Canada’s Next Top Model Toronto Auditions

Today, over 2,000 girls came to the Fairview mall in Toronto to attend a casting call for Cycle 3 of Canada’s Next Top Model. Auditions were held all week in Vancouver, Edmonton, Halifax and Montreal, concluding with the final casting call in downtown Toronto.

The auditions went as follows: each girl met with modeling agent Elmer Olsen or his associate Richard Campbell, and were asked their name, age and height and strutted their stuff for the hundreds of onlookers. I was there for four hours, saw hundreds of girls audition and only two made it through the second round. Competition is steeeeep! I’m just hoping this means the girls who make it into the house will be very high fashion and will do Canada proud!

If their height was in question, the girls were measured against the 5’8′ measuring stick (there were no exceptions), asked to walk again and give a profile for Elmer and Richard. If the girl got a pass, the crowd let up a huge cheer as she met with casting agents about round two and filled out a giant questionnaire. Most girls saw Elmer or Richard for less than 30 seconds, but it was all they needed to gauge whether the girl had what it took to be a top model.

Image: John White/CTV

Girls in line gave me a variety of different reasons for why they waited in line for hours to meet with the judges for only a few seconds. “Everyone tells me I should be a model,” Jana, a 6’2″ 21-year-old told me. Her 5’8″ friend Margarita said she wanted to set a positive example for Canadian girls and they shouldn’t base their self-worth on what they see in magazines.

When asked why she wanted to be Canada’s next top model, 20-year-old Kristen shrugged. “Why not?”

The girls in line were as diverse as the answers, the outfits and the struts down the runway. Girls were turned away for being too short, too tall, too sophisticated, too womanly, too old, too young and more. Elmer and Richard were very polite, simply telling lots of girls “you’re beautiful, but you’re not what we’re looking for right now.”

The auditions were not without drama! Several girls left in tears and many more tried to convince Elmer that he was making a mistake. One girl even fell and cracker knee when removing her heels and needed an ambulance called! Even with her crying in pain in the middle of the runway, the auditions went on.

I was lucky enough to meet with two of the girls who got the lucky pass to the second round–18 year-old Jenny from Brampton, Ontario (left) and 21-year-old Anna-Maria from Scarborough (right). Both girls were asked to come back on Sunday for an extensive round of interviews and polaroids with the casting directors.

Jenny, left, and Anna-Maria, right, made it to the second round of auditions in Toronto.

Jenny, who is 5’8″, has been trying to break into the modeling industry since last September, her mother told me. She was scouted in a mall about eighteen months ago, but that never went anywhere. She was told her look was too exotic for the Toronto market and that she would have better luck in New York. However, Jenny and her family felt that she was too young for a move so far away. After seeing the ads on television, Jenny and her mom decided to give CNTM a shot before considering all her other options.

Anna-Maria, who is also 5’8″, has been modeling off-and-on for about 4 years. She was briefly signed with Ford, but that never went anywhere. She’s a trained hairdresser who was about to give up on modeling when her friends urged her to give CNTM a go. Anna-Maria told me she thinks she’d be perfect for the CNTM house because she “never stops talking.” Her vivacious personality lit up the auditions!

Also, I learned from the CNTM team that Elmer Olsen will NOT be a judge on the show, he’s simply a key player in casting and will represent the winner of CNTM this cycle. The judging panel has yet to be finalized, but we should expect an announcement soon!

Other things I learned:

They are ideally looking for girls between 5’8″ and 5’10″. Anything shorter won’t be considered at all. Anything taller is a bit more flexible, but 6’0″ is the absolute maximum they would look at. Don’t bother trying to lie or fudge your height. They’ll call you out on that in a second and just as many girls were turned away for being too tall as they were for being too short.

You need model proportions for them to consider you–that is, be a size 0-4 or be perfectly plus-sized. Average bodies need not apply. Elmer and company and truly looking for models first, television personalities second. Being 5-10 pounds outside the range is fine, but 25 is simply too much. (I think this actually goes against what Tyra and ANTM does, which is why CNTM’s criteria are more stringent.)

Simple is always better when auditioning. Simple make-up, simple shoes, simple hair, simple style. The judges took these girls more seriously and I think it paid off.

18-23 is the age range, but they were ideally looking for girls 21 and under. Age was almost as big a point of contention as height, with girls who “just turned 24″ trying out. Didn’t matter, they were sent on their way as soon as they pulled out their ids.