The Bachelorette’s Juan Laughs At The Man Code; Dave Predictably Blames It On The Editing

Dave and Juan were the goofus and gallant of The Bachelorette. Juan was condemned by Dave for being a goody-two shoes who violated the “man code” by pouring out a shot. Dave was a caricature of beer commercial masculinity, threatening anyone who he perceived as a threat to his Alpha Dog status. His drunken, expletive laden attempt to plant a kiss on Jillian gave women all over America bad fraternity party flashbacks. So is Juan really a producer plant? Is Dave undergoing court-mandated anger management therapy? The two men participated in separate press conferences. Each seemed to be precisely the same as portrayed on the show. Juan Barbieri was polite yet aloof. Dave Good, despite claiming the producers presented only one percent of his personality, proved himself to be the sort of guy who thinks that real men have dry, craggy skin because lotion is for wimps.

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Why do you think Dave targeted you?

Juan: Dave and I didn’t really have any problems at first. But he himself said he’s the Alpha male. He had beefs with a number of the guys, not just myself. But he seemed to focus his attention on me. It was difficult. There was definitely tension. There were a couple days where Dave and I didn’t speak.

Did you know you were breaking the man code by not drinking a shot?

Juan: That was a bit silly. I didn’t even know Dave and I had a problem until some of the guys came up to me and told me. I definitely drank that drink. There was nowhere to dump it or get rid of it. Dave was referring to something that happened a little earlier. We were getting ready for our [group] date. We were drinking in the hotel room, doing shots and beer. I was trying to pace myself because this was an opportunity to make a second impression with Jillian. You didn’t want to come across sloppy or dunk, especially considering there was going to be more alcohol by the pool. So I drank half the shot and Dave made a big deal of it.

Last week Sasha claimed a lot of the guys thought you were a producer plant because you always seemed to know when filming was about to start and would adjust your behavior accordingly.

Juan: There were a lot of inside jokes in the house. Mine was that I was working for the production. None of us knew when Chris or Jillian were going to show up.

Do you think that some of the other guys had girlfriends?

Juan: When you live in a house with all these guys for three weeks, you know a lot about people. It would be very difficult to maintain a girlfriend when you are out of touch for three weeks. When that came out at the rose ceremony, I was shocked because no one at any time had mentioned anything about having a girlfriend. I don’t think Wes has a girlfriend. He is friends with an old girlfriend from the past, like most of us are.

How did you feel when you saw this week’s episode and learned that Dave thought you badmouthed him to Jillian?

Juan: That was funny. I think now that he knows that I really didn’t do anything to instigate his anger. He probably realizes it was blown a little out of proportion. At the end, once we were both eliminated, we reconciled. We talked. We shared a couple drinks together. We kind of worked things out. I don’t have any problem with him at all.

Dave, what happened during your final encounter with Jillian? Why were you so aggressive? Were you just frustrated, or did you have too much to drink?

Dave: I was the last guy on the whole show to even go in for a kiss. Our conversation was about that, but you didn’t get to see that part. It wasn’t nearly as aggressive as it might have looked. I went in, she turned her cheek, and I laughed. It wasn’t a big deal to me. Like I said, it never happened before. I don’t think I’m very aggressive at all.

What about your aggressiveness towards Juan?

Dave: That happened really late in the night after some alcohol, and it came to a head. The things I said, like I want to kill Juan, that doesn’t mean I want to kill Juan. Everybody blew that out of context. I didn’t like him. I didn’t like the things he was saying. I didn’t like the way he was with Jillan. We hugged it out after it went down. They didn’t show any of that. The thing that really bothered me was we’d all be sitting around and Juan would see the cameras coming, jump up, and change into his jeans and sandals, get some beer, and act like he’d been a part of the conversation with the guys.

How have you felt watching the show? Do you think you were given an unfair edit?

Dave: That was one percent of me as a person. It’s the bad part of David Good. It was kind of upsetting because I’m an outgoing, very funny, comical person. For America to only see that one side was really a loss as far as I’m concerned for the show and definitely for me as a person. There’s a reason I got the First Impression rose. It’s not because I came out and acted like I was nervous. It’s because I was funny. I was cuttin’ up on every single guy in the house. That’s why the Harlem Globetrotters picked me. Unfortunately, nobody got to see that side of me.

So were you really tongue-tied the first time you met Jillian?

Dave: No. I’m never at a loss for words. They wanted us to have a plan, an idea of how you wanted to stand out from everyone else. I’m a pretty confident, borderline cocky person. I thought getting out of the car and acting like that would really turn her off. I thought the best idea for me was to act nervous and starstruck. I don’t really know how to do that so I just flat our said it. It worked. She called me out on it. We laughed about it later.

What was it like when Jillian cut the cocktail party short and turned the rose ceremony into an inquisition?

Dave: I was really upset about that. I was really good friends with Robby and Mike. They hadn’t got their time yet. I told them I would give up my one-on-one time so they could have it. I thought I was going on to the next round. Twenty minutes after that she came in and said all that stuff. I had no idea who had a girlfriend. I was also caught off guard that someone would tell Jillian that. When I watched the show and learned it was Tanner, that blew me away. I like and respect him. He just doesn’t seem like the guy that would go out and break man code.

Have you and your friends always had this unspoken Man Code?

Dave: I grew up in the country. I’m as Blue Collar as they come. I grew up around truck drivers and steel factories. There’s just a certain mentality about Blue Collar people like us. There’s certain things you do and you don’t do. There were some guys on the show that had obviously been raised differently. I don’t like wearing pink shirts. I don’t put lotion on my hands.

How has dating been for you since the show started airing?

Dave: Believe it or not, it hasn’t hindered my dating. When I go out, groups of girls will say my name. They’ll be very tentative, probably because of the way I was portrayed. Then they’ll talk to me and say, “Wow you’re nothing like the way you seemed on the show.” I tell them, “Don’t believe everything you see on TV.”

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