In May of 2006, Fans of Reality TV (FORT) interviewed Cycle 6’s runner up, Joanie Dodds following her elimination and appearance on the show. Here is the text from the interview (written and posted by Hepcat):
America’s Next Top Model 6: Interview With Joanie, 5/20/06
Finishing the competition in second place is Joanie, the 24-year-old Sales Associate and sometime amateur stripper from Beaver Falls, PA. Despite her insecurities about her unusual teeth, Joanie sailed through the competition’s photoshoots, often hearing her name called first by Tyra in the judging panel – a coveted slot that is a nod to being that week’s front runner. But as Joanie herself says, being first for the week “doesn’t mean nothing” in the overall competition. You won’t find any bitter regrets here, though, just a lot of humor, a little bitching, and a lot of making the interviewer crack up. Let’s just say that she does a spot-on Crazy Jade voice.
Good morning, Joanie!
Yay, Fans of Reality TV! Thank you!
Congratulations on finishing in second place. I know it’s not the winning spot, but it’s a fantastic achievement.
Seriously, that was fine with me. I’m just happy I could be a part of it and show what I could do. It was amazing.
We’re a website with over 38,000 members, and it sounds like you’re familiar with us, so do you ever stop by and read what people are saying about you?
Oh my God, I go there every week and read it. I love it. I’m always like, “I wonder what kind of spoilers are going to be on there this week!”
Someone posted this morning saying they were your mom.
Her screen name on there is DaisyMaeFace. That’s my mom. She’s been hiding out and saying, “I’m not going to tell them who I am until after the show.” I’m like, “Mom, you’re so retarded.” Yeah, she is absolutely obsessed. She’s on Television Without Pity, Fans of Reality TV – she goes there every day and reads it all. She’s like,(breathy voice) “Joanie, people love you”, or “Joanie, people are talking about you.” I was like, “Mom, I don’t want to know this!” But then I got all into it and I check it out every once in a while.
It’s hard to read about yourself, but really the comments about you have been about 95% positive.
I know, and I was so happy! People would make pretty pictures with the photoshop and everything – I love your site, I love it!
Let’s see: you showed personality, you nailed your photos, you wore a cockroach without flinching, you underwent painful dental work without missing a single moment of the competition, you got called first, you showed different looks and versatility, and you garnered heaps of praise from the judges – what does it take to win the whole damn thing?
I know, I know, right? Seriously, I bled that competition. I always took it to the next level when I did everything. I would tell myself, “Okay, I’m going to do it even better.” You know what I mean? I saw one girl take her pictures and I would say to myself, “I can do better.” And it proved itself to be true. I tried so hard. I did really, really well.
But I think the thing that held me back the entire time, which doesn’t hold me back now because I think I’ve changed a lot since the competition, but, just the fact of being comfortable in my own skin, and being comfortable with my smile. And really letting my personality shine without worrying whether people are looking at my teeth. It was a constant reminder, every time I opened my mouth when I was growing up. I’ve got really effed up teeth! (laughs) I was so self-conscious about my teeth, like crazy self-conscious. After everything was done and my teeth were completed, it wasn’t until then that I could practice smiling again. I think that the confidence thing with my teeth, and just being there in front of the judges, I think that held me back. Danielle didn’t have that problem, and I think that gave her the winning edge. Her presence and her confidence was a lot stronger than mine at the time.
It’s interesting that the two girls with teeth issues were standing in the finale.
She loved her gap, though, she liked her teeth, and I didn’t! (laughs) The gap’s cool. Snaggletooths are not cool. When they pulled that snaggletooth out I was so happy, I was like, “Can I hold it?” Someone told me to wear it around my neck on a chain, but I don’t know. (laughs)
Which photoshoot was your best, in your opinion?
I think I rocked on the housewife one, the elephant one, the krumping one. I think those three were my best because I was way comfortable with the atmosphere. It was like I was acting. When you’re doing the housewife, you’re thinking in your head, (playful voice)“Oooh, I’m a sassy housewife, and here’s my sexy husband, and I got a martini.” And when you’re doing the krumping, you’re thinking, “Okay Joanie, I know you can dance, just dance and be super hot and crazy.”
Yeah, but how do you explain the elephant?
The elephant? Seriously, I used to dream about being in the circus when I was little. So this was a dream come true for me, it really was. Did you ever swim in the pool when you were a little girl and pretend you were a mermaid?
Sure, as a matter of fact, I did!
I did, too. I love that kind of stuff, so when I had the opportunity to do that kind of thing, I told myself, “I’m not going to be scared of this elephant. I’m going to be dominating this animal. I want to climb on it. I don’t care if I get muddy.” What they showed when I was standing on the elephant’s foot, my foot was completely covered in mud. There’s probably poop on my foot – I didn’t even care. I was like, “I want to rock, I want to do so good.” I felt like the beast master. (laughs) I was rubbing the elephant, I was like, “I feel at one with nature.” (laughs) It was amazing.
