'The Circle' Season 6 Spoilers! Jordan Staff Reveals His Stand-Off with QT Lasted Three Hours

Jordan Staff

Warning! The interview below contains spoilers for all of Netflix's The Circle Season 6, which aired in April and May. Please do not continue if you do not wish to be spoiled on who was blocked in those episodes.

Jordan Staff may be the biggest villain The Circle has ever seen. "Big J" made a big splash with his late entrance into the show, as he immediately began making up for lost time. His first chat with Myles Reed caused him to target him ferociously in every conversation and game afterwards, feeling he was on his way to a win. When he became influencer alongside his "Ride or Die" Quori-Tyler "QT" Bullock, he made his play, unintentionally pitching blocking Myles to his closest ally and flirtmance. After a tense stand-off where neither party budged, QT ended the chat and, as the first-place finisher, overruled Jordan.

Not one to be deterred, Jordan came into the Circle chat the next day swinging. He not only called QT out on what she had done, but declared publicly that her and Myles were running the game and would win the season. Knowing he was public enemy número uno for "Tres Fuegos," he appealed to the other players to make a move. He got just that when "Olivia" (AKA Brandon Baker) became the superinfluencer and blocked Myles, finally accomplishing Jordan's goal. Unfortunately, Jordan's work had left him far from his other goal: Winning the game, as he finished in fourth place.

Read on to hear Jordan's thoughts on his time in the game. And check out Parade.com throughout The Circle Season 6 with the various players and catfishes alike.

Related: The Circle Season 6: Everything You Need to Know

What's your history with The Circle? How did you end up getting on the show?
See, Big Brother used to be my dream show. But when I would think about it, I was like, "God, three months, and they're 24/7." After doing The Circle, I'm like, "I don't know how people do it." But with The Cirlce, and especially with my weight loss, I felt like I kind of had the perfect story to be able to play a game and hide behind it. That's kind of why I shot for shot for The Circle. I've seen every season. I had heard about it a lot in the UK before it came to the US. But I never knew how to watch it. So once it hit in the US, that's when I really started watching it. But I've seen every season.

To your point, was the "Big J" personality and the choice to use your profile pic from before your weight loss always a part of the process for you considering The Circle?
So originally I had thought I could play as myself. But I'm a photographer. So all of my pictures on Instagram, in every photo I'm doing the douchebag model face. And I was like, "I don't know how well this would go over in The Circle." I think people at times forget to put themselves in the perspective of the player, because they see everything. But from my perspective, I'm seeing a small photo and words on a screen. So when I wanted to play as Big J, I thought there was less room for error because all they're seeing is a small photo and a quick bio.

Last fast-forward to the end of the game. You made this big swing for Myles and QT towards the end of the game, which ended up landing. But what did you think your chances were of winning once you made the finale? 
So I had this whole elaborate strategy that wasn't shown. When I blew up the Circle chat, that was all part of the plan. After I had that influencer chat with QT, I had realized I had spilled out my entire game. Because we were in there for three hours. It was a really long influencer chat, and I had to build up my entire game. Because my thought process was, "I don't care about getting to the next episode. I want a shot at winning the game. So if this kills my game, that's fine. I need to try to get someone out. In my perspective, that's gonna help further my game."

So the next morning, I knew that QT was gonna run and tell Myles and Kyle everything at that point. So my plan was, "Okay, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go into the Circle chat in the morning. I'm gonna let everyone in the Circle chat know QT and Myles are my targets." That way, Kyle, Olivia, and Lauren knew I was safe with them. I also wanted to put this huge target on myself to kind of create this perception that I had no shot at winning. That way they would drag me to the end. And here is where it was a little flawed. I was kind of thinking everyone was thinking in the same mindset as me. But my mindset at that time was, if I can make everyone think I have no shot at winning, maybe I will get enough people to put me at the top thinking I have no shot and that could create a win for me. But that requires people thinking the same way I'm thinking. And I wasn't thinking that way at the time.

Speaking of those final ratings, we see you rate Lauren first, going with that strategy you mentioned of putting someone you know won't win at the top, and QT last. What were the rest of your ratings, and how did you get to that decision?
So throughout the whole game, I kind of played in a sense of, "How can I leverage my ratings to try to boost me up?" So it didn't matter if you were my ally necessarily. Depending where I thought you would be at in the ratings, I was going to rate you lower to try to balance things out. So going into the final rating, I thought, "Okay, I don't think Lauren has a good shot of winning. So let me put her at the top. That's just gonna help kind of boost me up and mess with the ratings a little bit." QT, I thought she had the biggest shot. So I put her at the bottom.

Now Kyle and Olivia, those were the two that I was really struggling with. I was really going really back and forth. At first, I had put Kyle in second. But when I was having my group chat with Lauren and Olivia and I clocked "Tres Fuegos," one of the two was had created this perception to me that Kyle was more connected than I thought he was. So that caused me to put him in third. And Olivia in second. I was rating least likely to most likely to win. 

