America's Next Top Model S2003E10

Gustave: So you like Elimidate?

Elyse: Oh yeah!

Do you like the ones where the girls compete against each other for the guy, or the ones where the guys compete for the girls?

I'm not sure. They both can be great in their own way. I just like Elimidate more than Blind Date or Fifth Wheel because there's no sassy host wasting our time. The story just tells itself. And I've always wanted to meet the person who writes the captions. They're so subtle but so mean!

So are you going to medical school this year or year?

year. I deferred. I did actually get in -- contrary to what some of you were saying on the boards.

What were your expectations about going on a reality show?

My expectations were so cynical. I wasn't even sure it was going to air -- let alone be popular. In the contract I had to sign, there's all this stuff about "even if the show doesn't air" Everything was qualified with "whether the show airs or not" The winner doesn't get the prize if the show doesn't air, et cetera. The whole thing was just so questionable from the outset.

What the deal with the big fight over shopping versus a visit to Jim Morrison's grave? Were you told you all had to stick together?

We didn't. The note we got said that we could split into two groups or that we could all go together. I wanted us all to go as one group because I wanted to go shopping too. It turned out that it probably wasn't a good idea because Robin and Shannon wanted to go to Louis Vuitton and stuff like that -- places where I would never shop. I wanted to go to the flea markets but even if I'd gotten my way and we'd all stuck together, that never would have happened. They went to Sephora and the Gap. So I was glad we all split up.

So who do you keep in touch with from the show?

Just Adrienne. And I've exchanged a few emails with Shannon.

What was Shannon like?

Shannon was pretty much what she was like on the show. She was really nice. Really loud. But she was also one of the leaders of the eating disorder camp.

Giselle?

Giselle could be really fun, but she talked in interviews about how she's not really insecure, but she is. She'd be like, "I'm so fat! I'm so ugly. What do you think about that?" It got really tiresome after a while.

So it was worse than it seemed on the show?

It was depicted accurately on the show. It wasn't like how she described it -- that she was really cocky and trying to tone it down. I thought that was an odd thing to say.

What about Kesse?

Kesse was really cool. I liked her a lot. I wish I'd stayed in touch with her but I left without getting her address.

What was the rivalry really like between "the Christians and the pagans"?

What the show doesn't make clear is that a lot of the conflict was really between Adrienne and Robin. Robin was just outright mean to Adrienne as time wore on. Robin's big thing was she liked to say -- if someone was being too loud -- "we need you at five. Take it down to five!" And she's make a gesture like she was turning down a stereo. Adrienne couldn't say two words before Robin would say, "Five!" She did that all the time and I was so disappointed that they never put that in the show.

Instead we got the most brilliant line: "He waz Lustin!"

"Lustin!" You know what really bummed me out about that? Apparently that guy was hitting on everyone else but me.

And what about that male model?

I don't know if this was clear on the show or not, but I think Shannon was disappointed with him. When we asked him about the Bible being his favorite book, he was like, "Oh, I was just trying to look good." But then there was that uncomfortable moment that they aired where we're like, "What's your second favorite book?" and he couldn't come up with anything.

So Robin was still there too?

Yeah. She stayed at the hotel. Actually, that's how they did the Baby Phat show. Everyone had to come in and get their hair and makeup done and everyone was walking. Like, I was right behind Shannon. When we were on the runway, it wasn't during the actual Baby Phat show. That was a couple of hours before the real show started. They just edited in clips of the audience to make it look like we were modeling in the actual Baby Phat show, but we weren't. We were "the rehearsal girls." I was kind of surprised that they made it look like we were really walking in that show. They made us all up -- Kesse, Robin, and me -- so that the hair and makeup people wouldn't know who had been eliminated.

But wait, they show Robin stealing towels!

That was when she was packing up and leaving her room. We all just packed our suitcases and left and wentfive floors down to another room in the Flatotel.

There was all this other weird stuff we had to do for confidentiality purposes. Apparently the National Enquirer found out about something and showed up at the lobby of the Flatotel. So they had me, Shannon, Adrienne, and Robin leave the hotel, separated and alone with scarves and sunglasses on as if we'd all been "eliminated." CBS was really paranoid about confidentiality.

I had thought that Robin had made the top three because of that TV Guide article which focused on you three

That was deceptive.

Deliberately deceptive?

Maybe not deliberately deceptive. I think TV Guide just focused on the ones they thought were going to win or something.

From watching Elimidate, didn't you have reservations about going on a reality show and looking like shit?