Why didn’t they choose a shot of you on the elephant’s leg?
Doing that leg photo was pretty awesome, though. I think because the shot was about legs, the other one looked better because it showed more leg. But I really liked that one.
Were you upset with Sara for trying to imitate your pose on the elephant, or was that something that got blown out of proportion?
It did get blown up a little bit, but if you were there, you would have felt the tension between us. I think there was tension between all of us. I compare it to summer camp: by the end of the week, you’re so sick of the girl you share your bunk with. You just want to go home. This is like, you sleep next to this girl every day, you shower with this girl, do everything everything everything with this girl. Towards the end Sara was my roommate in a lot of situations, and she always wanted to sit next to me, and she really wanted to learn. I’m flattered that she did want to copy me because obviously that meant she thought I was the best one. So I thought, “Okay, cool, whatever.” But when it got to the point where she was asking to borrow my eyeshadow, stuff like that, I was annoyed. It was like, be yourself – please! But by the end of the competition, every little thing kind of got on my nerves, and we were all on our periods. (laughs) You know, it was an emotional roller coaster. I wasn’t mad that she was copying me. Tyra made a good point, she said copy from the best and make it your own.
Jade made some comments about you in “confessionals” that were pretty cutting. Did you realize she had that opinion of you while you were in the house together, or was this only in one-on-ones with the camera?
Okay, this is the thing about Jade that no one knows: Jade will never confront you to your face. She’ll talk about you behind your back. If come to her and say, “Jade, I don’t like this about you,” or whatever, then she’ll turn it on you. (crazy Jade voice) “Why you gotta be like that? Are you Tyra? What’s wrong with you? You got issues.” But she would never come up to you and say, “You’re a bitch” or “I don’t like this about you” or whatever. She would only pick on the weak. She would never pick on the people who actually had some balls because she really wasn’t that strong or confident, it was a front. I think she tried to be that way because she was not confident. I think watching the show is going to open Jade’s eyes a little bit and she’s going to be more comfortable with herself. She called the other day and we talked for an hour. That was really nice.
Okay, I’m going to read off some names of the other women in the house, and if you could, I’d like you to tell me what you thought of them in a sentence or two.
Sure.
Sara: She’s awesome. Her and I have hung out a dozen times since the show has been over. We go out to bars, we go out to dinner, I’ll come down to D.C. and visit her. She’s a really great girl, super super smart. She quit her job – she’s going to pursue modeling, which is awesome. I’m glad she had this opportunity because it opened her eyes to her potential. She’s really cool.
Danielle – what do you think of her winning the competition?
Oh, my, seriously, you couldn’t ask for a better person. She’s honest, caring, driven, hard worker. She wanted that title bad. I really had never seen her cry, but when I watched the show, I was like wow, I didn’t know she got so emotional. She was such a strong person, but you knew that she really wanted it a lot because it hit her in her heart, and she would show a lot of emotion. Right at the end, because I had gotten to know her so well and we had become good friends, I said to myself, “You know what? I’m okay with her winning if she wins.” Of course I didn’t want to lose, but it’s okay, because Danielle is such a good person, and I know she’s going to do the title right. She’s going to do a great job, and she wants it as much as I did, we’re both very good models, and I think her personality just outshone mine. She’s awesome. We hung out together last night, actually.
Did you watch the show together?
No, I watched it with my friends, and she watched it with her parents and stuff. But I went to her hotel afterwards and hung out.
Nnenna: Nnenna’s awesome. I talk to Nnenna every couple weeks on the phone. Nnenna is really a sweet girl, but she’s so smart – I can’t really explain it. Nnenna maybe seemed stuck up on the show, but she really wasn’t. It’s just the way she came across. I think it’s partly because of the accent. She’s a sweetheart, and she would do anything for anybody. She’s really excited to become a model, she’s moving to New York, I think. (whispers) I think she broke up with her boyfriend. I don’t know.
Furonda: Furonda was my favorite in the whole competition. She was hilarious. She would make up songs, she would do funny voices, she would impersonate people. If it wasn’t for Furonda – seriously, she was our television, she was our radio. And when she left, we were so bummed out! We were like, “What the hell are we going to do now?”
We never really saw that side of her.
I know! It’s a real shame, because she would sing – oh man, she was great. And then we were limited to the fart jokes from the camera guys, that’s about it.
Was there ever a time when you saw your photo in the judging panel, and thought, “I had a better shot in there, I just know it!”
