After two seasons off from 'The Problem,' Johnny Bananas is again! He dished to HL about how Nany helped inspire his return, the 'new model' we'll see of him, and extra!
Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio scored his seventh win on The Problem: Whole Insanity, which aired in 2020, and after taking practically three years off, he’s able to go for quantity eight on The Problem: Journey or Dies. Johnny is partnered together with his longtime buddy, Nany Gonzalez, and stated that she was an enormous a part of the explanation that he determined to come back again. “[Winning] has eluded her for therefore lengthy and I felt like her greatest shot at lastly profitable can be with me,” Johnny admitted HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “I couldn’t choose a greater particular person to need to compete subsequent to and assist and assist cross the end line than her. She deserves it a lot. That lady has put in a lot effort and time through the years. It gave me a motive to need to compete and win aside from my very own egocentric causes.”
When Johnny received Whole Insanity, he was in a six-season drought following his notorious resolution to steal his associate’s cash on Rivals III. The Whole Insanity win “broke the curse” for him, so the potential of serving to Nany get her first W was the brand new motivation he wanted to return as soon as extra. Plus, he admitted that Whole Insanity took loads out of him “bodily, mentally and emotionally,” so the break was crucial.
“I had ripped off 13 seasons in a row,” Johnny defined. “To not point out that after profitable my seventh one, as if the goal on my again wasn’t large enough already, it was now going to be rattling close to not possible to maneuver round the home with out being focused out of the gate. So I assumed stepping away for a bit would profit me in lots of methods. And I wished to understand the present once more and sit up for doing it, slightly than simply taking a look at it like a monotonous job. I wished to step away and take a while to reestablish my love for the franchise.”
Whereas filming Journey or Dies, Johnny celebrated his fortieth birthday, and stated it was a milestone that can deliver out a special aspect of him this season. “You’re going to see a bit little bit of a special model of me,” he dished. “I did lots of soul-searching within the time I took away, and simply by means of different modifications I’ve made in my life. Look, clearly I’m by no means going to lose that mischevious nature of mine. I’m by no means going to not need to stir the pot and never need to ruffle some feathers. However I’m undoubtedly doing it in a bit extra of a grown up and mature approach.”
Johnny additionally identified that this will likely be his first season on the present as a single man in “fairly some time,” and teased that there may be some “onscreen sparks flying” for him. “I simply wished to verify if that was the case and if that’s what occurred, I might take the extra grownup strategy to it,” he defined. See extra of our interview with Johnny beneath!
You and Nany have been companions earlier than [on ‘Exes II’], did that offer you a bonus this time round? Oh yeah. We each, from a social standpoint, have the identical methodology about how we navigate the sport and the way we navigate the home and the way we play a social sport with out us even having to speak. She’s not somebody I've to fret about doing one thing or saying one thing silly that’s going to jeopardize us. She’s been on the sport lengthy sufficient. When you will have a associate and are working with somebody and also you confide on this particular person a couple of technique, it’s all the time the most important concern that that’s going to get out — that they’re going to say one thing or open their mouth after they’re drunk and jeopardize your sport. Along with her, I didn’t have to fret about that. It was good. I had somebody I knew I might belief and depend on and I didn’t have to take a seat there checking in to verify we had been on the identical web page.
On how being partnered with Nany benefited his sport: These final two years I’ve taken off, she stayed on and made the finals and has continued to determine friendships. She’s courting Kaycee [Clark] now, who clearly has lots of ties in the home to the Massive Brother crew. So from a social side, coming in, it was virtually as if I used to be in a position to are available in with some built-in alliances that I wouldn’t have had if I wasn’t paired up together with her.
Her having these connections and the social sport that she did, it actually helped to neutralize lots of the potential points that I used to be going to have with individuals. Any time I stroll right into a Problem home, there’s going to be a large goal on my again and I’m going to attract lots of consideration. Coming into this season, had I not been paired up together with her, proper out of the gate, issues would have been harder. However being partnered with Nany helped neutralize lots of these potential points I'll have had.
On the rookie vs. veteran dynamic this season: You’re clearly going to gravitate in direction of individuals who you’ve labored with prior to now and who you understand. It’s a special world we’re dwelling in nowadays, although. The vets used to outnumber the rookies and the sport form of all the time went the identical each season — we’d outnumber and torture them till they had been gone after which we’d run the present. The panorama is totally completely different now. All these newcomers and rookies are right here and we’re those who're outnumbered! It’s virtually like we form of have to hitch forces, as veterans, to guard the home. It’s cool as a result of it provides us one thing to struggle for. You be a part of these alliances and band collectively and work collectively, not out of need or need, however out of want. It’s going to make a very cool storyline and energy dynamic for this season.
Did you are feeling rusty coming again on this season? Once you’re within the routine of going yearly, or generally twice a yr, that’s form of a part of your rhythm and also you keep in that rhythm. Getting out of that and all the pieces shutting down due to COVID and the world altering, I questioned lots of issues about my potential to come back again. Was I going to have the ability to carry out on the identical psychological and bodily stage I had prior to now, or was it going to get the perfect of me? There was lots of query marks there. I used to be actually curious to see how I used to be going to carry out, not simply socially, but additionally bodily.
Did coming again gentle a hearth in you to need to compete once more or do you see an finish in sight? I didn’t understand how a lot the present and the franchise meant to me till I got here again. I might say this season, simply based mostly on the best way it went down and the best way I carried out, actually did reignite the aggressive flame that burns within me. If anyone on the market hoped they’d seen the final of me or that this could be my swan tune, they higher maintain hoping.
The Problem: Journey or Dies premieres on Wednesday, October 12 at 8:00 p.m. on MTV