ANTM7: Interview with Melrose - "I Don't Really Feel Like I Lost"

[hepcat]

Finishing the competition in second place was Melrose, who seemed to soar through the competition’s photo shoots and challenges, but who attracted negative attention from her fellow model wannabes. After sticking it out until the bitter end, Melrose had the disappointment of seeing the win go to another competitor. But does she hold a grudge? It sounds like Melrose is well on her way to climbing out of Top Model runner-updom and plunging right back into the fashion world.

Hi Melrose!

Hi, how are you?

Congratulations on finishing in second place!

Thank you so much.

What is it like to go all the way to the end of the competition and just miss the big payoff?

I really have not been seeing it as missing it, because it just wasn’t for me. Everything happens the way it’s supposed to happen; that’s the way I look at life. I don’t feel like I lost, I felt like I showed who I was the whole way through the competition. I competed well, I don’t have issues with any of my photos, I’m happy with all of my pictures – I don’t feel like I didn’t win. All of my family and friends, they’re all like, “You’re the winner for us!” And it feels good, because even if I’m not Tyra’s pick, I’m a lot of other people’s pick.

And all those things that were offered for the win, I’m going to go get them. I feel like I did shine on the show, and I’m not worried about it. It hurt, it was like, “Ow”, but then it was really quick to get back to, “All right, this is me, and I tried my best.” So I don’t really feel like I lost. To look at it like that, makes it easier. But it also makes me realize that all these dreams that I have are still attainable. It’s not like my dreams just got shut down, you know.

Well, that’s true.

It’s not like my life is over. Just because one person has an opinion between CariDee and I doesn’t mean that the fashion industry or that my family and friends, or I agree with it. It’s all a matter of how I feel about myself, and I’m really happy. I’m appreciative of the experience because I worked my butt off and got as far as I could, and I’m satisfied with that. I’m exactly where I want to be right now. That’s good.

(After some technical problems with the phone, in which Melrose sounded like she was calling from Siberia but we realized we were only about 40 miles apart…)

There, that’s better.

I’m sorry, I’ve been up since 7 and I haven’t eaten. That’s why I’m in a restaurant.

That’s okay. So I wanted to ask you, you said that you poured your heart and soul into the competition, got called a bitch the entire way, and it still wasn’t enough. Do you still feel that way?

You know, the worst thing was when you would feel misunderstood. You know that it’s being taped, and you know that it’s going to be manipulated into something or other, and it hurts. I really did put my real stuff out there, and it hurts to be called “fake” and it hurts to be called a “bitch”, because I’m not those things. Luckily enough, I’m a strong enough person that when people say things to me, I can just -- that’s why God gave us two ears, so it can go in one ear and out the other one. I didn’t really let those things tear me down, but at the end, it was kind of a shocker because I felt like I deserved it. But that’s okay, because I deserve even bigger and better things, and I’m going to go out there and get them for myself.

Tyra and this show, and winning – that doesn’t make or break me. I make or break me. That’s always been my motto, and that’s why they did believe in me because I believe in me. It’s not like that goes away. So it’s okay.

So are you going to focus on designing from now on?

I’m going to pursue high fashion modeling. That’s what I want to do. That’s what I love about the industry. I’m not really that interested in doing commercial work – I mean catalog, high fashion, and print work is the best to me. That’s what I live and breathe in fashion, and that’s what I want to do, so that’s my main goal is to continue modeling, because modeling has an expiration date. Then I’m going to design.

I am designing right now for a company called Ishkadada. “Ishka” means “desire” in Sanskrit, and “dada” means “rebel art”. It’s the anti-art art movement, and it’s just an awesome company. It’s [actress] Michelle Rodriguez and my friend, [designer] Dara Young-- it’s their company. I met them a month out of being on the show, and they believed in me, so they brought me into their team to design for their Spring of ’08 women’s line, and that’s what I’ve been working on while I haven’t been able to model. But now that I can finally go model, I’m going to do as much as I can, because that really is my dream. I don’t know how many designers get the opportunities to be models, you know?

I’m impressed, that’s a really good use of your time.

