This week on Beauty and the Geek, 26-year-old Universal theme park performer Hollie Winnard was sent home after a very intense and very close elimination round. She told BuddyTV who she would have sent to elimination instead, and she talked about her love of Japanese anime, her hatred of blood and guts, and how much she enjoyed her time on the show.

Below is an audiofile and a transcript of our conversation.

Hey everybody. This is Debbie at BuddyTV, and I'm talking to Hollie from Beauty and the Geek on The CW. Hi Hollie.

Hi.

So, Hollie, you were eliminated this week after a really close elimination round. How did you feel when that happened?

Well, I was very sad, as you could tell, 'cause I was crying probably throughout the whole episode. It just shows me crying. Yeah, it was really sad because Josh and I weren't ready to go. We didn't want to go and I felt like, you know, no one else wanted us to go. We were all so close. And it was hard to be up against our friends, Erin and Jesse, because we all studied together and we all love each other so much. It was hard, it was tough, and hard to watch.

Uh huh. Did you feel it was a little bit unfair you were chosen, your team was chosen, to go to the elimination?

Of course, it was unfair. I think everyone's gonna feel like it was unfair to go to elimination because I didn't think the reasoning made any sense. Because they sent Jesse and Erin to elimination because they didn't think they were trying hard enough, and then they sent Josh and I to elimination because we were trying too hard. So, it's like, um, okay. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah, it was unfair because I felt like we were having fun and I don't know what we did to make them mad...Who knows?

If you or Josh had won one of the challenges, and you had the choice to send a team to elimination, who would you have sent?

I don't really know. We didn't, we never really discussed...I mean, we got along with everybody, so we didn't really discuss who we would really want to send. I mean, initially, in the first challenge, everybody wanted to send Sam and Nicole home because, well, you know, they were an odd team. But after that, I really bonded with Nicole and I really liked her. I thought she was a great girl. But, I think we probably still would have sent maybe Sam and Nicole because I felt like Sam wasn't really contributing anything. Or probably Will and Rebecca. I mean, Will had a lot of learning to do, I felt like he could have got a lot from the show, but they were just a very strong team, and I felt like Rebecca wasn't there for the right reasons because she was too busy hooking up instead of helping her partner, which I think is what's really important.

Right. I mean, obviously, you just mentioned Rebecca and Sam hooking up. Was that a surprise? And how did that change the dynamic in the house?

It's very surprising because I felt like we were there for a reason, and that's to help each other and help our teammates. I felt like them doing that, they were alienating themselves from the rest of the house. I mean, everyone had a problem with it. Well, I can't really speak for everyone but we all did speak, so everyone agreed that what they were doing kind of gross and just not part of the show. I mean, this isn't The Bachelor or Rock of Love. This is Beauty and the Geek, and you're supposed to be there to help each other and learn from each other and not hook up and stuff. So, I felt like it threw everything off. It brought a weird tension to the house.

Uh huh.

And I felt bad for Nicole because, you'll see, you know, in the future. You can tell from the previews for the next episode that it's really hard for her because they're isolating their teammates from, you know....It's hard for them, for Will and Nicole. I felt bad them.

Right. And so, you moved into the mansion there were cameras everywhere and you were filmed 24/7. What was it like adjusting to that? Was that weird?

No, I loved it. I had so much fun. I loved the cameras and the microphone. I loved it. Some people were uncomfortable with it, but I was like, "Yay, cameras!"

What were some of your favorite moments while you were there?

One of my favorite moments was, it wasn't caught on tape because the camera crew, they weren't there that day, but Natalie, Erin and I were playing, and we were running around. And Josh, he brought 3,500 rubber bands, so we called ourselves Ashley's Angels, instead of Charlie's Angels, and we put on safety glasses and we were just running around shooting people with rubber bands. And we were hiding and rolling stuff into furniture and shooting everybody, and some of the geeks were getting in on it, like Josh and William were trying to hunt us down and shoot us with the rubber bands. Oh my god, it was three hours. Three hours. I could not even believe it. We just, it was just so fun because we didn't have to study and we could just act like kids and run around the mansion and shoot each other with rubber bands.

I wish they had shown that.

I know! It would have been the funniest episode. Well, maybe they'll have it on, like, bloopers.

Right, right. If you, looking back, if you could go back and do something differently, would you change anything or anything like that?

If I could go back, I would definitely try to, you know, find a way to stay in the house a little bit longer. Maybe I would have formed an alliance with them. I don't know how I could have. They seemed to really have it in for us. I really would have tried harder to, maybe I shouldn't have let out my geeky side as much as I did. I guess I just made too many geeky comments. Everyone was like, "Woah, Hollie's kinda geeky!" But that's who I am and I didn't want to pretend to be something I wasn't. I wouldn't really change anything else. I had such a great time and it was such a good experience. I loved it. I just wish I could have been there longer.

What other geeky things are you into beside Sealab?

So many things. Like comic books and I love anime, like Japanese anime. Me and William had a two-hour discussion on Japanese anime one night. I know, we were just so funny. It was so much fun. I just love fantasy and comic books. I'm a geek in that way, but definitely not like an education geek, like science and math.

Did you find this week's challenge hard, or difficult to study or anything?

Oh yeah, they were really hard because I hate science. Like, you can see me in all the clips going, "Eww! Eww!" That stuff really grosses me out. I hate blood, I hate guts. I hate, eww, it's just so gross. I can't even watch ER. It was hard and they gave us this huge binder to study in one night and that's a lot of material. It was hard but it was fun..

You only get one night to study?

Yeah.

Oh! That's a lot. I didn't realize that. That sounds a lot harder than it looks on the show.

Yeah, I think they try to make it look like that because, I don't know if I can say that, but yeah, one night to study. And they give you huge binders. And you have so much other stuff going on at the same time. And when you're trapped in a house with 20 people, the last thing you want to do is study. You're all just having fun talking and getting to know each other, so it's like so hard to focus.

Uh huh. Who do you think you got to know the best?

Well, Josh, and definitely Natalie and John, and Jesse and Erin. We just all bonded really well. We got along with everybody but I guess them, specifically.

Do you still keep in touch?

We're not allowed, which stinks 'cause I miss them so much. It's killing me not to talk to them. And to watch the show, it's like, oh, I just want to call them up. But I can't. So as soon as we're allowed to, as soon as the last episode airs, we can contact each other. So that's going to be a very long phone conversation.

So what have you been up to since taping?

I went back to work at Universal, which is fun because I get recognized all the time. Because, on the show, everyone knows I work at Universal, so people go there and are like, "Oh, you're on Beauty and the Geek." It's fun. I'm doing a lot of modeling and a lot of acting. I had a lot of people contact me and they really liked the way I was on Beauty and the Geek. They were like, "We really like how you handled the cameras." And I guess that showed because now I've been getting some offers for commercial stuff. It's exciting because I love performing.

Congratulations. And I have to ask you. Who's your favorite Sealab character?

I don't really know. I don't really have a favorite. I don't even know how they got that because I haven't watched Sealab in forever. I can tell you my favorite Naruto character.

Who's your favorite Naruto character?

It's Japanese anime. I'm sorry, I'm a dork.

Oh yeah, no, that's okay. Who's your favorite Naruto character?

I love Gara. I think he's hot. He's a bad guy, but he's really good on the inside.


Interview conducted by Debbie Chang