Interview with The Real World's Brandon Swift
Brandon Swift (or as everyone else simply calls him Swift) is currently one of the stars of MTV’s The Real World St. Thomas. Swift is from New Jersey. He graduated from Temple University with a Business Administration degree in legal studies. Read our interview with Swift below. We discuss sea urchins, being drunk and “The Lion King.” Be sure to “like” Swift on Facebook, and follow him on twitter. You can also visit Swift’s official website where he does weekly blogs about Real World.
How did you get nickname Swift?
“The thing is my dad’s last name is Swift and my grandpa’s last name is Swift. It’s something that is passed along [laughs]. It’s my last name actually. In grade school people would call me Swift in the locker-room. It just stuck. People’s friend’s grandparents would call me Swift. In like the third or fourth grade people stopped calling me Brandon. Now mostly guys call me Swift, and girls will call me Swift or Brandon. A lot of people think it’s a nickname I made up myself, but it’s not. It’s really on my birth certificate. ”
Who were you closest to in the house?
“I’m cool with everybody, but I’m closest to Trey, Brandon, and Robb. Robb and Trey have both visited me since the end of shooting. Trey is probably my right-hand dude, with Brandon being a close close second.”
Were you guys really as coupley and paired off as the editing made it seem? Was Brandon really the odd-man out?
“Brandon alienated himself in the first week or so. I kept stressing to him that it was NOT a three couple thing. After a while he started going out a lot. I went out a lot too. There’s going to be a lot of times where you don’t see me on island because I am out and about. It’s not too often you get the opportunity to go to a place like the Virgin Islands, so I wanted to enjoy it to the fullest. Robb and Marie and Trey and Laura wanted to stay in a lot to hang out together. That wasn’t really for me, even before I got to the island, that wasn’t my style. My longest relationship was six months. I don’t really do the couple thing. It’s not really my cup of tea. So I kept telling Brandon it’s not a three couple thing, and that I was not a couple with Toya. She and I were cool, but not a couple. As the season progresses he understood that.
One a scale of 1-10 how painful were the sea urchins?
“It was like a 9. A lot of people thought I was overreacting, which kind of annoyed me a bit. But, people can’t know what I’m feeling if they aren’t going through it themselves. Nobody can tell you how bad you’re feeling. When I first fell in (trying to stop the fish) I got pricked a little bit. It wasn’t that bad. I had like 5-7 pricks. The initial pain was like 15% of the total pain I felt after Toya knocked me that second time. A lot of people thought I was hurt before Toya knocked me, but that was not the case. After being pushed I had 40-50 pricks in my foot. If you’ve seen “The Lion King” I felt like Mufasa. I was like “Scar! Help me help me”. They didn’t show it, but I did ask for help. I thought Toya was going to help me, but instead I got an oar and hurt more.”
With editing we didn’t really see the scene play out the way you described. So watching it now did you still stand by all the things you said to Toya? Was it really her fault?
“I don’t see it as Team Swift or Team Toya. What happened happened, and I’m telling everyone what happened. When it comes to someone’s well-being, once you realize play time is over, it should be over. I hurt myself a little bit and then the injury progressively got worse. I wasn’t pissed off that she knocked me in; I was upset that after I was hurt she went off on me and walked away. I’ve been in situations where I was joking around with my friends and accidentally hurt them, it happens. But, once you know you caused your friend physical harm, regardless of whether it was intentional or unintentional, you should apologize. I would. What they didn’t show in the episode was that there was a long period of time before Toya came to check on me after yelling at me and calling her mom. If the roles were reversed I wouldn’t have done that to her. It wouldn’t have taken me such a long time to check on her and to see if she was cool and safe. That’s the kind of person I am. I was mad at the lack of concern she initially had.”
Did you end up paying the doctor’s office?
“That day was easily one of the top three most hammered days for me. It was the most messed up I’ve been on the show. It was the first time I ever got so drunk I blacked out and don’t remember what happened. As I watching it I was like “wait what! Toya came on the boat with us?” I didn’t know how gone I was until I watched the episode. I do remember going to the doctor’s office and that’s it. Don’t remember leaving or going back to the island, but I did go back and take care of the bill later!”
Who in the house is the most likely to pass out?
“Marie.”
Did you find out watching the show that Marie was the one to put the barracuda in your tub?
“At first I thought it was Marie and that she was just being sneaky, but then she was going so hard saying it’s not her and that it was this person or that person. The prank was amazing. I am not mad at the prank. It was one of the best pranks of the season. Marie didn’t even come clean after I got hurt so I thought it can’t be her, because if it was me I would have come clean. She even blamed poor little Brandon, but I did find out shortly afterwards that it was Marie.”