Yeah. So I’ve got a website up, it’s melrosemodel.com. And it’s great. I’m going to keep all my fans, friends, and family updated on it with pictures, new jobs that I’m getting and doing, and there’s everything about Ishkadada, and all of that good stuff. I’m just trying to keep myself moving. I really haven’t stopped since the show stopped airing, in fact, once the show stopped airing, it was great to get back into reality and start working again, and designing, and be my old self. We had no music, I had no creative outlet there, it was a really big struggle, you know. It becomes your entire life, and your entire being while you’re there. It’s like you’re living and breathing Tyra, you know? And it’s like, “Oh my God, wait. I live and breathe my own thing, usually.” So being cut off from all your people for four or five months, it’s really hard. It was really nice in the last few days to get together with people from the show, and see people, and just be talking about it. It was a crazy experience; it was like a dream, and then I woke up and couldn’t remember it. I wasn’t allowed to talk about it or anything! So it was a relief to have it be over and get my life back, really.

Did you want to talk about any specifics from the show? Like what happened with the dress in the final runway challenge?

(laughs) Yeah, knowing how to make clothes, to rip a couture dress is like denting an Aston Martin when it’s still on the lot. It’s like the worst thing you can do, and it’s disrespectful, and it’s just horrible, you know? It was the final competition, to have that happen, it was crazy because the runway for me is empowering, and it’s beautiful, and it’s me and it’s where I feel the most at home, and then to have the worst thing in the world happen at the best place in the world, it was just ironic and sad. It was really hard to deal with, and the competition was so intense at that point, that it just sucked.

All that emotion – what were you like at the end of the runway show?

Oh, I mean, we hadn’t slept in days at that point. We were just exhausted. The time frame that they do these things in is just so crazy, and we were so sleep-deprived. But for me, the runway gives me life, you know. I get this adrenalin when I’m up there, and it’s a beautiful feeling, so doing the runway show was great, and I was at peace. But as soon as it was over, it was like, we were exhausted. We had been worked for twelve weeks, day and night, in and out, with very little sleep, very little proper nourishment, no working out, no music, missing my friends – you kind of start to go crazy, a little bit. I don’t know one human being who wouldn’t go crazy in those conditions.

Do you think we saw an accurate portrayal of you?

My friends and family would say no, but there is so much more to me that was seen on the show. Especially at the beginning, you know, I am not as big of a bitch as they made me out to be. I definitely have my fierce and vicious side; I definitely stand up for myself, and in the end, I think I came off as the person that I am, which is, you know, happy—I wasn’t very happy at the end—but I do hope that people see that I’m good-hearted, and I’m educated, and I’m a driven woman. And that’s me; that’s what I have to offer the industry. It was really nice to see Jay fighting for me, because in the competition I really did feel like the reason I was there was because I brought a package to the table—I can take good pictures, and I can be a good model, and I can be a good host, and I can do good spokesmodeling for commercials. I feel like I have a package, and it was good to see someone standing up for me; I felt like I was defending myself, and defending myself; I didn’t know who was going to stand up for me at the end, and it was nice to see Jay Manuel be like, this is what we’re asking of these girls, and it was nice to see that the panel was split over the decision, because if they were all just like all about CariDee, I probably just would have freaked out. But they weren’t. I think that they loved both of us for different reasons. It was just nice in the end to see that I wasn’t fighting alone, for myself.

You won so many challenges. Sometimes you wonder about this show—how can someone who wins so many challenges not win if she’s in the final two? And it’s not just the challenges, it’s the photo shoots—you did really well. If they were doing a point system—I don’t understand!

And that whole thing is, it’s not a point system, it’s the Tyra system, you know? That’s the point, and that’s ok, because this is a blessing in disguise for me, because I got everything I wanted out of the show, and I placed exactly where I needed to place, to still be in this industry and still be me, and not be burdened by this at all. So it’s perfect for me.

Do you want to talk about the other girls at all? I just want to give you a chance because so many of them had things to say when they were leaving the show, like Monique, you can imagine, she called you a monster; Anchal said you were fake—those are the two that stand out in my mind.

You know, I have no ill wishes towards anybody in the house, I wish them the best, and success, for everybody. And when people say things like that about other people, it’s because there’s something wrong inside of them. I think Anchal and I had a love-hate relationship, like I loved her, and she hated me. She’s a show-stopper, a head-turner, and she’s a lot stronger than she came off on the show. I never had any issues with Anchal. I just wanted to see her perform to her full potential. And I didn’t think that she was. It was taken the wrong way; I should have said it to her face. I never intended to hurt anybody’s feelings. My intentions were never to hurt anybody. I’m not a monster. I’m a strong beautiful woman, and I’m proud of who I am. I have nothing to be ashamed of, and nothing to hide in this world. I’ve put a lot of work into myself, into my insides, into making me ok with myself. So for someone to call me fake, or this or that, they don’t know me then. They don’t know who I am, and I’m not those things.

