Roommate hopefuls stop acting polite, start getting ‘Real’

This past Saturday, Pitt students who weren’t at the Homecoming game could most likely be… This past Saturday, Pitt students who weren’t at the Homecoming game could most likely be found at the MTV “Real World” casting call in Pittsburgh’s South Side.

From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on East Carson Street, numerous hopefuls could be spotted standing outside filling out “Real World” applications against the windows of Town Tavern bar.

As of 3:03 p.m., casting director Kasha Foster had interviewed approximately 150 people with 30 more lined up for the next hour. “I’ve seen people from all over,” she said. Local residents and students from Pitt, Point Park and Duquesne came to the casting call, along with non-native individuals from Akron, Ohio, and even West Virginia.

As a casting director for the past eight years, Foster has worked on six seasons of “Real World.” This casting call was her first time in Pittsburgh, which, despite getting lost often, she described as an inviting experience overall.

“I love the look of the city and the vibe of the people,” she said. “It feels East Coast, but it’s Southern at the same time.”

As for her experience with applicants from Pitt, she noticed a recurring theme of “Pitt party pride.”

“They went out of their way to tell me Pitt was a party school,” Foster said.

Casting-call protocol had about a dozen or so applicants talking to Foster and co-casting director Jessica Thompson.

“We do a roundtable discussion and try to find out what people are passionate about,” Foster explained. “Young people are trying to get jobs, so we may discuss the economy.”

Before candidates got the chance to talk to Foster and Thompson, they first had to fill out a questionnaire-style application, attach a picture and wait. The lucky ones get a phone call within a week. They are then that much closer to becoming a “Real World” cast member.

For last season’s “Real World Cancun” cast member Bronne Bruzgo, the opportunity to be a part of this show came on a whim.

“My buddies found out “Real World” was casting [nearby] and told me to go try out. I’d never really watched the show before. I thought it was stupid,” Bruzgo said.

But Bruzgo had the weird name and the crazy personality — in short, he was perfect.

Like Bruzgo, Pitt student Brittany Lynch didn’t come to the casting call with direct intent to become a cast member.

“I came to provide moral support for my best friend, Maggie Barton,” Lynch said. She didn’t have much to say about herself when asked to list qualifications that made her an ideal candidate. Instead, she gave a long list of reasons why Barton would be perfect for the show.

“There’s never a dull moment with [Maggie]. She is literally the most awesome person I’ve ever met,” Lynch said. “I get excited to be around her. I get excited to see her, and she’s the toughest girl I know.”

Candidates like Barton, with original and genuine stories to tell, are what casting directors are looking for in new cast members.

“We’re not looking for prototypes or stereotypes of cast members we’ve had before,” “Real World” supervising casting director Damon Furberg said. “We’re looking for people we’ve never met before and stories we’ve never told before.”

“We’re looking for any person who is genuinely passionate about anything,” Foster said.

Be it pride in partying at Pitt, religion or triumph over adversity, nothing is excluded.

“We’re trying to give viewers an opportunity to be introduced to things they may not know about,” she said.

The opportunity to become a “Real World” cast member might mean missing a semester’s worth of school. Last season, Bruzgo leaped at the opportunity regardless of the consequences.

“I figured, what else was I going to do? It was such a cool and unique opportunity that one in a couple billion people get to do,” he said.

“I spent my entire life in school,” he added, admitting that it was intimidating to veer away from the familiarity of college life.

“All of a sudden I’m out of school, and it it’s a little scary to throw yourself off the beaten track,” he said. Having had the experience, Bruzgo admits that he made the right decision.

Furberg calls “Real World” a chance for people within the 18-24 age range to grow up. The show, unlike other reality TV contests, presents support from peers who might be going through the same changes.

The difference between “Real World” and time at a college or university, according to Furberg, is this: “When all is said and done, they get to have a document of their experiences afterward. They get to see themselves in a different perspective than they would in everyday life.”