BTD Interview With John Gray

BTD continues its series of interviews with the "latered" contestants as we check in this week with John Gray. John was at the center of all the drama in the first two episodes and after reading his interview, we definitely wish he had hung around longer:

BTD: Hi John, we had just started getting to know you and now you’re gone! Was it harder living it or watching it all play out again on TV?

JG: It was much harder going through it live, weirdly enough it felt better watching it on TV because I was basically on human auto pilot after I heard my name. I just had a horrible knot in my stomach ......iccckkk yukky feeling lol

BTD: You were an early favorite to win it all in our pre-season poll. Did you have your friends and family voting for you?

JG: I have a great base of clients and I am sure they voted but as far as I can tell it accounted for about 50 or so of the votes. It made me feel great to see that.

BTD: What has been the reaction to your appearance on Top Design?

JG: Of course anyone who comes up to me and talks to me is great and polite and says things like "that artist guy totally should have gone home!!!!" or " How did you keep from slapping that kid I would killed him, he grinded my nerves etc..etc..","You made the show".

My favorite was - A guy walked up to me the first Saturday after the first show aired, in a gay bar nonetheless and says "I thought you didn’t like gay people?" I'm like "WHAT???????????????? just keep watching buddy."

Honestly the only negative things I ever heard were from the blogs. They did hurt to read, I'm not going to lie so if you're reading this and your intention was to hurt my feelings, you succeeded, but LUCKILY I'm able to let things like that go immediately after.

Click here to continue reading our interview with John as we find out what his childhood bedroom was like, more on his HIV revelation and how he got that scar over his right eye.

From The Mailbox

Todd Oldham was at the Betsey Johnson Show. Thanks Megan!

Also, here is an interview with John Gray on OUTzone.

Send Some BTD Love to John

You were battling some serious health issues and were thrown for a loop by the cost constraints. Your room showed the beginnings of a design with potential but sadly there wasn't enough time to take it as far as you would have liked. One of the best aspects of this episode was when you and Michael hugged, expressing forgiveness. Thanks for sharing your vision and showing your style.

This post is only for positive comments about John.

John Gray: "I'm HIV-Positive"

From USA Today:


(Wednesday's) episode of Bravo's new Top Design competition (10 ET/PT) offers a rare moment for reality TV: A cast member discloses that he is HIV-positive.

John Gray, whose temper-filled outbursts caused friction among the competing interior designers on Top Design's debut last week, reveals his anger was fueled by medication used in his treatment.

"I just want everyone to know I'm HIV-positive," Gray tells his fellow contestants. "I'm not making excuses or apologies."

Click here to read the whole story.

Meet John Gray

We continue our exclusive Q & A series with Top Design contestant John Gray.

1. How did you hear about the show?

I heard about the show from a Chicago casting company, a year prior a really good friend of mine who is an actress saw that they were having auditions for "Design on a Dime" in Chicago and e-mailed them about me. So to make a long story shorter she contacted them and they contacted me to come in for an audition and I did. I got a phone call from the casting (O'Conner casting) saying they remembered me and thought I would be great for this new show they were casting for and wanted to know if I was interested, my first instinct was no until I heard that is was for Bravo. Once I heard that, I was all in.

2. Where did you audition?

I auditioned in Chicago I think twice then they flew the top 24 out to L.A. for final auditions and then they had to cut that down to 12. It was a long process and they are very thorough, from intense background checks, credit checks and physiological evaluations. I remember several other people from Chicago that I was convinced were going to make the show, but they didn't end up on it. I found the process to be fascinating.

3. What is unique about you? What do you bring to the show that no one else can? What are you really good at?

The biggest thing I promised myself was that I was only worried about what my friends and family would think. Since they know the real me and love me unconditionally, I really didn't want them watching the show and turning to me and saying "Who is that?" or "You didn't act like yourself, Why?" I felt like not only would I have lost some respect for myself but they would have possibly. I told the producers and casting who I was and what I was all about they cast me for that it would have been very dishonest or inappropriate to be anything other than myself.

What a great opportunity to be able to watch myself and look at how others perceive me and be able to critique myself and better myself. Really look at how I treat other people and interact. I really hope that this experience will help me on much bigger level to be a better person, I know that sounds very cliché' but it's the truth. Let’s face it who is going to remember this a year or so from now? It will fade eventually it is truly 15 if not 10 minutes of small fame. I have that in perspective. I don't mean that to take away from the excitement or the fun of it all I embraced every minute; it was once in a lifetime experience.

4. How did you learn that you made it onto "Top Design"?

I learned I made the show on a Friday afternoon around 2:00p.m.. I was standing outside a Starbucks in Andersonville and when Kat told me I was invited out to do the show I screamed so loud a car alarm was set off right next to me, besides being very exciting it was a tad bit embarassing. There were people sitting outside at the cafe tables with their dogs.

So I kind of just smiled and bowed and walked away smiling ear to ear as they laughed with me, well probably more at me. Nonetheless we all were smiling!! Is how I look at it.

5. Where will you be watching the show?

I will be watching the show at home in Zion with 2 of my sisters and family about 5 or 6 of us, a lot of friends want to throw parties and are inviting me to come over but the last thing I am gonna do is watch this in a room of gay men. NO SIRREE!!! I know nothing I will do or say will shock my sisters they'll just laugh and be positive about it, my gay peeps and friends may tend to give me a complex about things. Trust me I'm hard enough on myself.

Thanks so much, John; we're going to look forward to talking with you about what it was like to watch yourself on television and about the things you learned from the experience.

Poll Results - Your Selected Finalists

Our very first BTD poll produced some interesting results! We asked you the question, 'Who Will be Bravo's Top Design Finalists.' Elizabeth and John clearly dominated while Goil and Michael were in the next tier. Fun fact: Elizabeth and Goil are a team while Michael and John are paired up in the first challenge.

You can click here to see the final results of our very non-scientific 'Top Design Finalist' poll.