Since I reviewed Britain’s Next Top Model, Season 6 EXTENSIVELY for Teentoday (you can see all my coverage at the bottom of the article here), I thought I’d just bring you my favourite contestant from the series instead – flame-haired Oirish actress Susan Loughnane.
Given that she lasted all of two weeks, she’s a bit of a strange choice for favourite, right? What I liked about Susan was that, apart from being exceptionally pretty, she proved you didn’t have to be some raging drama queen to make for good viewing on a Next Top Model show. She came across as funny and likeable – a fact proved even more by an amazing interview she gave me a long time after her exit. Honestly, I just wanted to sit down over a cuppa tea and have an off-the-record natter with her!
Some self-portraits about the comfort of tea. The lighting, the mood, the expression – so evocative. Love it!
As usual with BNTM, most of the photos were a bit rubbish. Every year I have high hopes they’ll up their game and every year they disappoint, with cheap-looking shoots, crappy sponsorship deals and dull concepts. So Susan can feel smug about the fact that, although she doesn’t even want to model anymore, she already has a body of work from her pre-show days that is actually quite stunning – the ‘pretty things’ that are scattered around this post (some taken by herself, multi-talented girl!). Red hair just looks so amazing, doesn’t it?!
You may have gathered by now that I’m a sucker for 50s styling. The colours here are so vibrant and Susan looks like Rita Hayworth. Hot!
Here are a few of my favourite quotes from my exclusive interview; a must-read for any Next Top Model fans, it blows the lid on the whole series!
On her ‘shock’ elimination: It was completely pre-planned in advance, so I was not shocked. It was not a shock elimination like they made out. It was totally scripted. That’s a Fact.
On the lemon-sucking model agents behind her ‘shock’ elimination: They were total assholes! They weren’t nice people, they had no scruples, no shame, no empathy, nothing. The majority of the horrible things they said were actually edited out because it was just too mean and completely unjustified… but karma will get them, they will come back in the next life as a warthog and a stinky hyena.
On why she was eliminated: They want the girls to have a character arc… I think I was too grown-up for the tantrums and the breakdowns… so the story wasn’t there in the long run. So they got rid of me. It was never about how I performed as a model. Am I ruining it for you??
On being eliminated before she got to show off her acting chops in challenges: That would have been my chance to shine. So they had to find some way to get rid of me. So they found two callous assholes with no scruples who would be quite happy to shamelessly put me down and bully me. And that was followed by an anti bullying campaign…
On the judges: Julian [Macdonald] was always just being controversial, he didn’t seem to have a filter in his brain to sieve out the ridiculous comments. It was like he had Tourettes.
On people who say she only entered to gain exposure for her acting career: It’s the truth; I have no real interest in being a model. I completely used BNTM for my profile and it worked. So there.
Honestly, it’s a great read; she also has lots of interesting things to say about jumpers, how there was no food in the house and the truth behind filming a reality show. Check out the full interviews below:
All photos from Susan’s website and Flickr. As ever, click on the photos for enlargements.