Oh, definitely. And they could have made it look so much worse than they already did. I mean, I looked pretty bad -- as the bitchy one -- but it came out okay. They could have done worse. I just wish I'd watched more reality shows before I was on this one.

You were the protagonist.

You know why? The producers told me that they used my narration footage a lot. They told me that they didn't want to have me narrating everything but they had to because I spoke in a linear fashion. An hour every week was spent just interviewing the contestants. You'd have to repeat the question in your answer so they could get sound bites out of it.

Usually on Real World, whoever is the protagonist gets most of the narration sound bites.

It just worked out that way. I wasn't really meant to be the protagonist.

I wonder if all of the attention lavished on Robin wasn't justification for the fact that the top three were ultimately the skinny white girls.

I was still sure that being skinny and white would work against me. On the very first elimination, Beau said to me, "Your body is disgusting! I would never put you in my magazine!" They didn't show the judging comments that were more negative. They made it look like Janice was the only one who wasn't being constructive, but that wasn't the case.

So Beau wasn't your friend.

No.

But Janice loved you.

Every elimination, Janice would walk in and give me a huge wink. When I got eliminated, she walked in glaring at me and gave me this big eye-roll. So I was warnedand that was nice.

It's like when the jury files into the courtroom and you can tell if you're guilty or not by whether or not they look you in the eye?

Exactly.

So what did you think of Janice. I love her. I love her book. Everyone on the boards hates her and I just can't abide that.

I read her book too. And I really like her. I didn't get to hang out with her at all, though, because they always tried to keep us away from the judges.

Once Adrienne and I took the elevator down with Kimora after the first Paris eliminations, and it was the most awkward minute of my life. We had no idea what to do. Should we start kissing ass now? Or is that the worst thing we could have done? So we just froze. We didn't say a word to her and vice versa. They really just tried to whisk the judges away.

What was Tyra like?

Tyra was definitely the most constructive of all the judges. She was so nice. And she was patient. She taught me how to walk in heels. She was so patient with me about it and I was impressed with that.

But at the same time, there was that moment when she came into the hotel, lit all these candles, and talked to us about insecurities. That should have been really nice, but at the same time, we were all aware of the fact that she was a judge and that we shouldn't say the wrong thing. I mean, she totally had our eliminations in her hand at that point.

And how did the judging work, anyway?

I had no idea. There would be those scenes where they showed the judges going "in" and "out" and stuff, but I don't even know if they did it mathematically. The rules were never explained to us. It kind of makes me suspect that either Tyra was running the whole show or that they all had a pretty good idea of the order of the eliminations from the outset.

It all seemed arbitrary.

Yeah, I don't think that the "tasks" were what decided things at all.

Yeah, in real life, you walk into an agency and they decide you either have it or you don't. It's not like they judge you on how many go-sees you can hit in one day. If you have the look, they'll make sure you get to the go-sees.

Yeah, and I loved how every "challenge" was preceded by the word "extreme!" Even the publicity challenge was "extreme publicity." I guess it was extreme because we were out in the cold.

Yeah, it sounds more like a Mountain Dew commercial than a modeling competition.

Exactly.

So how much time did you spend with Tyra?

Not much. Usually she would pop up at the photo shoots and sometimes during the challenges -- just to tell us what we were doing, and then she'd disappear. I suspect, though, that she was watching the footage of what we were doing on the challenges. Also her makeup artist and the hair people would give her input. That's what I heard.

So do you think it was ultimately Tyra's decision?

I'm not clear on that. I would assume that the guest judges had less input, but I really don't know how they decided who to eliminate.

Now, about the eating disorder. Was it that much of a deal, or did the editing just make it look that way?

I was aware that people were talking about it. And I heard that a couple of girls actually said, "I believe Elyse should be eliminated because she has an eating disorder." But that whole conversation that all of the girls had about me when they were all talking about my teeth and how awful I looked -- I never knew that had happened until I saw it on TV.

And what's weird is that they don't have any footage of you doing those things they say you did, like throwing up and stuff.

The thing that really made me angry was that Giselle was like, "I heard her throwing up in the bathroom!" Adrienne said something like that too, but she told me about it before the show ended. But I wished we could have asked the guy who was miking us and listening to us at all times if he had heard me throwing up.

Do you think it was the Christian crew who wanted you out?

I don't think it was a Christian/pagan thing. I just think a lot of people wanted to win and so if they could get someone out of their way, they would.

Let's talk some more about Robin.

