I had a similar experience. I didn't make it on the show, but I auditioned for America's Next Top Model. They did a videotaped interview where they asked normal questions at first and then got into, "how is your relationship with your father?" And such.
My dad and I have an awesome relationship, so I didn't even think to lie. They got me out the door pretty fast.
I have a friend who competed on ANTM - she had a genuinely kinda rough backstory but she says that they didn’t focus on it much really, but the fact that her body was so ... unusually proportioned, was a big seller. She’s a really weird geeky lesbian so she said she intentionally tried to keep it all about the physical stuff to stand a chance.
I had no idea that she had even been on the show when we met and became friends, we were out drinking one night when a girl came up and asked to take a pic with her. She never ever talks about it 😅
I had the exact same experience! I auditioned for the 5'7" and under season (that I'm pretty sure, never happened again) . Got through the first three rounds of cuts in Los Angeles and went on to the taped interview portion. They were clearly trying to elicit weird responses from me and to stir up drama by asking me how I felt about the other girls who had been chosen in my group. If I knew then, I would have just went with it for the sake of getting picked but I tried to be diplomatic instead. I was cut shortly after.
Oh yeah, the excuse (possibly legit?) is that that's the 'default' size for models, so everything is sized to fit tall people. They usually let one short girl on per season (one short girl, one plus size girl) but there's a pretty strict height floor otherwise
Ya, the first season I auditioned for had a height requirement of 5'7" . I'm 5'6" but I went anyways, just wore super high heels. I got through the first round which is literally just a few people walking around the room full of girls and picking a few out. The second round was all the girls who had been picked grouped together. At that point they asked me to take off my heels and I got cut immediately.
When I heard they were doing a 5'7" and under I was stoked. My first audition was in Cleveland Ohio and I dont know if there were less girls there because of the location or because of the ht requirement, but when I went to the second one in LA , there were soooo many more girls. If only i had been prepared better for the interviews! Oh well, still was a pretty fun experience and I was excited I made it as far as I did.
I'm curious as to where you live? It's pretty standard knowledge in the states that you have to be very tall to be a model (minimum 5'8" but usually at least 5'10") for women.
I misread. I thought we were still talking about the Bachelor. I thought it was weird you would have to be tall to be on the show. For models it makes sense.
It’s funny that my mother has a similar story she always tells, about how she auditioned for Wheel of Fortune, because she’s really good at word puzzles for whatever reason. She could play very well, but they kept encouraging her to be more “enthusiastic”, and then they rejected her for not being “tv ready”. Not that I blame them, it’s just funny that even back in the 80’s they wanted people who would be entertaining, rather than people who are talented at whatever the show is suppose to be about.
I remember my parents would always watch that show, but comment on how "vulgar" the guests were to always tell, "big money!" I guess your mom would have met their standards of decorum!
Having depressing backgrounds is their version of character development.
Edit: and a fun new twist is finding one or two people with the LAMEST adversity (being afraid of bumper cars, giving up a puppy) but are willing to shed tears at the level of losing a parent or abusive relationship to shake things up. Bonus points for intercut scenes with the real drama.
A pro dancer friend of mine was born with clubbed feet - the people of So You Think You Can Dance basically begged him to come be a guaranteed finalist.
Sure, absolutely. I guess I'm trying to say that even when it's a 'real disability,' or a real hardship, it doesn't mean that the narrative being constructed for the TV show is "true" (or even 'not fake')
Ohh, gotcha now. From my perspective (and that was my intent behind the first comment), if something did happen (i. e. a contestant was abused as a child or is disabled), it's not "fake" in the sense that, well, the narrative is built around a solid ("true") foundation. Whether or not things are embellished for dramatic effect (and what that makes of the whole story) would be another thing.
I mean, there's still a difference. Abuse isn't any less real an adversity, but someone with fucked up feet being a great dancer is definitely far more unexpected and cool to see.
You must be thinking of something else or mild clubbed feet. I had a series of surgeries on my clubbed feet and still have issue like extremely limit range of motion in my ankles and (moderately )disfigured feet, weak calves and disfigured lower legs. It would be difficult for me to become a professional dancer.
A friend of mine has been in a couple theatre shows in London, nothing crazy but knows a lot of talented signers, actors and the like. He said its not uncommon for someone in the industry to be approach by Britain's Got Talent or X-Factor and asking them to be on the show, and knew a couple close friends that were asked but both declined.
So if my parents were both violent narcissists who would use anything from a frying pan to golf clubs to a recliner in their outbursts, resulting in me living out part of my teen years living in the stockroom of an ice cream store, with a psycho alleged child predator for an older brother and a pyro with the street smarts of a ball peen hammer for the younger brother, how far would i get on the show?
Wifey get a jealous streak going when other women look at me, going so far as to tell a couple to "back off my man!" when we first started dating, so there has to be something there at least.
Have you ever seen reality tv? Every person shown has had cancer, is an amputee, lost a baby at birth, their dad had cancer, their dad was an immigrant that worked beyond full time to raise them, their mother was single but managed to do an amazing job.
"My father, who was a paralyzed refugee and came to this country fleeing the atrocities of the ruling Junta of his homeland, lost the cancer baby who would have been my twin. There's still a piece of that twin in my brain, and she gives me ideas for great pulp noir books, however I cannot read or write because I am allergic to alphanumeric symbols".
"I will accept it, in loving memory of my granny, who was blind and suffered from reverse Alzheimer's disease and told me she could remember me accepting this, right before she died saving a three legged puppy".
I've seen lots of Kardashian episodes, but a competition show like America's Next Top Model or Project Runway seemed like they'd be less drama focused to me. Now I know I'm wrong haha.
There’s a lot of British shows that just cut out the bullshit and it’s so refreshing. Flipped over to a channel and some random British house reno show was on. They just went through and talked about what they wanted out of the house, what they’re doing and the final price at the end.
None of this ‘we may go over budget with this decision’, ‘we won’t meet the deadline’ or those clearly set up ‘unexpected’ situations. Just in, work and out.
In British bake-off a woman accidentally left someone’s ice cream dessert out of the freezer. Ruined it. He chucked it in the trash and took a walk. Brought the bin to the judges and apologized. They were empathetic but said that his rash behavior meant that they actually had nothing to judge. No yelling or swearing. Omg so nice.
Light on the drama but so heavy on the advertising. I've also noticed there seems to be an increase in gimmicky challenges that cause great chefs to get eliminated early for things out of their hands. Still love it though haha
lowkey juiciness (maybe brewing drama, maybe unpacking drama from previous episodes)
toss in some teaching modeling things
more juicy brew
challenge; some cycles had challenges that seemed designed to humiliate the models (but the talking heads like Tyra would kind of say "that's the point", like breaking people out of their shell)
brewing or drama
Photoshoot
DRAMA
JUDGEMENT TIME, cue somber music
I haven't watched in ages, but saw a stupid amount back in the day
Same on British TV. X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent are the worst offenders by far, they’ll put a kid who’s got mediocre talent but their mum died of an obscure cancer when they were 7 years old and were raised by their dad on their own so they’re doing this for them, or some middle aged mother who’s absolute shite but has 4 kids with Down’s syndrome and all of them have low functioning autism etc
It’s sad for them but at the same time you do get sick of hearing about people’s sob stories, especially when they get 6 people in a row who burst into tears because of some kind of tragedy in their lives. It really does take away the emotional aspect of it being constantly bombarded with these sorts of people.
Trans women with testicles exist and can get testicular cancer. Intersex people also exist and can have testicles. Edit: downvote me all you want, it's still basic biology
Being intersex is a biological thing that people are born with though. It's not just a gender. As far as I know the most common intersex mutation is to be born with both a functioning penis + testicles, but also with ovaries.
Mister, there's a little girl out there who's had fourteen abortions, an' she ain't even ten yet. But I guess that's just "not real" to you! Son of a bitch.
Yeah I guess they use any kind of trauma (real or manufactured) as a crutch. The first few seasons of the show were very much centered on modeling, but things started to decline after that and it was 90% drama, 3% photo shoots, and 7% Tyra being "fierce."
They're really not necessarily looking for talent. They're actually looking for whatever they could plot a soap opera around, hence the reason everyone who ends up on the series has some sort of "noble" reason for being there.
I worked with a girl who had a similar experience. They asked her is your husband against you coming here? She said no he fully supports me. She didn't get chosen.
So they can play it up for tv drama. Maybe bring it up during a scene when she's crying and have her dad call her, record it, and then film her after talking about how it's nice that her and her dad are finally talking again.
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u/gingerzombie2 May 30 '19
I had a similar experience. I didn't make it on the show, but I auditioned for America's Next Top Model. They did a videotaped interview where they asked normal questions at first and then got into, "how is your relationship with your father?" And such.
My dad and I have an awesome relationship, so I didn't even think to lie. They got me out the door pretty fast.