Interview with Ronnie Kroell and Ben DiChiara

AE: During the snow challenge, Ben, you started hurling homophobic comments at Ronnie and Casey. Considering your close friendship, that came as quite a surprise to us viewers. Where did that come from?
BD: I'm an extremely competitive person. I was on the SWAT team for the sheriff's department, so I kind of have this alpha male mentality. When I was losing, I was like... Well, the gay comments were not aimed at Ronnie. They were aimed at Casey because he was saying, "I'm building a snow penis," or whatever, and I was trying to get into his head. It had no meaning behind it whatsoever.

I probably could have, or should have, just as easily said, "Dude, that's weird." Not to associate gay with anything weird. It was just a bad choice of words. It had no weight behind it. I was frustrated, I'm competitive. Ronnie and I spoke about it and got it all ironed out.

AE: Ronnie, I really admired the way you addressed it later. You made your points about how hurtful those kinds of comments can be without being confrontational or hysterical. It was great to see that on TV. Were you conscious of the fact that you were making a point for all the gay boys who have been called names or were you just speaking from your heart? Or was it a bit of both?
RK: I think it was very personal to me because Ben and I were so close and it caught me off guard. Being that I work with diversity issues back home, I thought it was important that other people understood that, even though it's reality television and sometimes things are dramatic and you can fight back with punches, I'd rather take a minute to think about what had happened and address things calmly and use it as an opportunity to learn together. I think Ben and I did learn a lot from that situation and it helped our friendship to mature and grow and become even stronger.

There are a lot of people out there who have been treated poorly because they're gay or because they're black or any other difference you can throw out there. It pisses me off that in 2008 this kind of hate crime and discrimination still goes on in our country. It's something that is really dear to my heart, and it was emotional and I felt like we both handled it the best way we could and stay focused on the competition.

AE: Ronnie, before you went on the show, you said you wanted to be a role model for young gay men. Are you happy with how you performed and presented yourself?
RK: I am so happy. I've been able to finally get online and read some emails and MySpace messages and it's been really just moving for me, people who are fifteen, sixteen, seventeen have written and said I've inspired them to come out or talk to their parents and things like that. I've been able to also watch all the shows, and I was really happy with how I've been portrayed because everything is real just as it happens.

AE: Ben, you were coming into this competition with the least amount of experience of anyone. Did you feel like you were constantly playing catch-up?
BD: Up to a certain point, I felt as though I was. People had years in the industry, and I'd only had a couple little bitty things that were insignificant, so I was definitely playing catch-up. But it made it a little more challenging and a little more fun for me.