I had never met anyone like Robin in my entire life. So overbearing. I just think that Robin was the token plus-size. I just know they wanted her in the top three, but she was just so awful they had to get her out of there. Also? I talked to someone who had kept in touch with Robin and she totally admitted that she lied about the boob-shaking incident. She said she "had to reach deep into her prayer drawer to get forgiveness for lying about the boob-shaking incident." Prayer drawer?

Now, about the boob-shaking incident

First off? I saw it. I was standing right there. She opened her shirt and shook her boobs.

Would she do stuff like that all the time?

No. She wouldn't. It was definitely out of character for Robin.

She wouldn't even change in front of you guys!

She kept getting into trouble for not allowing the cameras into the bathroom. If there was more than one person in the bathroom, there had to be a camera in there too, you know, just in case you had an off-camera conversation with someone in the bathroom. Robin would refuse to let the cameras around when she was in her bathrobe. We were like, "Did you read the contract?" She was freaked out about that.

I loathe the girl, but I sort of don't blame her.

Yeah. It was uncomfortable.

So what about the nude shoot? I was wondering if they weren't aware that they were contractually obligated to get naked?

In the contract it says, "You may be photographed and/or videotaped nude or any state of undress." Robin had no regard for the contract she signed. That having been said, I think the nude shoot was contrived because they knew Robin and Shannon wouldn't want to do it. They said you were allowed to wear a tube top and a pair of panties; we just want you to wrap your arms around your body to create the illusion of nudity. Robin still didn't want to do that because it would create a "lustful image." Meanwhile, she's in that photo with the "rookie of the year," down on all fours and writhing in front of this guy. That was so much "worse." You know?

Was Robin was a hypocrite, or does she just have a sassy side to her?

I don't know. She refused to talk about her past.

And she made that remark about not wanting to discuss her "sexual orientation." What was up with that?

I'm guessing she just doesn't know what "sexual orientation" means.

And she's a twenty-six-year-old virgin?

Well, she claims to be engaged to the guy she was going out with. Maybe she'll lose it soon. Actually, I don't think she was a virgin.

So what about those playboys? Were they really royalty?

They were supposed to be Parisian society boys.

Where did they get them?

I think they were friends of Marilyn's [Gautier, the agency owner].

And Robin said they were talking smack?

I didn't hear them say anything bad. They were swearing, which might have not sat well with Robin but

In French or in English?

In English. Actually a couple of them were British and a couple of them were French. That was a bad night. That wasn't fun at all. We had to get up really early in the morning and go to that couture house where we got these gowns. They took away our underwear and our purses and it was fucking freezing out. And then they were like, "Okay, you're going to go on these dates," and we hadn't had any food, we didn't have underwear on. We didn't have our purses and we weren't allowed to have coats -- just wraps. So we had to walk to the subway in these high heels, freezing our asses off -- literally -- and then we meet these guys and we have dinner and they gave us ten minutes for dinner. A snail and a bite of foie gras. So we were crabby.

That was weird. It was this date, and then you got feedback?

Yeah. We were supposed to conduct ourselves in a manner befitting the couture we were wearing. That was the idea.

The other interesting thing is that the guys didn't actually go with us to the ballet. They walked us in and then they went back out. It looks like they took us to the ballet, but they didn't.

So then we got back to the room and we were hungry and all there was to eat was chocolate cake. So I'm not surprised that some of us couldn't muster the energy to talk or flirt with these guys.

Was Robin really reading the Bible?

Oh yeah, she was. She said in some interview, "Oh, I wasn't reading the Bible the whole time." I was like, "Yes you were!" They took away everyone's bags, everyone's shoes, everyone's coat but Robin managed to hold on to her Bible!

Do you think they let her keep the Bible because it made her look so insane?

Probably. But she definitely brought out the Bible at the most inappropriate times.

So what about your rant during the interview competition? You went off on your housemates!

During the extreme publicity challenge, it shows me going off on each girl like I'm some evil bitch. The thing is, the actual question was, "What is your favorite thing and what is your least favorite thing about each girl?" So as I'm complimenting everyone and then saying something negative afterwards, it doesn't seem so bad, but when it's edited and the bad stuff is left in, it looks like I just went off on everyone.

And it looked like you were the only one actually talking shit about the other girls. And then you won it anyway.

But they were like, "You did everything wrong!" I didn't understand that. I mean, even so, it's not like I'm dissing Anna Wintour and I'll never work again.

So did Shannon really say "Oh mah word!" all the time?

Yes, she did. She said it all the time. At first it was annoying but then it grew on us.

Are you working as a model?

No.