Nadia Underwood, the fan favorite model from Chicago, was eliminated from Beauty and the Geek on Wednesday night, along with her partner Mario (who we interviewed yesterday). Nadia was arguably the most beloved of all the "beauties" on the CW reality show, coming in with an open mind and accepting the geeks for who they were. Nadia took time out of her schedule to talk with us about her experience on the show, some footage that they didn't show, and her relationship with partner Mario. How did you get involved with Beauty and the Geek? Actually, I've been modeling for 10 years and my modeling agency, here in Chicago, got a call Beauty and the Geek, they contacted them or something, and so they set up the interview with me and I was just kinda like "Cool, why not?"
Had you been familiar with the show before going on? I had never watched it but I had heard a lot of the things about it, that it was kind of a different reality show than what was out there right now and that it had a lot of different views. That's why I wasn't hesitant to go. What were your expectations going in right before filming? I think I just went into it really open-minded. I had now clue, like, how it was gonna be or anything and I know that before hand, before we even met the guys, we were all really excited. We thought we'd have these geeks, they'd almost be like, I hate to make it sound like this, but almost like your pet and we were really excited to transform them and everything. And when we actually met them it was like "Ugh." It was a lot of work that had to be done. But then you know after leaving it, it was really an emotional experience for me. It's hard to describe; it was really amazing. I'm thankful to have met the people I did and just have the overall experience. Initially, on that first episode, Mario may not have seemed like the most desirable partner - he actually turned out to be a great guy. What were your initial internal reactions when you saw that he was going to be your partner? Umm, I guess I was kind of upset that he was my partner because he was so quiet, when he came in to talk to us and he just he wasn't as loud and outgoing as some of the other guys, so I was just kind of like "Ahh, I hope he's not a dud. I hope that he's not gonna hold me back in any of the challenges." Do you think, coming out of the show, that you changed at all? Did you learned anything significant about yourself? When I went into the show, I think in comparison to some of the other girls there, that I was definitely pretty much a grounded person to begin with. You know, maybe my lifestyle is way different from these guys, from the fact that I love going out and shopping and modeling and that kind of stuff. But I think I've always been genuine and, if anything, that just showed me who I am more so, that I am a good person and that I could form unlikely friendships with these guys and especially Mario. He was my support system, he believed in me and was really cool. You guys didn't seem to really love Cecille. Was she really that grating or do you think she got a bad edit? No. (laughs) Cecille is exactly as you see her, you know there was no editing involved, you know, that's the way she is. Do you think there were any significant omissions in the editing process? Is there anything that you wish the TV audience could have seen that they didn't? Well, not really. I do feel like this last episode, and I'm not just saying it because it was pretty much our final fall, but I really do feel like the number challenge was unfair. Mario and Nate actually tied and they had to go into like an overtime and, you know, that wasn't shown. I'm still really bitter about that. I'm not saying that it was Nate's fault, it just wasn't fair and, ultimately, we would have been safe and I think that Mario really actually won that and the way they went about going through the ties was ridiculous. After getting eliminated who was the team you were routing for to win it all after that? Megan and Scooter. What are your future plans? Are you just gonna keep with the modeling thing? Yeah, I've been, for the past year or so wanting to segway more into the acting, so that's what I'm gonna try to do. Hopefully, I'm gonna move out to LA sometime soon and just kind of pursue my dreams. Thanks a bunch, Nadia.