Holly Carpenter has slammed Dancing With The Stars bosses for typecasting her as “just a model”.
The 27-year-old, who was the second celebrity to be eliminated from this year’s series, is best known for her modelling career – but she also owns her own jewellery range, LoveLift.
Speaking on the Girls with Goals podcast, Holly explained: “I gave up modelling in 2015 and I’ve been trying to go back to my design roots, my business.”
“So when we filmed the VT which is the whole introduction of how you’re introduced to the audience, I said can we film it at a LoveLift shoot which is my jewellery line and we filmed it in the studio.”
“I did a big interview about the brand and how nice it is not to be modelling any more and to be back to my design roots. They had shots of me with all the new bits.”
“Then when I watched the show it was like ‘Hey, I’m Holly’, then there was this shot of me with the wind machine and me modelling jewellery. You couldn’t tell that it was my brand,” she continued.
“It looked like I was at a basic photoshoot. It looked like I was still modelling which I don’t anymore and I was so disappointed.”
“I said so many times I don’t want to look like I’m just a model. There’s nothing wrong with being just a model but it’s something I did from 19 to 25 that I’ve parked. I want people who don’t know me to get a better sense of who I am,” she said.
“It’s just a shame, but I think with shows like that, you’re very typecast. Like, Peter Stringer is the athlete, he’s got the body, he’s always there with the abs out,” Holly explained.
“You’ve got the model, that was obviously me, even though I bloody don’t model any more. And then you’ve got Mairead Ronan who’s the mum. We were all typecast so it’s kind of hard to break through that.”
“It’s a great show for that reason, because you’re sitting at home with your mum, your mum’s going to love Mairead, the dad’s going to love Peter Stringer, the daughter might like me, she didn’t bloody vote for me though obviously, and then whoever else. It’s grand, I’m over it now,” she added.