So what was your reaction to finishing in fourth?
So it's really funny, because the game isn't about being the best catfish. But when Brandon walked out on stage, I was so shocked for some reason. When I saw Brandon, I was like, "Oh, it's game over. It is game over." I knew right then and there. And interestingly enough, when fourth came up, I had this gut feeling. I was like, "I don't want it to be my picture." But for some reason, I felt like it was gonna be my face. So I wasn't shocked. I wanted to win so bad, but I wasn't shocked at all.

You make waves in The Circle from the very beginning. How much of that was due to you coming in late and knowing you had to make up for lost time?
100,000%. That's the issue that people don't fully understand. When you come in at the beginning, you have plenty of time to have conversations where you don't have to talk about strategy. You can just get to know each other and build those core bonds. But when you come in the middle, you've missed so much. And when you're having chats with people, you don't know when you're gonna get to talk to them again. So for me, it was like, "I need to get to the point." And obviously the chats are longer than they were shown. So yes, I had like real talks in there as well. But at the end of the day, I was like, "I have to get some information out of this. Because what if I can't talk to this person again?"

So, as a part of that, you accept Myles to DM you first. And then you are off to the races.
Correct, but also no. So I think there is a little bit of a hole there. One thing I realized about Myles is, and retrospect is 20/20, obviously he told me he had power. I didn't know that was "most human." In my head, it was like an influencer or something. He had told me that he got to block someone. He had also told me that Cassie was upset with him. So when I heard that, that told me immediately, "Okay, this guy had power. There's a little fracture there. Maybe I can turn that into a full break." But I wasn't trying to get Myles out immediately. For my first ratings, for example, I didn't put Myles in the middle or towards the bottom because I wanted him to go. I put him there because I knew I was gonna be safe in that blocking. And I knew if he was an influencer, I kind of already knew how he would play at that point. I put QT in first because I had seen QT in our first Circle chat, and she was kind of playing the middle. So I wanted to get more information on other players and try to see what she would do in a position of power.

Once you commit to getting rid of Myles, you start the plotting against him, to the point of spreading rumors and lies. Were you worried about the repercussions of those getting back to him? And what was your reaction when they did?
No, I wasn't worried about it getting back to him. Because at the end of the day, it was going to be my word versus his. And I know that I've seen that some people think that's really shady gameplay. But I made it very clear. Every time I would make up that lie, I said out loud in my apartment, "This is a complete lie." My whole point with that was I was trying to get people to think Myles was capable of manipulation. That's all I was trying to do. So was I worried about it coming back to me? No. At the time, I really wasn't. I was not worried about it. I was like, "It's gonna be my word against his at the end of the day." And I figured it would get back to him, because that's such a bold thing to say. 

Talk to me more about this three-hour talk with QT in the influencer chat. Because you really come in charging and stand at a stalemate until she leaves the chat.
This is very interesting. And I think it will shape the future seasons of The Circle, because we've never seen something like this happen before. So when I was going in there, in my head, I was like, "We're gonna have to come to an agreement on something like at the end of the day." So I started with Myles. Quickly I realized that wasn't gonna happen. So I said, "Okay, let me let's try to get out Kyle. That will weaken Myles." That didn't work. Then I pitched Olivia. And I don't remember if that was shown or not, but I talked with QT about Olivia. And I told her, "You know Olivia is also a very well-liked player. Wouldn't that help you get into a better position?"

And then I realized, in retrospect, that makes her probably want to keep Olivia even more. Because then that would make QT an even bigger target if she took out Olivia, just because they were kind of on the same social status in the Circle. Um, but one thing I had said to QT in our influencer chat is, "Listen right now, you are sitting way too pretty. This is your second time being an influencer. It would not hurt you to have a little blood on your hands. Because if you go to the end, people are gonna look at you as someone that has a high chance of winning, and you might end up on the bottom." But none of it worked! She just said, "Gotta go!" But if I would have known that was an option, I would have played it completely differently. I just didn't even know that was a thing.

As someone who's a big gamer, how much do you think this being "the most strategic Circle season" will affect the way people approach The Circle from now on?
I would hope it does. So when we look back at season one, it truly was a popularity contest. But just like with Survivor, just like with Big Brother, every show evolves. And just as the social strategy fan I am, I would love to see The Circle kind of inch into that more strategic approach. Because I still see people say there's no point of there being a catfish in the game. There's no point of catching a catfish, which is true. But the whole point of the catfish in the game is to disguise your game to change people's perception of you in the game, so that you can make moves or try to influence people other ways. So I don't think the catfish is dead like some people say.

Finally, you were someone that was very adamant about how everything you were doing wasn't personal and was just a game. But clearly some of your competitors did not agree. What has your relationship been like now that people have gotten to know Jordan? Especially with Myles?
It's actually crazy. So after we filmed the finale, we went back to the hotel and everyone was talking. Me and Myles stayed up until 5:00 a.m. in the morning just talking about the entire game. Three weeks after the show aired, I went and stayed at Myles' house. Me, QT, and Steffi all hung out. Everyone in the game, once the game was over, understood it was a game. There were no hard feelings anywhere at all.

Next, check our interview with The Circle Season 6 third-place finisher Quori-Tyler "QT" Bullock.