Ladies around Baton Rouge gathered at Splash this past Saturday to strut their stuff in an effort to become America’s Next Top Model.
This is the first time the open casting call has been held outside the Mall at Cortana.
“This is the first opportunity we’ve had to have an area for sitting and refreshments,” said Beau Vorhoff, assistant promotions director for CW21, a cable Fox affiliate. “And Splash has a pretty large stage.”
Women were required to walk down a catwalk in front of a camera before and after being interviewed.
Vorhoff said the casting call was open to the public but participants had to make an extra effort to travel to the venue.
“Since the girls had to travel to come here, it’s quality,” said Meisie Pacris, promotions director for CW21. “There were times we did it in the mall and someone shopping would say ‘Oh, I want to try.'”
Pacris said some people in the mall would take pictures of the applicants with their camera phones or hand out business cards promising jobs to the girls.
“Here, I can walk around and spot anyone shady,” Pacris said.
Significantly less people showed up because it was not held in the mall. At the last casting call, almost 200 women expected to apply.
“The line was getting too long, and we had to shut down,” Pacris said. “There wasn’t enough time to talk to every single girl.”
This time around, “Top Model” hopefuls stopped trickling in with an hour left for interviews.
“To me, these are the girls who really want to be here,” Pacris said.
Potential models of many different backgrounds waited with the 14-page application to be interviewed. However, only women ages 18 to 27 with a height of at least 5 feet 7 inches were allowed to complete the interview process.
“So far, 48 people have applied and I’ve turned away two,” said Eric Berkowitz, sales executive at CW21. “One girl was about 5 foot even.”
Some had modeling experience prior to the audition.
“I’ve done some modeling for Baby Phat’s tennis shoe line,” said Alexis Jones, general studies senior. “I’m also a singer.”
Jones is part of the group Elysian Fields with her sister. The group has performed at Jazz Fest and Essence Music Festival.
“If I get chosen for ‘America’s Next Top Model’ I’ll definitely move wherever,” Jones said. “School is not going anywhere.”
Jones said she was not worried about the other girls because “she was the competition.”
“I’ve done some local stuff with Storyville,” said Ife Onyenekwu, pre-nursing senior. “My friends think because I’m tall and ridiculously lanky that I have the criteria to be ‘America’s Next Top Model.'”
Onyenekwu said clothiers ask her to try on their clothes because of her height.
“I’m just doing this for me, I’m not thinking about competition,” Onyenekwu said. “But hopefully Tyra [Banks] reads The Reveille.”
—-Contact Ashley Norsworthy@[email protected]