The Glee Project’s Alex, Cameron and Ellis Talk About Their Affinity For Scarves, Being A Sexy Nerd, and Orange Fashion

While the hit show Glee may be on hiatus for the summer, reality competition show The Glee Project is well underway on the small screen! For those of you in the dark about The Glee Project, the show is a reality competition show that is looking to cast one person who will win a seven episode guest starring role on the upcoming season 3 of Glee. The show started airing on June 12th on Oxygen.

Buzznet got the chance to chat with three contestants Alex Newell, Cameron Mitchell and Ellis Wylie from the show, getting the insider’s scoop on their experiences, what they have to offer, and catching them getting GLEEK-y. While Ellis was eliminated a couple of days ago on episode two (Buzznet interviewed her prior to the first episode’s air date), Alex and Cameron are still in the running to becoming the next Glee guest star!

Alex Newell

Buzznet: What was your initial audition process like?

Alex Newell: My original audition was sending in a tape to Myspace – well, a video of me singing for the original Glee audition. Then they shelved the idea and said, ‘We’re gonna use these auditions as a new reality show called The Glee Project.’ And I was like, all right I guess that’s all right. So then I got this random call when I was in a rehearsal of a show I was doing back home, and I was like, this can’t be real, I can’t be in consideration for a new TV show – that’s unreal. Never happened before. And then they decided they would send me a real email on my real email account, and it was history then! I flew out to L.A. and I went to The Glee Project callbacks.

BN: Why do you want to be on Glee?

AN: I wanna be on Glee because it has such a good message. If you’re in a bad mood, it puts you in a good mood. If you’re happy, it’ll make you happier with the music and the acting and the dancing and the singing and it’s just an amazing show. It just warms hearts and that’s what I aspire to do in life.

BN: Which Glee character are you most like?

AN: I’m most like Kurt, and I’m most like Mercedes. And I wanna say I’m most like Rachel because I do have the Broadway background and I do love musical theater and I do wanna be on Broadway and I do wanna sing and blast over an audience.

BN: If you win the competition, what would you want your character on Glee to be like?

AN: I would want him to be just fierce and fabulous and amazing. And I would want him to be himself, I want him to be close to who I am as a person. I would want him to be related or just a friend of Mercedes. I want him to just be on the show and be happy and just talk to those people in life that go though the same things that he’s going through.

BN: Describe your fashion style in one word.

AN: ‘Fabulous’! No, um, I don’t know! It’s so different, I mean, it’s kind of the same things, but with a scarf. It’s what everyone else would wear but with a scarf. So: “different”.

BN: If you could trade places with only one character from Glee, who would it be?

AN: It would definitely be Mercedes, because I love her songs and I love what she does and I love everything about her. If I could just be her, I’d be pretty darn happy.

BN: Glee has covered an array of artists including Madonna, Britney, Justin Bieber. If you had it your way, which one artist would you cover for a whole episode?

AN: For a whole episode? Miss Beyoncé Knowles herself. She is amazing. I mean, she’s talented as God knows what, and she’s just amazing. I love her. She dances, she sings, she acts, she’s everything that most triple-threats are, and more.

BN: Do you have a go-to Beyoncé song?

AN: Right now it’s “Run The World,” because it puts me in a happier mood and it makes me wanna dance. And I watch the music video over and over again because it’s that good.

BN: Besides Glee, what other TV shows do you watch?

AN: I watch The Voice and I watch America’s Got Talent and I love Teen Mom and I love Hellcats, even though it just got canceled. I love The Game on BET. I’m a huge TV fan. When I’m home I try to watch TV because I don’t get to watch TV that often.

BN: If you get a spot on Glee, you’d be playing a high school student. What were you like in high school?

AN: Well, I still am in high school. I just wrapped up my junior year, and I’m the mover, I’m the shaker. I’m just myself; I don’t care what people think about me. I live my life and if somebody has a problem with it, that’s too bad, because what they say, what they do, can’t stop me from being who I am.

BN: Why should fans watch your show, The Glee Project?

AN: Because! It’s amazing! It’s just a great show. It’s Glee lovers trying to win a dream role to be on Glee. And it’s fun – we have so much fun on the show. There’s drama, there’s laughs, there’s everything. You name it, it’s on the show. And it relates to everyone.

Cameron Mitchell

Buzznet: Are you excited for your show?

Cameron Mitchell: Oh, I am so glad. I’m so excited. I can’t even describe. I don’t even know what it’s gonna be like to see myself. I’ll probably just cry in shame, I don’t know, I’m just really nervous. So yeah! I’m excited.

BN: What was your audition process like?

