Zach Rance sat down with OUT Magazine to talk about his popular showmance/bromance with Frankie Grande, known as Zankie.
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Out: Inside the house, you can’t know what the audience is talking about. When you were evicted, you seemed disoriented by Julie’s interest in Zankie. How surprised were you to find out just how huge Zankie had become?
Zach Rance: I was extremely surprised to find out how big Zankie was.
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Out: In the house, you know you’re being watched 24/7 by live-cam feedsters. What did you think the reaction would be to you spending so much time with Frankie, and making comments like “I truly feel that he is my boyfriend”? Were you ever afraid of what people were going to say about you?
Zach: Yeah. I knew that I was going to get, I don’t want to say “heat,” because that’s not the right word, but I knew it was going to turn into something. I knew that. Did I care? No
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What have people said to you?
People have been telling me a lot of stuff. When people bring up Zankie, or Frankie, I talk about him in a good light, and that’s the end of the subject. People aren’t like, “Oh, are you gay? Oh, have you come out? Were you bisexual?” That’s never a topic of discussion. And a lot of people are telling me some of the bad stuff he said about me, but it doesn’t matter to me. I know he’s my friend. We’ve talked a lot since we’ve been out of the house. He’s always going to be my friend no matter what happened in the game. It’s just a game.
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Frankie can attract everyone’s attention in a room, but of all the houseguests, you were the most drawn to him. What was so appealing and interesting about him?
Frankie is by the far funniest person I have ever met in my entire life. I love people that are funny and he’s one of the funniest people on the face of the Earth, so why would I not love hanging out with him?
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You were clearly a very popular player on your own, but what does your family think about a big part of your new fame being tied to the Zankie relationship?
They love it. They love it. My whole family loves Frankie. My mom, my dad, my brother, my cousin—they all love Frankie. I feel like I did inspire some straight people to embrace gay people. You can be straight and have a gay best friend. It doesn’t matter. My family’s extremely proud of me because of how I approached that. I didn’t see his sexual orientation at all. That doesn’t define him. As far as the game goes, as far as my relationship with Frankie, my personality, my character—my family is very proud of me.
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You showed a national audience that you can be best friends with a gay man, you can love a gay man, and you can even cuddle in bed with a gay man, and still be secure in yourself. What sort of impact do you think that has, particularly on straight culture?
I don’t really know the impact it had, however I believe that there’s a lot of potential for huge impact. I’m obviously straight, I’ve made that clear millions of times, and the fact that I was cuddling with a gay guy, giving him a massage . . . you know, let’s be real—guys give other guys massages. It’s not a big deal. I don’t care that he was gay. I was never afraid that he would try to kiss me. If he tried to kiss me, I would have said, “no, it’s not like that,” and I would have continued to be friends with him. I don’t know, I’m just speaking from my opinion, but I feel like I was kind of a role model for some people on the show who might look at me and say, “wow, Zach’s a really cool guy and he’s best friends with a gay guy, so why can’t I be best friends with a gay guy?” We don’t know the impact it’s going to have on the world, but it’ll definitely be a positive one.
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What do you think your relationship with Frankie will be moving forward? Will you see a lot of him?
When he’s not traveling the world with his sister we’ll see each other! We’re good friends, we talk quite a bit, and whenever we have a chance to hang out we’re gonna hang out, and just chill and bro out.
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Are we going to see any more of Zankie on camera?
Of course! Without a doubt. Without a doubt. We’re going to have our own reality show.
Is this a plan, or an announcement?
This is a plan.
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Any last words to set the record straight on anything?
One thing I think that should definitely be on record is that it doesn’t matter if someone’s gay or straight. It doesn’t matter. People don’t need to judge anyone from their sexual orientation, and we need to move on from that. Everyone in the world. It doesn’t matter if you’re gay or straight, it doesn’t matter what you wear, it doesn’t matter what you look like, we’re all people in the world, and weall have feelings. I think that’s the main thing to me. I don’t see Frankie’s sexual orientation at all—it doesn’t define him. He’s a great person. He’s a great human being. He’s extremely smart, he’s extremely funny, and to me that’s all that matters. He’s a very kind person. I just want that to go on record—sexual orientation doesn’t matter, and the whole world needs to move on. That’s just what we need to do.
He's obviously straight, can you guys stop creepily forcing every semi-attractive male to be gay? He played Frankie for ratings/popularity, not his problem you all easily fell into it.
acceptance of people is really what we need to do. Just accept someone for who they are and if you don't like it then leave.
