After waiting in line about an hour to an hour and a half, I finally reached the entrance to the Westin Hotel, which is where the casting was taking place. The man at the door asked to see identification that showed our date of birth (you have to be 18-27 in order to be eligible). They took us in groups of seven and directed us to the elevators, where we got onto the third floor and were instructed to sit in a large waiting room. As we walked into the room we were handed a sticker with a number on it (I was #173) and another application (this one was one page, compared to the 15 page official application I filled out a few days before) and were directed to our seats. Check out my video coverage (sorry if it's kinda dark--the lighting in the room wasn't that great):
This is video of how quickly the room filled up after about 45 minutes:
This is where we proceeded to wait until 10am. During that time I changed into my heels, had a quick snack and filled out the one page application we were handed at the door. It basically asked the same stuff as the first page of the official application: name, contact info, address, interests, etc.
One of the local radio stations, 106.1 KMEL, showed up with one of their radio personalities and their entourage. They took photos of us (there’s 2 or 3 with me on it that may be on the station’s website) and interviewed some people on camera. There were countless numbers of girls that were falling all over themselves to get in front of the camera. It was quite a bit of pandemonium.
After the radio station was done shooting their footage, the ANTM crew called for the first 50 seated girls (all in numerical order according to the numbers they gave us), and we moved up to fill in the empty seats. After about another hour they took the next 25 girls, which was the group I was a part of. They took us into the actual casting room, which was freezing because of the camera equipment (colder temperatures are better for the proper operation of any recording/video equipment). They asked us to squeeze into the room like sardines, where we lined up against the wall. Literally, each girl’s shoe tips had to be touching the heels of the girl in front of us. We were then asked to drop all of our bags and belongings at arm’s length away from us and onto the carpet. They also stressed that they did not want any trendy clothing and people wearing layers were asked to remove them. The casting team then asked each of us to hold the microphone, look into the camera and state our first and last name, age, height, and weight and then pass the microphone to the next person. We did this one by one until the whole room had gone. There were no people from the actual ANTM show—just two female casting directors, the cameraman, a guy to handle the microphone, and two other guys that acted as crowd control and organized the applications.
After everyone had introduced themselves and listed their stats on camera, they made their first round of cuts. I survived the first cut! It was so cool because soon as I got my number called, every girl that was near me grabbed me in a tight hug and congratulated me…you’d think I had made it onto the show! LOL. I was very excited though, to say the least. One girl who was 5’9” (they are allowing tall girls to still audition but they mostly got cut) told me that she thought I was the most beautiful in the room and wished me the best of luck…talk about flattering!
The remaining 10-12 girls were asked to form a tighter line in the middle of the room and we had to roll our shirts up and tuck it into our bras in order to show our midsection. We were told to stand in a military stance: feet together, no posing, shoulders square and relaxed, and our arms resting at our sides. The camera then took footage of each of us, starting with a tight headshot, then a medium shot, then a full body shot (the casting team watched on a monitor next to the camera man). We were instructed to smile and then not smile. They asked some of us to repeat our stats and some had to answer questions for clarification based on what they put on their application.
Next came the next round of cuts and sadly I did not make it. I wasn’t discouraged, though and got plenty of kudos from the rest of the girls when I left the room and even all the way to the hotel lobby! It was a fun experience and while I didn’t make it to the final round (I’m guessing the remaining 5-6 girls were required to do a runway walk in front of the camera), the casting director did say that Tyra watches all the footage, not just of the people they select and that she often chooses girls that don’t make it to the final round. So that’s a bright side to consider. Semi-finalists/finalists will be contacted in April so we'll see what happens!
Here is a picture of what I wore to the casting (this was taken after I got back from San Francisco)...I simply wore my hair in a curled ponytail and I wore no makeup with the exception of very light concealer under my eyes, one coat of mascara, clear lip gloss and regular pressed powder to eliminate shine caused by the lighting equipment...very fresh faced and natural:
These are the shoes I wore. Taupe, 4-inch heels...super comfortable and very sturdy to walk in:
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