Carrie was one of the more vocally impressive contestants on Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious, but creator Robin Antin has continuously reminded us that it takes more than a great voice to make it into the group. She’s looking for girls who can sing, dance, and also blend together into a cohesive whole. This week the judges decided that Carrie stood out too much with her rocker girl edge, and it was finally time for her to have her feather boa taken away.
Today we had a chance to sit down with Carrie to discuss her elimination, her future plans, and why she missed so much of the drama in the loft. Read on for the mp3 and complete transcript of the interview.
Hi, this is Don from BuddyTV, and today I’m talking to Carrie from Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious.
Hi. I look at your website all the time.
Oh, great.
Yes, I’m very familiar with it, and you know what, I love it. You guys have been so good to me, and I just wanted to tell you that. You guys have said so many nice things about me and about my talent, and I really appreciate that.
Just to get us started here, I was wondering how long you’ve been performing and what made you decide to try out for the show?
I began singing in church when I was three, and my parents just discovered that wow, she’s a pretty good singer at three. I just started singing in church, and I got to do piano lessons and everything like that. That’s really what started it. And what made me audition for the Pussycat Dolls, actually a casting director called me from L.A. to audition. I didn’t really want to do it, because I was never really a big dancer, like they showed on the show. But I went to audition and I sat there with like 600 girls, I made it to the callbacks, and I didn’t go back to the callback. I was like, I can’t do this. There’s no way I’m going to make it, I’m going to embarrass myself. So they called me like 20 times the next day to come back and audition, and I’m like okay. I went back in, and I just kept making it and making it. I was really surprised. It wasn’t something that I was really planning on doing. It was just kind of a spur of the moment thing, and it happened, and obviously I’m so glad it did.
The judges seemed to think that your style would work better if you were a solo artist. Did you agree with that, or did you want to be part of the group?
You know what, I agreed with that. I think the reason the girls really never had any problems with me is because they realized that I wasn’t really in competition with them. I did it a lot for exposure. Of course I go into anything wanting to win it — that’s kind of my philosophy: “I want to win it” — but I knew that the group really wasn’t right for me. Especially when I found out that the direction that Girlicious was going was more urban style, and obviously I’m more of a rock and roll type of girl. My voice didn’t really fit in with the rest of the girls. It’s not kind of cutesy pop, it’s more of a powerhouse rocker style. I did kind of want to win it, but I was so glad that the judges saw me as being a solo artist. For them to make that comment, they didn’t really think I wasn’t talented, they just thought, “Wow, this girl’s great on her own.” I was extremely proud and happy with the way things turned out.
Speaking of the other girls in the house, we didn’t really see you involved in any of the drama, which is good. What was it like being around all of that? Was it as bad as it seemed?
I really wasn’t around much of it, to be honest. I went to bed. People ask me, “Carrie, where were you during all of the fighting?” I was in bed half the time! I’m 25, I know I can’t stay up too late. I gotta get some sleep, plus with my vocals, they need a lot of rest. I pride myself in being a singer, and I know that if my voice gets tired then it’s going to be a weak performance for me, and that’s really what I had going for me was my voice. So I’m like, I gotta be in bed. All the fighting’s going on, and I slept through a lot of it. I just tried to remain friends with all the girls, and I realized that they’re all pretty young. I did all of the fighting and stuff when I was 19, so I kind of knew better to just stay away from it.
So was it surprising to you when you watched the show and saw all of those fights that you didn’t witness?
Well, a lot of the times in the mornings, the girls would be like, “Girl, you missed it! You missed what happened last night.” And I’m like, “Really?” So I kind of knew that the fights were there, but just watching them in action on the shows, I’m like, wow. Thank God I wasn’t in that.
What was the toughest thing for you to tackle during the video shoot on the yacht?
To be honest, they were kind of setting me up to get off of the show, I mean by the editing and everything. When I watched it, it was kind of disappointing just because I had done really well. Mikey even commented how quickly I did pick up the choreography. It was a shock, because we had to learn it in 20 minutes, so I think he was really shocked by that. They kind of showed me having a lot of problems, but I really didn’t have that many problems that day. I had done really well, but of course there were difficult parts of it. That boat’s swinging back and forth, and I’ve got four inch heels on, and the water’s spraying up on the boat and it just gets slick. It was a very difficult process.
Aside from that episode, did you have any other problems with the editing? Was there anything cut out that you thought should have been in there?
The episode, the “Look Back” episode, that was just disappointing. To be honest, a lot of the guys were gay. The male dancers that came in, a lot of them were gay. They really did try to make it look like I was in this relationship with this Sean guy, and there was no relationship or anything like that. We were all just having fun, and like I said, most of the guys were gay. They just really tried to make it look like there were big scandals going on and everything, which there really wasn’t. There really weren’t.
Which of the challenges was the toughest for you, and which was the most fun?
I think one of the most fun was whenever we recorded with Ron Fair. That had always been a dream of mine to record with him. I did that so well, I’d gone in, but it only lasted like 10 minutes. I was like, man, I wish I could have done that longer. But the hardest challenge for me was when the male dancers came in, because I had gotten sick. I really was. The girls hadn’t really been eating very much because we were trying to remain skinny. They shut off the air conditioner in the house because they were filming us while we were dancing, and the fans made too much noise, so it was like a hundred degrees. I’m sweaty, I hadn’t eaten anything, and I also drank two Red Bulls. So when my dancer spun me around, the ravioli I had was coming up. I was so sick. Not being a dancer, then having to tackle a choreographed dance when I was sick, that was just the hardest thing ever.
Was there any elimination that particularly surprised you with any of the girls, or was there anyone you thought would make it to the end who didn’t?
Not really. You could kind of tell. I honestly kind of knew who were there favorites all along. It was kind of obvious, so I wasn’t really surprised. I knew the week when I got eliminated this past time, I already knew it. It really wasn’t a big shock to me.
So what’s in the future for you now? Are you going to go solo and continue performing?
Yeah, I’m definitely gonna go solo. It was really sweet when I did get eliminated — they didn’t show it on the show — but when I did get eliminated, Robin did say to me, “Carrie, I hope I’m in your future.” I really am looking forward to that. I think that hopefully I have a future with Robin. I know she saw the way my performance was, and I know she saw something in me that she really liked and really appreciated. It just wasn’t right for the group. So I’m hoping that I will continue to work with Robin, and find the right people around me that kind of do exactly what I want. I want to do the rock and roll thing, I don’t want someone to try and mold me and try to put me into the R&B category. I want to do my own thing, like Blondie, Joan Jett, and Heart, and stuff like that. I want to follow my heart and kind of do exactly what I want to do, instead of trying to be put into a category.
– Interview conducted by Don Williams
(Image courtesy of the CW)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