I know, because you watch the footage of the pictures you did take, you watch them taping you while taking the pictures, and you think – the only one that I think could have been a better shot was the ice princess one – I was doing a lot more poses than they showed. Maybe they didn’t like the way I was standing or something. But I think I had a lot more poses than that one. But also, the one where I was a princess falling, I think my face was ugly in that picture. (laughs) I was like, “What kind of face is that? I look like I’m having some issues!” (laughs) I think there were other pictures where maybe my face was more beautiful, but they chose that picture because my body was just like, wow. I was kicking my leg. I remember that shot, because it was the last shot I took, and the photographer said, “Just do whatever you want.” And I kicked my leg up above my head and fell, trying to be some Broadway dancer or something. It worked! It looked so good.
You seemed to get a lot of praise in panel, and the most criticism I can remember you getting is that you hadn’t learned to smile with your new teeth yet. With all the times you were called first, and all the praise of your photos, did you feel like you were set to win? Do you feel like you got complacent ever?
No, I mean – the whole time during the competition, even if I got called first: it gave me a lot of confidence for the next challenge. I was like, “Okay girls, watch out, I’m the front runner.” But week to week, when you’re in the competition, you realize – it doesn’t mean nothing. It doesn’t mean nothing. You get called first? You could go home the next week. It’s just the name of the game. You could be first one week and the next week Tyra just doesn’t like you, or you could do really bad – so I don’t think I ever let that get to my head. The thing that kept me going day-to-day was the thought that if this was what’s supposed happen, it would happen. If it’s meant to be, it will be. I just kept saying that over and over in my head. I would just have peace with whatever the decision would be, because that would be ultimately what God would want to happen.
Some people think that being blonde and blue-eyed is a double strike against you in this competition. Do you think being “conventionally” pretty worked against you?
Really? Is that what that means, that I’m conventionally pretty?
You know, the blonde blue-eyed girl-next-door, All-American look.
Really? That’s awesome. That’s cool, I’ve never heard that! Thanks, people, for saying that. I’ve never really thought of that, so I guess I would say no. But if you look at things that way, I guess Kari would be a girl-next-door, and she didn’t last very long. She was a beautiful girl. I think the thing that maybe kept me in the competition was the fact that I was a chameleon, you know? I could become the character you wanted me to become, and when you put makeup on me, I just change so much from photo to photo. I think that was my main advantage.
Age wasn’t mentioned during the competition, but do you think that gave Danielle an edge?
No, because other CoverGirls are older. Queen Latifah and Molly Sims are both in their thirties, the girls that are with Maybelline and stuff, they’re older, too. And some of the best supermodels that are out there right now, with the exception of the exception of like, Gemma Ward, are all over 24. So I thought it doesn’t matter. I think the only thing that really mattered was that she was a little more confident. Age was cool, age really wasn’t a factor. I think I photograph both younger and older.
I hope you’ve learned who Grace Kelly is by now, so you know that it was a huge compliment to be compared to her
I know, that is a huge compliment! I heard a “G” and a “Kelly,” and I thought, Gene Kelly. So I said, “Dancer.” And she said, “Nuh-uh,” and I was like, “Uh-oh, my mom’s going to hit me.” (laughs) My mom loves old movies, and sure enough, she said, “Oh Joanie, how could you do that?” (laughs) I definitely know who it is now.
Also, beyond just beautiful, Grace Kelly is synonymous with class. Where do you think your look fits into this industry?
I think that I can definitely be and do classy. I think I am classy, I can be at times. If I choose to dress and go to a nice dinner or high end event, I think I look great, I can fit in with what people are expecting. I can look older and sophisticated. But then again, there’s a huge party of me that’s really into grungy, rocker, laid-back skateboard girl. I can be a kid, I can be whatever, so that’s awesome. I’m glad you mentioned that.
What was the hardest part of the experience?
I guess just keeping your sanity. Reality TV is a lot of hurry up and wait. “Get up! 5:30 call time, get up, let’s go!” Then you’ve got to drive three hours to get there, then you’ve got to wait for the photographer, then you’ve got twelve girls doing the photoshoot with you, so you’re there for sixteen hours, and you have to take your turn, and you don’t have any TV – no newspapers, no radios, no ipod. It’s just a lot of staying sane. Let’s put it this way: they wouldn’t have a television show if they let us have our ipods. Because we wouldn’t interact! It’s just part of the game.
Can you tell us what your future plans are?
I’d like to get into everything – move to a big city, preferably Los Angeles, take some classes, get into acting, model, be the face of a campaign – I want to do it all. Maybe go to Europe, that would be amazing.
Thanks to UPN for granting the interview, and we’ll definitely be seeing you, Joanie!
To learn more about Cycle 6’s runner up, Joanie Dodds, visit her bio page here.
Source: FORT
Photo: CW / Jim De Yonker