CM: I did the open casting call in Fort Worth, but it was freezing cold. It was snowing and just awful, awful weather. I show up and I wait through all that line, all the snow and stuff. It took forever. I sang for just these two ladies and they’re like ‘Oh, okay, you’re pretty good’ and then they sent me right to Robert Ulrich who is in another room and I sang for him. After that he asked me if I wrote music, and I sang him an original song and he seemed like he really liked me, but I was still really unsure what my stances were ‘cause I’d never audition for, you know, American Idol – I’ve never done anything like that and decided to take a shot in the dark on this. So then I got through all that and they were like ‘Okay, you can go home, we’ll send you an email if you make callbacks to L.A.” So I got an email saying that I made the callbacks, went to L.A., and, you know, the rest is history!

BN: Why do you want to be on Glee?

CM: Goodness. I want to be on Glee just because I feel like there are a lot of ‘flavors’ and I feel like I have a flavor that hasn’t really been on Glee. You know Artie, who’s kinda got like the nerd feel, and that’s kinda what I like and go for. I don’t just try to be a nerd, I just am. It’s just the way I dress, or playing video games, or, I don’t know, whatever. But yeah, just to bring that different side to Glee, and just be this very shy quite guy, but very energetic and just has a good voice. I just want to be there just to show people back home what I’m capable of, to prove people wrong that doubted me, and just to be on Glee would be a dream.

BN: If you won the competition, what would you want your character on Glee to be like?

CM: I can say it in two words, and that’s probably: ‘sexy nerd.’ Because you may not know it, but I can gather the ladies. Don’t tell my mom that, but I feel like I could be that quiet guy. Like that nerdy guy who has a cool history or a cool presence, but no one ever notices him. He’s kind of in the background, doesn’t really say much and is new. [He] just auditions for glee club or starts a singing battle or something and everyone’s like ‘Wow, where’d you come from?’ And all the ladies love me. That would be a perfect ending. Get together with Quinn – I don’t know how that works, but that’d be nice.

BN: If you get a spot on the show you’d be playing a high school student. What were you like in high school?

CM: Oh no… In high school I was bad news. In high school – actually it’s really funny – for the most part, my freshman year I was really into sports. I had a guitar, I loved to sing, but I was very into sports. My freshman year I was kinda like ‘screw it, I’m going to do music, I’m going to go full out.’ I really loved sports, and all of a sudden I turned into this big music fan. I was the guy that [was] kind of like in the middle; I wasn’t popular, I didn’t hang out with those kids. I just marched to the beat of my own drum. I was very in tune with myself. I knew who I was and obviously I looked horrible and I had braces and I looked like the biggest nerd ever, but I slowly grew out of it. I never really had a lot of friends. I never really got into the ‘scene,’ I guess you could say, in high school. I was always kind of in the background with the weird kids that talked about math all the time or something like that. I never got involved with what people think about me or what people care about. Because that’s what high school is nowadays – being in the groups and the cliques and going to the parties and being a jock or cheerleader. I just had no intention of being that. I just wanted to be myself. You know, I didn’t enjoy high school at all, so I’m glad that’s over with.

BN: What character on Glee are you most like?

CM: If I had to compare myself, it’d definitely be Artie. He’s got that nerd appeal. He’s just freakin’ awesome. He’s got an amazing voice that just jumps out at you and you’re like ‘Wow, where did that come from?’ And he has a way with the ladies, you know? He’s got Tina. And I just think he’s got a lot of things going for him. I think all the cast loves him. I just feel like we’d be the best of friends. We could talk about music or World of Warcraft. We could talk about anything. I just think it’d be really really fun together.

BN: Besides Glee, what TV shows do you watch?

CM: Favorite TV shows of all time. Number one: The Office. Love it, love it, love it. Especially like season three or four when it was still kind of new. Love The Office. Lost is an amazing show and I was really into Lost. Every now and then my girlfriend will make me watch the wedding channel, and you know, I’ll watch some Say Yes To The Dress or something. But that’s definitely not a favorite. Another favorite TV show…let’s see, oh! Man vs. Wild. All the way. On Discovery Channel. If I were a manly-man like him, that’s exactly what I’d want to do. Those are my favorites.

BN: If you could sing only one song for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?

CM: Maybe…ooh, that’s tough. That’s like asking what child do I want to keep and what other one do I want to sell. Um, ‘Blackbird’ – Paul McCartney, Beatles. Probably Mumford & Sons’ ‘Little Lion Man.’ Um, and let’s go with Coldplay – ‘Fix You.’

BN: Why should fans watch your show The Glee Project?

