(Warning: The following post contains spoilers about Claim to fame Season 3 Episode 7, “I’m Coming for You.”)

It took an extra week, but the penultimate episode of Claim to fame Season 3 was worth the wait, with the final wine bottle clue — Shane’s — being revealed to the only person who could possibly have understood it: Mackenzie, who won the daily challenge. Only she was able to determine that string of emojis (mistletoe + firewood + eye + C + right turn + Italy + crown + safety pin + toilet paper roll) meant “Hollywood icon with Italian role as king.” And with Hud and his solid grasp of Hollywood history on her side, she connected the dots with The godfather.

Then, all of a sudden, those various clues about Shane’s relative—the Valkyrie, Martin Sheen, and Mr. Mumbles—started to fall into place. As it turns out, Shane’s chicken wing necklace was more of a red herring, since his famous relative was his grandfather, the legendary Marlon Brando.

TV Insider spoke with Shane Brando about his time on the show, what he thought of his castmates’ impromptu Marlo Brando impersonations, and who he really hoped would win.

(Be sure to read the other exit interviews with Bianca Roberts, Gracie Lou Hyland and Jill Kurlfink, Raphael Curtis aka Miguel, Naomi Burns and Nael Zayas aka Danny.)

I have to start with a question you probably get asked a lot: what’s the story behind the chicken wing necklace?

Shane Brando: The chicken wing started out as a joke. I was only going to wear it for one day. But then it evolved into its own character. And after the first day after the talent show and the reactions I got, I was like, “Man, I think I need to wear this damn chicken necklace every day now!” But honestly, it was just a piece of jewelry that I really like, I wear it to every music festival I go to, and I just wore it to keep myself grounded. Let me remind myself that this is just for fun. This is not something that I have to take too seriously, you know, and it was just a constant piece of my sense of humor that keeps getting leveled up in the game.

Did it also have the side effect of distracting people from your identity?

It did. It was one of those things where people are constantly asking, “Is it actually a clue? Is it not a clue? What does it mean? Does it mean anything?” And I would never tell anyone exactly where it came from or how I got it or what its purpose was. I thought, “Yeah, this is just my fun little piece.”

Back to two truths and one lie: what made you decide to go for your cousin instead of trying to lie about one of the other categories?

So I picked cousin because I felt like as long as I could keep people out of the age range or just the time period that my grandfather lived in, I felt like it would be a lot easier to throw people off than if I just gave them something like, “Yeah, he’s my grandfather and an actor or an athlete who won an Oscar.” Because then — what I also realized, especially with the two truths and a lie, is that it’s kind of easy to pick up, pick up which one is a lie, because it’s like there’s only two of them that kind of fit together. Whether it’s the profession and the award or the age range, because I mean, I was pretty easy to pick up that Danny wasn’t going to be a wrestler. But little things like that. So I felt like as long as I kept it a little bit vague in terms of the age range, they could still think that it’s my mother, my, it could be a man or a woman. They don’t know if it’s really my brother or sister, my cousin or uncle, my father. It was so vague that I felt like this was probably the best gameplay I could make at that point.

Yeah, that makes sense. What was your reaction when Bianca suspected you were related to Forest Whitaker?

I kind of laughed at it. I also felt — I love Forrest Whitaker a lot, but I felt a little disrespected because I was like, “Man, do I really look like Forrest Whitaker?!” But then I saw all these comments online before the show aired and they were like, “Yeah, definitely. Forrest Whitaker.” So it was kind of funny. But I still love Bianca to bits. We talked too.

You had to use a little acting skills this season to pull off your little trick with Miguel. Did that come naturally? Did you inherit that family trait?

I mean, I’m a little bit educated. But I do think it’s a family trait in the sense that my dad is a lot like me. My sister is a little bit like me. And then also in general in life, I’ve been in senior positions where I’ve had a lot of people working under me. So it’s like I’m constantly going down different paths in my daily life. My grandfather always said this, especially when it came to acting, “You have to say what you want to get what you want from the person you’re talking to.” So if I wanted a certain outcome, I knew I had to say things a certain way or phrase things a certain way.

So I learned early on that, especially in this house that I really benefited from, I had to say something or do something to get the reaction that I wanted from my castmates. So I think that’s not necessarily obvious, but it’s something that I’ve taken to heart and really worked on and I think it really helped me when I was in the house, that’s for sure.

You said you had dinner with Elizabeth Taylor. Was that true? And if so, can you describe it?

That was the best and easiest thing about the show; every story I told was absolutely true. I had no reason to lie about anything. I didn’t have to do anything, I didn’t have to offend anyone, because I knew all my life stories, everything I’ve done, even when my grandpa was there. If I just left him out, it’s still a great story. Still true, but it doesn’t really have a direct connection to my family member. Pretty cool.

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What did you think of Marlon Brando’s impersonations?

I think they still have some work to do. Not everyone has to get – I mean, I’m never good at it. I’ve seen the show though The offer on Paramount. The guy who played my grandfather actually did a really good job.

Oh, high spirits. Adam said you were giving Leonardo DiCaprio cues. Was that your intention?

It was really easy… With Adam, I could literally say anything. I could give him anything and he would just run with it. I mean, honestly, I was probably the reason he got Randy Jackson for Dedrick, because I was like, “That’s my man. I’ve got his idea in my back pocket. Let me just keep hearing him out.” I spent so many hours with Adam up against the wall. I was like, “Look, this is why it’s Randy Jackson, you got the mic, you got the beats, he was a producer, you got the headphones too.”

So he was so committed to it, so it was almost like, “Okay.” So as long as I could, I just had to show Adam things so that he would believe me with confidence and then he would just go his own way, make it his own thing.

Who did you hope would win after you left?

Honestly, it’s hard to say honestly. Hud or Mackenzie. I wouldn’t be mad. Honestly, Mackenzie played her game. She surprised me a lot. She was like — she’s a, she’s a sly little girl, but great. So her gameplay is great. I can’t hate on her. She did her thing.

I still can’t wait to — I haven’t seen the episode yet, but I can’t wait to see how they solve that clue. When I first saw it, when she showed it to me, I was like, “Oh yeah, there’s no way she’s going to figure this out. I don’t even know what the hell this means.” And then she goes, “Oh yeah, it means da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.” And I’m like, “Okay, cool. I think my day is over here.”

She fooled you, and you were good at interrogation, but she still managed to fool you.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. She played a great game. So if Hud or Mackenzie wins, I wouldn’t be completely mad. My competitive side says, “I didn’t win, so it doesn’t matter anymore? No.”