Fan fave from the extended Bachie universe, Alisha Aitken-Radburn, has spilled the tea on the process of applying and auditioning for The Bachelor on her Instagram story this week, and mates, it sounds like a time.
In her weekly Bach-related Q&A, Alisha opened up about her experience with actually getting through to the final selection of contestants for Nick Cummins/Honey Badger’s season – from the questions she had to answer right through to what she could (and couldn’t) tell her friends.
The tea is well-steeped here, so get ready to slurp that shit up.
It’s also really handy for any of you lot out there who are thinking about chucking your hat in the ring for any upcoming seasons, because we’ve all half considered it, let’s be honest.
Alisha started off with the questionnaire she had to fill out as a potential contestant, which ranged from how many people she’s fucked to whether she’s got any skeletons in the cupboard. (I see you, sneaky producers trying to dig up drama and sniff out pain points.)
“It’s very, very comprehensive,” she wrote.
“Everything from unpacking your last relationship, why it ended, how you felt about them, to do you have any skeletons in the closet, what would you say to the Bachelor on the red carpet, and what would you not want other contestants to find out about you.”
From there, Alisha dished the insider goss on what the group audition phase was like. On-the-spot elevator pitches of yourself, responding to hypotheticals, who in the room your wouldn’t want to meet the Bachelor and be your competition – all very normal things.
“It was very much like a drama class,” she said.
“First up was introducing ourselves, the casting director would point to particular people to give their elevator pitch. Second, we were given hypotheticals and had to split across the room according to our answer, then justify it.
After that, Alisha said she had to choreograph a dance with a team of two to three other girls, which she reckons was to find out who is a natural leader.
If you were giving the producers what they were looking for in the group auditions, you then were picked as part of a handful of people to move on to the next step – having a chat with the “head honchos”.
Alisha said this next phase is where they really dig into your personality and what you’re looking for. She said it’s an on-camera interview with around five people from the production company and Channel 10, and they delve into your interests and all that good stuff.
She said she felt like she could be completely herself throughout the process of auditioning, and in fact she found it to be essential because she reckons the casting team can sniff out anyone who’s not being authentic.
These are professionals, so they’d absolutely be able to spot a bullshit artist a mile off.
Someone asked if anyone from her group audition wound up with her in the Bachelor Mansion, which she said there weren’t – but there were so many people in the auditions in each state.
“There are just so many girls at that audition,” Alisha replied.
“Honestly so many groups. Think one group of 20 every half an hour for a full two/three days in one state.”
When she got through, Alisha said that she was given a list of things to pack, and that she couldn’t tell her friends what was happening – she didn’t even tell her housemates back in Canberra.
“I only told my mum,” Alisha wrote.
“And my best friend Hannah, in case my rent payment didn’t go through.”
Interestingly, Alisha also shared that her now-partner Glenn Smith and Chris ‘Gilly’ Gilleland were in the same audition for Angie Kent‘s season, but only Glenn got through.
However, it’s very interesting that the producers dipped back into the talent pool and plucked out Gilly for Bachelor In Paradise, where he came in as a “cleanskin” – meaning he hadn’t been on the show before, but clearly wasn’t fully unknown to producers.
Oof, love that tea. So I guess even if you don’t get through to the season you apply for, you might still get a callback later down the track for another season entirely.
