it and that she was going to give me kudos to the fact that I was open about the conversation I had with Kat after we had the date and told her how I was feeling about her.
She wanted to commend me for that because the whole time we were in that relationship, she would always talk about, "Oh yeah, you're feeling this way about me now, but wait until somebody else comes in and turns your head." I'm like, "Why are you even thinking about that when you see me here in front of you trying to give it my all? You're already trying to test me from something that hasn't happened already." Then, I had Kat come in and we had that first date and we had a little bit of a connection.
Chazz dishes about Kat and his decision to send Sereniti home
[Explaining why Kat drew him away from Sereniti]
[Kat] was telling me along the way that the things that I was doing wouldn't go unappreciated, which was something that weighed heavily on my decision in the recoupling. I had a girl who's coming in and telling me the things that I want to hear. With Sereniti, I had to fight for it and work for it the entire time along our process. When she told me all that and how she was feeling before the recoupling, it was like, "I have to see if this is real or fake."
The fact that Sereniti waited until the recoupling to tell me how she really felt about me — it was like, "Damn, that f***ing sucks because ... I didn't know if I could believe her, because now this is a situation where she's on the chopping block and I have to make a decision and see if I take this chance with her. Will we still be having these problems while I still have to work for the reciprocation in terms of affection and attention I was looking for in a relationship? It's hard.
Kat was a great girl and I had a connection with her and that was where my speech came in. I was nervous as hell. First of all, they kept me as the last decision and I had to wait for everybody else to say their speech and say their piece, and it was down to Kat and Sereniti.
I always knew in the back of my mind who I was going to pick. I knew it was going to be Kat — the other Islanders, they sided with me in terms of them not thinking Sereniti was reciprocating any feelings or being appreciative of things that I was doing for her. With that being said, I had my friends telling me that I should do what makes me happy and that they didn't think Sereniti was that for me. They said that they saw that I was sad — not as happy around the Villa because of the things I was going through with Sereniti, and it wasn't my fault. It was on her end, moreso than mine.
Chazz knew he was going to send Sereniti home when he made his speech
[Explaining his thought process behind sending Sereniti home]
With that being said, with my speech, I started off talking about Sereniti and saying how when I first came into the Villa, I was very attracted to this girl. I really liked this girl. All the first parts of the speech were me talking about Sereniti. In my head I had a transition where I was like, "This girl moving forward will be able to appreciate the things that I've been doing. And I'm really comfortable with this girl. I really like her. She's beautiful [etc.]."
That was me talking about Kat. I didn't want to make things so serious. I felt like it made no sense to talk about one girl and give it away as to who I was going to be choosing, because there's no fun in that. There's no speculation, no anticipation in that. I reworded the things that I said to the best of my ability while being nervous on the spot in order to throw people off a little bit. Even though I knew I was choosing Kat, I didn't want people to know that I was choosing Kat.
With my speech, I did just that — put on a little bit of a show. At the same time, it was no disrespect to Sereniti. That was not my intention at all. I thought me and Sereniti were on a good page. It was the things that she said to me in terms of how she felt about me that was a little too late. I know people were angry at the fact that I didn't tell Sereniti at the time that I was considering choosing Kat and not telling her how I really felt, but she was giving me a lot to think about. I had to make a decision that same night and I wasn't even allowed to tell who it was that I was going to be choosing.
I chose Kat and didn't want to take that chance with prolonging a relationship that was so hard to work for because a relationship at the beginning shouldn't have to be something that you have to work hard for. It should come naturally. You should be having fun with each other and enjoying each other's company at the first stages of getting to know each other.
I felt like with Kat, I had that. Me and her were having fun. We were winning challenges together, despite the fact that we had an agreement that we'd still be open to getting to know new people and exploring other connections and stuff. We were living in the moment and I'd rather have that than have to ... fight for somebody to appreciate the things I do for them.
What really happened between Chazz and Gabby?
You went from Kat and then explored Casa Amor and struck things up with Bella [Barbaro]. How did that unfold?
With Kat, going into Casa Amor, I knew that we were going to be exploring options and getting to know new people and finding new connections. I knew that she did want to pursue things with Jared [Hassim] and wanted to get to know Jared a little bit more, even though me and Kat did have a strong connection because of the deep conversations me and her have had and the kisses we shared.
Going into Casa Amor, I was under the impression Kat was going to do the whole full thing, same thing I'm doing — get to know all these guys and see how great they are and see if she has a better connection with them than she did with me. I was assuming ... well, first of all, the girls left little mementos in everybody's suitcases when we got to Casa where Zeta [Morrison] left the panties for Timmy [Pandolfi]. Sydney [Paight] left a bra for Isaiah [Campbell] and Deb [Chubb] left a hair extension and pair of panties for Jesse [Bray] and stuff like that.
Kat actually left a banana in Jared's suitcase and didn't leave anything in mine. She left a kiss on the suitcase, which was cute, but the fact that she left something in Jared's suitcase ... gave me the impression that I was like, "Okay, she's thinking about Jared this whole time in Casa Amor and not me. I'm going to take this opportunity to explore, get to know these girls and see who I can find the best connection with to move forward with in the Villa."
That's what I did. I started off having a strong connection with Gabby [Kiszk]. The fact that she was from New Jersey made a lot of sense to me to try to make things work with her — it could work outside of the Villa, living as close to each other as we did.
We experienced a great time together. We shared some kisses, some pillow talk. We didn't really do much else other than that. I could see how it might be perceived as we might have, but that wasn't the case, and it was only two days in. Going two days in to get to know somebody and then having to be in a situation where I was voted to go into the hideaway — it wasn't even my decision.
We were voted to go into the hideaway together. It wasn't like we were expected to do anything more than continue to get to know each other and see where things can go. After I did that, I felt like me and Gabby's connection might not have been as strong as I thought it was or as I had wanted it to be. She was a great girl, but I also wanted to get to know Bella.
Chazz and Bella shared a 'great' connection
[Dishing about his connection with Bella]
That's where Bella came in. [On the] third day, I had a conversation with Bella that night and it was a great conversation, and I was always strongly attracted to Bella. I don't know if people saw, but in one of the challenges during raunchy races, it was the youngest boy chooses the girl of his choice and proceeds to do the challenge. I had originally gone up to Bella and was going to pull Bella for that to show my interest in her, but, we got the rules switched up and I ended up doing that challenge with Phoebe [Siegel].
That was something that we messed up on my part, but there was always that attraction to Bella for me and I wanted to have that conversation with her, and we did. That's when I asked her if she wanted to spend the night with me. We shared a bed together and I wanted to see if there was a strong connection there between me and her, intimately. We kissed and I definitely did feel a strong connection and spark with her after experiencing that.
That was it for me. I had more of a connection with Bella than I did Gabby, so that's what made me bring Bella into the Villa with me.
Chazz addresses the backlash he's received from Sereniti fans
You found yourself in the bottom four. America didn't vote to save you. After Sereniti left, fans had a lot of comments about you. I'd like to know how you have felt that weight from viewers and what you were feeling in that moment when your time at the Villa came to an end.
When my time at the Villa came to an end, I wasn't too hurt about it. I had a great run. I was on the show for a good majority of the time and I had my fun. I made my connections and tried to play the field to find that love connection, so I wasn't really too torn up about it. The way that I left, I made my mark and had my fun and did what I wanted to do. I came in with my sister to be there for her.
In terms of the comments I was getting about the Sereniti fandom, I can see how they'd be angry about the way I went about things, but I didn't take it too harshly because there was a lot that people didn't see and don't understand that happened going into the choices that I made and the way that I handled the situation in terms of the recoupling.
I'm not holding it against them. I know that they're angry. They're passionate about Sereniti and loved her and didn't want her to go. I made a decision that was benefiting myself at the end of the day, not America, so I could see how they could be angry about that.
Lastly, do you have any regrets from your time on the show? You answered a little bit, but do you think viewers got to see you in an authentic light?
I feel like they did get to see me in an authentic light. I did give my 110% at the beginning with Sereniti — trying to make something work and be vulnerable. I tried it with Kat as well. When that didn't work out, that's when I started approaching things differently. I started to get to know each and every girl, trying to see who I had the strongest connection with.
I wouldn't say I have any regrets. I played the "Love Island" Villa experience the way that it should be played. I was doing it a little bit later in the game than people would've appreciated, so no, I don't think I have any regrets with the things that I did and how it went.
"Love Island USA" Season 4 drops new episodes Tuesdays through Sundays on NBC's Peacock, with recap episodes releasing on Saturdays.
This interview has been edited for clarity.