Britain's Next Top Mode
Britain’s Next Top Model came to an end last night, and walking away in a very respectable second place was the series ‘bitch’ Sophie Sumner, who, after chatting with her last week, has proven that she’s in fact one of the loveliest girls of the whole show… all is forgiven!
Hey Sophie, congratulations on getting as far as you did, what have you been up to since the show ended?
Well we finished filming it in March, but we couldn’t do anything until the winner was announced so to be honest I haven’t done that much… I moved to London but I went back to work until the show ended.
It was very strange too because I work in a restaurant and we had the All Saints in the other week and they said to me; “Hello Sophie, we love the show.” and I’m like, “I’m at work, this is so weird!”
Did you think you had what it took to win?
I don’t know, I mean we’ve all had a rough journey really, I’d say I had one of the roughest journeys, but of course so did Jade. Everything that the judges had criticised about me made me feel like I had a lot more to prove so I knew I had to win challenged because I was worried they would be unimpressed by my photos… I put in a bit extra, it’s been hard, but fun.
I think your photos were stunning week after week!
Oh thank you! I suppose it’s when you see photos of yourself that you don’t like, take for example when you see pictures of yourself on Facebook that you don’t like week after week.
So which was your favourite photo shoot?
It had to be the Evita one that we did in the final. I think that was definitely my favourite, but I also really enjoyed the Skin Bliss one that we did on the salt plains, it was magical and I enjoyed it so much! It was the weirdest thing too, it was like a desert made out of salt, it was amazing, and also because we weren’t wearing much it was like a really good suntan.
Woo! And what did you find hardest?
I think it would have to be during the judging because when you don’t get great feedback you start comparing yourself to other people and it’s not good. I think to be honest, the most difficult was at the beginning because I was thinking how I could stand out against all these beautiful girls.
Now Sophie, all your fellow tell me you’re not nasty, but we’ve seen the way you come across on the show… is it all an act?
Do you know what, it’s quite funny because I learnt that I needed to stand out and all my friends know I am not like that at all, in fact I wouldn’t say anything bad about the girls now because it’s all over and I love them all and I think that in the show I realised quite early on that, it’s a TV show and they want loads of rating and people to carry on watching it and they want good TV. I figured out you needed to give them what they wanted to stay on the show, so when we did those green screens I gave them what they wanted.
I was like playing a character, the girls know what I’m like because I’m nice to them in the house, but in front of the green screen when we did our one-on-one’s to camera I turned into a character.
I forgive you then…
Thanks! I have stayed in quite close contact with some of the girls and every Monday I get a phone call saying; “Sophie! I can’t believe you said that!” but honestly, we’re all friends and they know I was doing it for the camera and that’s probably why they stuck up for me.
So finally, are you looking forward to it being over and starting to work as a model?
Definitely, and I’m most of all looking forward to not worrying about every Monday night and who I’ll offend on each show! We couldn’t do things until the show was over and so been months of waiting around whilst people have slowly begun to recognise me, I cannot wait to get out there now and finally work as a model.
Well, I think you’re lovely now, and I’m sure you’re going to go very far in the future and I hope we speak again soon.
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison