Model Airheads
open season at america’s next top model
CORRECTION APPENDED
I imagined that attending an open casting call for America’s Next Top Model would be a lot like getting to see the circus for free. I prepared myself for a popcorn-worthy spectacle—dragalicious cha-cha divas mingling with the “modelesque,” the excited chatter of would-be Janice Dickinsons bubbling like hot tub jets, the girls’ squeals punctuated every now and then by outbursts like “Bitch poured beer on my weave!” or free-verse poetry, a la Cycle 6’s Jade (“If I only had the magic key / That would unlock the realms to the plateau of the highest me”).
As it turns out, I am mostly wrong. Sure, there are a few deluded divas gathered in and around the stately New Yorker Hotel on March 15, all hoping to be chosen to compete on Cycle 11—Top Model is divided into “cycles,” not seasons, because the network typically airs more than one competition per year—of The CW’s flagship show. Many of the hopefuls I talk to, though, are depressingly normal.
Maybe they’re just saving up their crazy for when they reach the audition room itself. According to Casting Director Michelle Mock-Falcon, a fresh-faced woman who has been with the show since its premiere in 2003, all sorts of characters have shown up at past open calls. “We have people that come, and they’re in their late 30s or even in their 40s. They just feel like this is their opportunity,” she says in an interview I conduct right before the casting call commences at 10:30 AM. “We have boys that come all the time and try to sneak in. I’m like, ‘Sure, come on in and talk to Tyra on camera.’”
What Mock-Falcon and the rest of the Top Model creative team are looking for, though, are potential contestants who first and foremost pass a certain number of eligibility requirements—female, between 18 and 27 years old, no experience modeling in a national campaign, no shorter than 5’7”. Beyond the basics, it’s a matter of determination and drive. Mock-Falcon says that they’re looking for “someone who is strong enough to be in the competition, and who’s passionate enough.”
When I ask her how important things like personality and back-story are, though, she seems to falter for a minute. She pauses, then answers, “Personality, back-story, it all comes kind of in the same package. Some people come from—you know, they’ve had a great life. Some people, you know, have had a little bit of a roller coaster ride, you know? And I think that everything plays a part in that it’s how they deliver who they are, how they introduce themselves, how they come in, their walk, their attitude and the whole thing.” I don’t quite buy it—if finding girls who will create drama isn’t at least part of Top Model’s m.o., then why does the lengthy application all the girls need to complete include reality contestant bait questions like, “What are you most ashamed of, either now or in your past?” and, “Do you have a temper? How often do you lose your temper? What provokes you?”
I do, however, believe Mock-Falcon when she details to me just how involved Tyra Banks, Top Model’s host, executive producer, and patron saint, is when it comes to the show’s casting process. The model-cum-mogul apparently watches every single audition tape and acts as the final authority on who gets to “be on top, top, top,” as the show’s theme song puts it. The level of Tyra’s participation is surprising to the contestants as well, says Mock-Falcon. “Once the girls make it out for the semifinals, they’re in shock, because she’ll sit there and say something about what they wrote on their application, or what they did on their tape. They’re like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you know me!’”
Tyra doesn’t come to the auditions—“Sometimes we’ll be in a small city and they’ll be like, “Is Tyra Banks here?” And I’m like, “Sorry, no, you get me,” Mock-Falcon says, smiling. Nevertheless, her presence is palpable. There’s even a fierce picture of her pasted beneath the camera that will soon be recording the girls. When I ask Mock-Falcon about the picture, she laughs. “They found it easier when we had a picture of her up there,” she says. “And they really—they come in here, and they talk to her. We have girls that fall down on the ground, and they’re crying. I mean, they are just opening their hearts to her. And part of the success is her fan base. She has a huge following. And now with her talk show, the Tyra show, it is amazing. The girls come in here quoting her, and talking about what they’ve learned through her talk show, and they kind of combine the two.”
The girls who have been waiting for hours to audition certainly seem to verify Mock-Falcon’s pronouncements. Everyone I interview watches Top Model, even though some say they only do so when they have time. Many of them also answer affirmatively when I ask if they’ve picked up any tips from the show. “Smile with your eyes,” says a leggy brunette named Simona, sporting glamorously oversized sunglasses. “The things you don’t want to do are overeating, under eating, not exercising,” says Amanda, a long-haired college student from Pennsylvania. I ask Amanda and her three friends if they have ever auditioned for a reality show before. Nobody but Amanda has—“I tried out for Coyote Ugly on CMT,” she says, referring to The Ultimate Coyote Ugly Search, a competition for skanky wannabe bartenders at the “legendary” nightspot. Amanda has also tried out for American Idol—“Is that a reality show, though?” After a moment of thought, her friends rule that it isn’t.
Crystal, a friendly girl from New Hampshire with a dazzling smile and a prominently displayed Chanel purse, has also gleaned something important from past cycles. “Well, drama isn’t good for the in-house, but I know it’s good for TV,” she says. Her mother, who has come along for moral support, also chimes in: “You gotta know how to walk. Like a model.”
Nobody epitomizes the ideal Top Model contestant better than 24-year-old Nikki. She’s lively and vivacious, the only auditionee who approaches me before I can interview her. She introduces me to the friends she has made in line and tells me that they’re going to form a band. “We’re going to dance just so we can get some attention going on up here,” she says. “We’re going to be on TV. Get attention.”
Then she gets a little more specific: “I need to be on TV before I turn 30.” Getting her face on the small screen has been a long-term project for Nikki—“Make sure you take a note of this. I’ve been doing this since the first episode. This is my 11th time trying out,” she says. I mention that Cycle 8 winner Jaslene also tried out and didn’t make it onto the show initially, and Nikki cuts me off. “Yeah, and you know what? I kind of figured that, so I tried to take note of what she was doing, and it didn’t help me very much. So now I got to try another angle.”
Why does Nikki want to be on this particular show? Well, according to her, “America’s Next Top Model isn’t just about being pretty to me. It’s like Tyra Banks says, she has her own little company outside of Ty Ty Baby [Tyra’s production company] where she helps a lot of younger girls feel important about themselves. And I feel like America’s Next Top Model shouldn’t just be outside beautiful, they should be beautiful on the inside, such as your poise, the way you talk to people, the way you carry yourself. And, if I was America’s Next Top Model, I would show girls out there that you don’t have to be beautiful ... to be ... beautiful.” Pleased with herself, she repeats her new mantra a second time.
As soon as Nikki and her crew realize that a CW news team is filming girls at the other end of the line, though, inner beauty and my tape recorder are both immediately forgotten. “They’re taking pictures!” a girl yells. “Pictures? Where?” asks Nikki. They whoop with glee as a lanky Amazon struts her stuff like she’s walking for Miss J. Alexander himself. Nikki, especially, lights up, shouting, “Strut your stuff, girl! You on camera!”
After the excitement dies down, Nikki turns back to me. I thank her for her time and tell her that I hope number 11 turns out to be the charm. She shakes my hand like a campaigning politician and bids me farewell, saying, solemnly, “Put me on TV, you know, one day, or put me on your newspaper, or whatever it is. And if I get on TV, I’ll remember you, the columnist.”
Correction: This article originally stated that Jaslene won Cycle 10 of America’s Next Top Model. She was, in fact, the winner of Cycle 8. The Eye regrets the error.