Could those teeth get any whiter?

– “Real World” San Diego cast member Cameran was in town in June for Club Vinyl’s “Real World” launch party, but dang it, we didn’t get a chance to talk to her then. Lucky for us, she stopped by The Inn @ Auraria on Saturday for a meet-and-greet with fans…

– Uh… we didn’t get to talk to her then either. But! intrepid reporter Scott Lieber did call her up earlier today for a nice long chat about what it’s like behind-the-scenes on reality TV. As part of our run-up to the MTV Reality TV Junky Party on Aug. 25 at Club Vinyl, we’ll be posting a series of interviews with Cameran and other “Real World” stars. We’re currently working on John and Svetlana from “The Real World” Key West…

– Here’s Scott’s Lieber’s report:

Take me through the procedure for getting on the show…

Cameran: The way you can try out for the show, Bunim/Murray holds these things called ‘open call auditions.’ And they take place in different cities around the U.S. It’s like “American Idol.” You stand in line for hours and hours on end and you interview. The second option is you can send in a videotape. The thing is, no one from our show sent in a videotape. Two of our cast members were just found. Casting agents just walked up to them and thought they’d be great for the show, and they didn’t even audition.

As for me, I was sitting at my computer in college, and an MTV pop-up came on, and it said, “Open call auditions for ‘The Real World,’ and it was advertising that it’d be in Atlanta that Saturday, and I was bored and I didn’t have anything to do. So I didn’t tell anybody. I drove out there and sat in line for about six hours. I went to school at Clemson.

Which two San Diego cast members didn’t have to try out?

Randy and Frankie. Randy was a bouncer at a club where they were holding auditions. They approached him and thought he had a good look for the show. Frankie, she auditioned for a show called “Starting Over.” They told her, ‘We don’t think you’re right for this show but we think you’d be good for “The Real World.’”

So what’s the casting process like?

Literally they take you into a room and sit you down at a table. There’s about 10 people sitting there and they say, ‘We want you guys to talk.’ So you’re sitting there with 10 strangers and you just start talking. And after about 10 minutes, they’re like, ‘OK, everyone is free to leave.’ So I figure, ‘OK, that was fun. Oh, well.’ And as I was walking out the door, one of the assistants said, “We’re going to send you through to the next round.”

So they sent me to a second room they had blocked off and gave us about a 40-page questionnaire that honestly took about four hours to do. They would ask like, ‘What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done? Are you a backstabber? How many people have you slept with?’ Everything you can possibly think of.

And then they said, ‘OK, we will call you if we want to hear back from you.’ So two months passed and they called me and said I was in the semi-final round. They sent me down to Florida, where I had a number of one-on-one interviews. It was the same sort of thing. They said, ‘OK, we’ll be in touch with you if anything’s gonna happen.’ About a month and a half passes, they called me. They told me I was a finalist.

They flew me out to L.A. and there they had a two-day set of very intense interviews. And at the end I’m just mentally drained. It’s mentally draining. And I’m thinking, ‘I’ve got to make it now, after all this.’ And they get really personal. You feel like you’re divulging your whole life to people you don’t know.

While you were out there, did you see any of the cast members?

No, none. They were very careful. They had all of us in different hotel rooms. They took extreme measures to make sure we didn’t see anyone else.

Do you think they have seven ‘types’ they want they typecast?

They definitely typecast. There’s no question about that. Earlier it was different. Now you see, there’s the token black guy, there’s the naïve girl, there’s the partier. It’s clear now that they do that. I was the naïve, Southern girl.

Did that bother you that you were just filling a role for them?

It didn’t bother me. Obviously they’re not gonna put seven rednecks from Alabama in a house. They’re not gonna put seven black guys together in a house. I think they look for personality types that are going to clash. They know if they get a gay guy and a homophobe, that there’s gonna be a good story line.

You’re portrayed as being from a very conservative family. How did they react to seeing your personal life on TV?

My family was really supportive. They looked at it, I had always said I wanted to travel and experience something besides South Carolina. They were happy for me. I tried to explain to my mom what happened, each episode, be like, ‘OK, mom, this is what really happened. And I want to explain this.’ But I didn’t do anything too crazy. I didn’t go on the show and have sex or get promiscuous.

Do they (Bunim/Murray Productions) force you to say stuff?

People ask me that all the time. ‘Do they force you to say stuff? Do they tell you what to do?’ And I’m a very honest person, and I experienced none of that. As far as that Irene girl goes (a Seattle cast member, who has lambasted the show for being fake), she goes on TV to this day totally demeaning the show. I think it’s just a means for her to get publicity.

I mean, it’s edited, but it’s reality TV. Everything they show really happened, but it’s not necessarily the events that took place in that order. You know, they can cut and paste to make something from a week ago look like it took place a month later.

– Check back later this week for more of Scott’s interview with Cameran and more news on “The Real World” Denver…

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