(Samantha Nelson, incoming first-year marketing student)The fact that a casting call for “America’s Next Top Model” in March left six New Yorkers injured is evidence that the show can produce almost as much fervor in aspiring “Tyras” as Walmart produces in shoppers on Black Friday. Despite possible impending danger, hundreds of local ladies lined up outside Seven Sushi Bar on Saturday (in possible hope of said cat fights, several men on break from army training gathered there as well). It could have been the sunny weather or simply the phenomenon of Minnesota Nice, but the lines of platform shoe-sporting women were nothing, if not serene.
To try out, participants must bear their deepest psyches in the form of an 11-page application that asks prodding questions such as, “How do you act when you get drunk?” and “Have you ever been arrested? If so, tell us about it.” While the application frequently reminds readers that all sizes are accepted, it doesn’t need to point out that signs of borderline personality disorder are more of a yay than a nay on the series.
Other paperwork to be dealt with pre-tryout is an eligibility form that makes aspiring contestants aware that they must be willing to get naked for shoots and live with “approximately 9 to 14 other female strangers, where you will have little or no privacy.” Thus, the recipe for good TV is made.
Tyra and her panel of fierce, modeling-related, B-list celebs were not there for the first round, instead leaving the initial task to two men — one with a camera and one instructing each participant to state her name, city, phone number and, of course, demonstrate her catwalk.
A&E chatted with three aspiring models from the University to see what the attack of the Gophers on “ANTM” might look like.
