Samantha Potter may have looked like just your average girl in the beginning of America’s Next Top Model this season. However, the minute the makeover episode came, and she chopped all of her hair off, a true model and competitor was born. Sam made it all the way to the final two, where she walked in a final runway show against McKey Sullivan. McKey ended up winning America’s Next Top Model but Sam walked away proud of herself and happy with her experience in the competition. Today, she spoke to BuddyTV in an exclusive interview about her goofy nature, her favorite photo, and what really happened with there Jeremy Scott fashion show!
Below, you will find the transcript and mp3 of the interview.
I know you were one of the youngest models in the competition this season and I was wondering how long you had been thinking about trying out for the show.
To tell you the truth, it kind of just came out of the blue. Me and my mom and my little cousin were flipping through the channels. My little cousin is obsessed with the show and she’s like, “Oh my gosh Sam, let’s try this and let’s go online and set you up with this,” and it was literally just one day and I was like, “Okay.” I took a chance and my mom and I went online and we searched everything up and we applied for the show. It just happened to be that the casting call was like, a block away from my house. It was meant to be.
In the makeover episode, was it hard for you to cut off all your hair?
It was really hard. I’ve had long hair my entire life. I remember walking into the makeover studio and all the tables had weaves and hair and there’s hair everywhere. I look around to my table I see about 46 pairs of scissors and I was just like, “Oh gosh, they’re gonna cut all my hair off.” Of course it was hard and it was a big change for me but I look like a completely different person. My family didn’t even recognize me but it’s really helped me model-wise and it’s gonna help my career.
You were very funny this season on camera, very goofy at times. Did that help you deal with the stress of the competition, to just let loose?
To tell you the truth, I’m not a serious person. I’m the girl who is always making the jokes in the background. I think that maybe me not being so serious made the girls not look at me as such a big competition and I think that that really helped me and kept me going throughout. I love having fun and I love being a jokester. When it comes down to it, you can’t be serious your whole life. You gotta have fun with it. You gotta make everything worthwhile and have no regrets so when I need to perform, I’ll break down and say, “Okay, now it’s time,” but when you’re doing what you’re doing, you gotta have fun with it.
If I can talk about the episode where you did the Jeremy Scott show for a minute, I assume that in no way did you mean to be disrespectful and it just came out looking that way. Is that right?
Of course! I mean, I’m still recovering from that. They didn’t show this on camera but I actually personally apologized to Jeremy Scott. I told him, “I had no intention of disrespecting you.” It was my first runway walk ever. I had no modeling experience, no modeling background. I’m an athlete. This is my first runway show ever and I was wearing this pair of shoes 2 sizes too small for my feet. To make it even worse, they had to blindfold me so I’m like, “Okay my first runway walk, I’m blindfolded, my feet feel like they’re going to break!” I don’t know… I had no intention of doing that. I just messed up on accident.
Do you have a favorite photo that you took this season?
I definitely have to say the swimsuit shot was my favorite and that was such a fun shoot, too. We pulled up to this beautiful Malibu house. The sun was amazing. The day was perfect. All the girls were outside, we were tanning, having a good time. The fact that my picture came out so great… I loved it. I thought it was really cool. That was my first makeover picture with my short hair. It was hard for me to accept that I had short hair. I was like, “Aw man, I have short hair. My brothers are gonna torture me and make fun of me,” and then I see this picture and I’m like, “Woah, I can’t believe that’s me,” you know? That was really a confidence booster and I think that kind of changed my views when it came to the rest of my competition. Yeah, that picture was my favorite and really helped me see myself as a model.
Did this experience of being on America’s Next Top Model exceed your expectations and what you thought might happen?
Oh my gosh, by far. I mean, this experience of America’s Next Top Model is one in a million. No, one in a gazillion, actually. I mean, it was amazing. To think out of thousands and thousands of girls that, hey! I’m an everyday girl. I play a million sports and I tried out for the show and I made it. It’s so mind-blowing and so cool and so extraordinary. You know, to tell you the truth, I really didn’t know how I was going to perform. I couldn’t tell you: this girl’s gonna win, I’m gonna win. I couldn’t say that because when it comes down to it, it really is truly a competition and you’re gonna have to work really hard to get your spot. I’m telling you, every day when you walk into those panels, I mean, just look at my face in all the episodes. I am scared! It’s so stressful! It really is. Just the fact that I made it to final two is amazing. I’m so grateful for the experience that the show has given me and I hope to continue and do everything else in the future.
– Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of CW)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