CM: That’s easy – because I’m on it! No, I’m just kidding. Definitely kidding. I guess fans should definitely watch it, and obviously I love the show, but I really believe in it. I’ve believed from the very beginning that there’s something different about it. There’s something that people are going to be drawn to, whether it’s the stories, whether it‘s the characters. And I just think it’s really believable. And I think that fans are gonna get drawn in, fans are really going to fall in love with us. I honestly believe that. And I feel like they’re gonna cry, they’re gonna laugh, they’re gonna be mad, they’re gonna be joyful, all of the emotions are gonna come out. And I don’t feel like a lot of TV shows have that – either it’s a lot of drama or it’s lukewarm and doesn’t have a lot. But this show has it all. And everyone loves Glee. And just to see one of us – one of the twelve – kind of rise from the ashes and get to go on Glee…I think people are going to fall in love and I can’t wait to see how the fans [are] gonna react to it.

Ellis Wylie

Buzznet: What was your audition process like?

EW: The auditions were crazy. They were great. They were the first audition for anything I’ve ever been to. The only thing I’ve ever auditioned for in my life was my high school shows and one show at my college, so I’d never been to an audition of this size and I didn’t know what to expect, but it was really nice. It was freezing the day I went, and I thought there was going to be like a giant line, but I get there and it was only about two minutes long and there were nice people with hot tea. You went through two rounds in the open calls and [in] the second round you got to do a screen test with Robert. It was really interesting. I did an interview, and callbacks were very much the same. Go through, and people get cut off every time. It started to get more and more melodramatic as time progressed. But overall, it was just loads of fun and I never expected to get as far as I did that first day.

BN: Why do you want to be on Glee?

EW: I wanna be on Glee because, first of all, Glee is a great show. But I think when Glee first came out I was like ‘What? There’s a show about a show choir? Why would anybody even…like what?’ And all the popular kids were watching it too, and that’s what gave me the idea to watch it. Everybody – me and the choir kids and the theater kids and all walks of life and the popular kids in high school – could just enjoy this one show. You can just connect to at least one person in that show. I think there’s something for everyone to connect to and I just want to be a part of that. And also the auditions were for someone who can look the age of someone on Glee and I look very very young so I just relished the opportunity to be a part of something where I could be accepted for having a baby face.

BN: What were you like in high school?

EW: I was quite the same as I am now…I always joke to my mother that I’ve known who I am since I was like two. She always let me dress myself and I would wear like the craziest clothes, and it was the same in high school. I think for a while I wanted to prove ‘I’m me and you have to deal with it,’ and wear crazy, outlandish clothes. Theater was my favorite place to be – my life in high school really did revolve around theater and just the arts in general. I knew that was something I wanted to stay involved in. I love it.

BN: Which character on Glee are you most like?

EW: I don’t know! It’s difficult, because the thing with the show is you see a little bit of yourself in everyone. Everything that they experience is something that you can relate to. I think Tina I relate a lot to, because there’s the whole thing about her faking her stutter. When I was in middle school I had a class, and there were 10 boys and nine girls, and it was kind of clique-y and the boys really never grew out of the idea of cooties and they were terrible to us. And I was kind of a weirdo then, in my strange clothes. And they didn’t know how to deal with that, so they really made fun of me. And that’s how I got this whole hard shell, and I was like ‘I’m gonna be me and I’m gonna do all this.’ When I went to high school, I wouldn’t have any friends if I did that. I started – kind of like Tina – to really fit in. I still wanted to dress weird, but I wanted to fit in, so I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I kinda forgot that I needed to be me more than I needed to be accepted. I was always me but I always felt at odds with everyone because I didn’t want to sacrifice myself to be loved. But, oh God, I wanted to be loved so badly.

BN: Glee has covered an array of artists, including Madonna, Britney, Justin Bieber. If you had it your way, which one artist would you cover for a whole episode?

EW: Ella Fitzgerald. Or any big band jazz person. I am such a huge fan of big band jazz. My great-aunts and my grandmother were jazz singers. And my grandfather was in a barbershop quartet and he played ragtime piano for the silent movies, so I have this big history of music, especially big band music. It’s just in my veins and I want to keep going at it and it’s something my voice is really built for. It’s something that I think Glee has never really covered. They’ve had some jazzier Broadway tunes, but I think they could really devote some time to jazz and just investigate it, because it would be an interesting experience for all of them. Jazz – especially big band – requires a certain kind of voice and presence and I think it would be really fin to see how that group of kids and characters could adapt to it – the songs cloud be ‘Glee-ified.’ Glee always makes songs even better than they are in real life. [It] would be interesting to bring jazz to the modern spectacle that is Glee.

BN: Describe your fashion style in one word.

EW: Orange.

BN: If you won the competition, what would you want your character on Glee to be like?

EW: I’ve always had a baby face and I’ve always been ten years old and I think I’ll always be ten years old for the rest of my life. So I thought if I were on Glee I cold be a child prodigy. Like a little musical transfer student who comes into high school and she’s a genius and she teaches them the glory of old school jazz and singing. And she probably has a big head about her she seems like a brat.

The Glee Project airs every Sunday night at 9/8c on Oxygen.

Are you going to tune into ‘The Glee Project’? What would you do if you got a spot on the show?