That monster comment, you have to consider the source.

Exactly.

That was pretty outrageous I thought.

I don’t want to comment about her; it’s like, if have nothing else to say, and I can’t come within a thousand miles of something even close to nice, then I’m not going to say it.

As long as we’re on the subject, A.J. says that despite the way that the episode was edited, she was not the one that was whispering names. I don’t know if you heard any of the name calling when you were on the show, or if you just learned that when you saw the episodes.

Yeah, of course. She said that she hated me. Ok, you can’t whisper it, but before you said you hated me.

Honestly, I think A.J. has a great look, and she will be very successful in this industry, if she capitalizes on her natural beauty, for sure. I looked at the girls differently from how thy looked at me. I didn’t just look at them as a fellow competitor, I looked at them as a potential client. Some day when I have my own design business, maybe I want to have some of these girls come in and model for me. And I think if some of them figure out what to work on with their internal workings, along with their outer workings, then they’ll be great and successful models. But whatever they think about me doesn’t matter. I don’t care, you know. It doesn’t make me, I make me. Whatever they say, I have no retaliations. That doesn’t interest me. I want everyone to be successful.

The judges called you a perfectionist. Do you agree with that?

Oh yeah, I have definite perfectionist streaks. I’ve always been a bit of a perfectionist, but it doesn’t really work well because I’m a procrastinator too. I always want to make it perfect, but I never want to do it until the last second. Yeah I do have moments where I try to be a perfectionist; I think it’s more about controlling my surroundings, so that I’m in a good place. I’m more like a control freak, but as a model, you cannot be that. There was a lot of testing of that, and I learned a lot about how to control myself on the show. It was a great show, and learned a lot about myself on it.

Do you have any regrets from the show?

No regrets. I never live with regrets. Everything I did on that show, I did my best at, and if my best wasn’t good enough to win, then that’s ok. I can be satisfied knowing that I tried my 100%, and put myself out there, and did my best. And that’s all you can do in this world.

One other thing—I heard you gave back the clothes from Michelle’s challenge win, and I just thought that that was really nice of you, and I wondered why they didn’t show that.

Well that’s because they were trying to create an image for me that wasn’t good. That’s how they work. I gave Michelle and Amanda whatever they wanted, because it was the twins’ win, you know, Michelle’s win—I gave them their favorite pieces, and I did keep clothes for myself, but I gave everybody who wanted something something. I wasn’t bad. I wasn’t what they made me seem like at the time, but that’s a TV show. No big deal.

Is there anything else you’d like the fans to know about you? Now’s your chance.

That’s it! Just like everybody, just be yourselves, and just be! If you want to know me, try to get to know the real me, not the one you saw on the show. There’s so much more to me than what people have seen.


Many thanks to Melrose – congratulations on your second place finish. Thanks again to CW for the interviews.

[Google]

 

[kurishinigami]

Wow smart about thinking hiring them as a potential client.

I knew she was going to start a fashion line.

Well Melrose wish you the best of luck with your busy busy schedule.

I still wished they declared co-winners this season but c'est la vie.

[FBhang]

Thanks hepcat!

This is my Melrose! As mature as ever.
Yay! You’re the winner for me!

[JUS4U]

I LOVE YOU MELROSE!! You are the best contestant of ANTM ever!!

[Mo_MiSer]

Very revealing interview. Melrose's responses were perfect. Almost too perfect.

[hi_guy18]

Great interview she defiantly be successful either modeling or fashion designing.

[FBhang]

Originally Posted by Mo_MiSer

Very revealing interview. Melrose's responses were perfect. Almost too perfect.

This is Melrose, always too perfect.
I still think she is too good for ANTM. No offense, I just mean she doesn't need ANTM to enter the industry. You know, she already has links to it.

[imwiththeband]

Her answers are long.

She rocks, anyways.

[ahsien]

Wow!Great interview!!!

I dont know who said Mel-Stank but Smel-Rose is coming from Jaeda's mouth, you can see that in that episode.

[Cream]

She's so defensive in every aspect. Hopefully we'll avoid seeing her ugly clothing line ever, because the previous work has been horrible. hepcat thanks for the interview.