America's Next Top Model

Diana Zalewski became the fifth model eliminated from the eighth cycle of America's Next Top Model Wednesday night.  Although Tyra and the judges agreed that Diana was strong and beautiful, she failed to impress them with her sub-par "red carpet couple" photo shoot and was sent home because they felt she lacked the fire and passion needed to be successful in the industry.  Diana stopped by BuddyTV yesterday to talk about her experience and to clear up a few things about the show and Wednesday night's episode.  Read the full interview or listen to the audio after the jump.

BuddyTV: What inspired you to try out for the show?

Diana: I figured it would be a really good experience and I was lucky enough to get chosen into the house and it’s just been a really crazy experience.

Did you do any modeling prior to America’s Next Top Model?

No I didn’t do any modeling. I’ve been approached and been told that I should, but you know, when people would come up in the malls I really was very, very skeptical. So I never pursued that.

So how did you end up getting involved with Americas Next Top Model? What was that process like for you?

Well me and a friend of mine actually went to the auditions in New York City and we got called back for the next day, and they were either like we’ll call you or we won’t. And luckily I did receive a call to the semifinals. It was just wild. It was a great experience, it felt surreal. To see Tyra and see the Jays, and go through that experience and finally moving into the house, it was incredibly amazing and seeing the view from the back of our house and into the hills, it was just amazing. So it’s been an incredible experience.

After your photo shoot last night, the judges thought you lacked passion. Do you feel like that might have been true by this point in the competition or was it a problem of perception?

The judges really didn’t know how I was or who I am and they just kind of in a way assumed I was a certain way by going with the panel, which you’ve got to understand – that going with the panel girls are incredibly nervous, and when they told me that I need to show my personality and be more outgoing because I’m so introverted, they only see me in panel and I’m nervous in front of them, so when they say I’m lacking passion…and I’m sure that part of the fact is when Jay asked me why I wanted to be America’s Next Top Model, I said, “Just ‘cuz.” And in all honestly, I am a little bit mad that I said that, but now when I look back on it I think it’s really funny because that is something that I would say. Because I did say it, however, I was trying to hold back the tears because he’s giving me negative comments about the whole photo shoot and I went into the photo shoot totally confident and very okay with the whole thing and I didn’t think it was going to be that difficult. But Jay didn’t like what I was doing. I don’t know, it was difficult, so after the photo shoot I was trying not to cry and he kept saying one negative comment after another. And so I was just trying to hold it all in and trying, you know, to think of what to say, and the first two words that came out of my mouth was, “Just ‘cuz.” And he relayed that information back to Tyra and that might be one of the reasons why I went home.

Well looking back now, what more do you wish you could have told Jay when he asked you that question?

I would have been a little more assertive into asking him how he wants me to be exactly. Because I wasn’t sure how he wanted me to be, how did he want me to pose? He really gave me no feedback, he just kept throwing negative comments at me and he didn’t really tell me what to do. You know, I thought it was fine, I’m trying to think of how I see the actors on the red carpet and all that kind of stuff, and he wasn’t really helping me in that sense. So that was very frustrating that he just kept throwing comments like, “That’s not good, that’s not good.” Well, I would have been like, “Then tell me how you want me to stand, since I’m doing such a terrible job.” But you know, I just kind of…I asked him what did he mean, but he never elaborated on that.

What was your idea of the modeling world before the show, and given what you know now, do you think you would still like to be in this industry?

Yeah, I definitely think that I can be in this industry. It’s funny because, well it’s not actually funny, but the reality of it is…is that I’ll be in a completely different part of the modeling industry. And how the models on the runways right now are like super skinny and they’re getting skinnier each season, I would be in a completely different ballpark being a plus-size model. So that part of it doesn’t really influence me or affect me personally, just yet. It might be different when I actually go into the industry, and you know, they might tell me that they want me to gain some more weight or lose some more weight, or do this or do that. It might be like that, but as of right now, my perception of it is that it’s completely different.

Part One / Part Two