Interview courtesy www.JimmyVan.com:
On Wednesday night, April 13 I had the opportunity to interview former WWE Raw Diva Search finalist and former SmackDown! star, Amy Weber (www.amyweber.net). What I intended to be a 20-minute interview turned into an hour and a half as Amy spoke candidly and honestly about a variety of WWE topics including the Diva Search process, her agreement to work with the SmackDown! brand, the events during the infamous WWE Japanese tour that led to her departure, her thoughts on those involved, WWE’s efforts to get her back, and much, much more.
Part one of the interview (which is 27 minutes in length) is now online at JimmyVan.com in Windows Media and Real Audio formats. You can also listen to a five-minute preview clip of the interview in Real Audio format at this link:
http://www.jimmyvan.com/audio/weber/weber-clip-carmella.ram
Here is a text recap from this portion of the interview.
You grew up in Peoria , Illinois .
Amy says she grew up in a small town outside Peoria called Mapleton. Her parents moved the family to Florida , and she said she left, “kicking and screaming.” She’s in Los Angeles now and says she loves it, and would never go back to the humidity in Florida . She said as a kid in Illinois she loved the snow and her mother would have to drag her into the house, and now as an adult she doesn’t like to go out in it. She does like to snowboard, and said LA is the perfect place to live because you can snowboard in the mountains, but also go to the beach.
You was a psychology major in Florida . How did you go from that to acting and modeling in Los Angeles ?
She said it wasn’t a drastic change. “Psychology and acting are pretty much the same,” Amy said. “Because in acting in a scene you’re really trying to figure out where the other person is coming from, what their motives are, what your motives are, it’s kind of along the same lines. Plus actors are just nuts.”
JV mentioned that Tom Green is a good friend of Amy’s.
“Tom definitely has that crazy side of him but you’ve gotta respect him for the fact that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He absolutely was an incredible friend to me at a really kind of low time in my life. I lost something very important to me (a pet cat that Amy had rescued). So he definitely has a side to him that I’m sure a lot of people don’t know which is just a really caring, good natured person but yeah, he is definitely a nut.”
You actually met Tom when you were doing “The Tonight Show” on New Year’s Eve while working with WWE.
“He was very kind to me. And like I said that morning had been… I just really didn’t know how I was going to make it to tape the show. Tom was… he had such a good combination of not putting too much into what I’d gone through, but he still managed to let me know that he cared about it. Because sometimes with people when you have a loss, a tragedy, if people just keep harping on it it makes you feel worse. But then if people don’t give you enough consideration about it, you think they don’t care.” Amy also talked about the sudden loss of her pet and how he had been sick and she rescued him, only for him to suddenly pass away.
I understand you have a bit of a background with animals.
Amy said she loves animals and used to bring in strays as a child including possums, coyotes and turtles. She said she doesn’t touch anything without legs, such as snakes. “There’s something weird about not having legs.”
You started in print ad modeling. How did you make the jump to acting?
Amy said most people who interview her have it backwards. She moved to LA to become an actress and assumed she would wait tables. She never intended to model. She was at an audition for a commercial, and a photographer spotted her. He said, “You should be a model,” and Amy responded, “You should have your head examined.” He convinced her to take some pictures which he sent to an agency, and they contacted her about doing print. She made $3,000 for a half a day’s work for her first print modeling job, so she decided she can model. But it was never her intention to quit college to go to LA to model.
Did you do acting in high school or university?
She said it started when she was a kid doing fine arts contests performing monologues, and won the contests. She didn’t pursue it and was more into motorcycles because her father was into it and he wanted boys but got two girls. So she raced motorcycles before telling him that she wasn’t enjoying it and wanted to be a cheerleader and be more of a girl. Her parents didn’t accept her decision to get into acting at first, but now they’re good about it.
You were on “Port Charles”, which was a soap opera spin-off of ” General Hospital “. You were also a lead character in Howard Stern’s “Son of the Beach”, playing Porcelain Bidet. How did that one come about?
Amy said “Son of the Beach” was a long process. She said she jokes that she got the role because she’s the only brunette left in Hollywood . Stern told her that they had close to 6,000 head shots from girls interested in being on the show. They narrowed it down, then she met with the producers and they eventually brought back five girls that they wanted to screen test, and she was one of the five, and then she got the job.
Aside from TV and movies, you were also in a Toby Keith video.
Amy said she had just gotten a call from a radio station saying Keith’s video “Whiskey Girl” won Hottest Video of the Year at the CMA Awards, and she had no idea about it. She said Toby Keith is amazing, he’s a great guy.
What medium do you prefer, TV or movies?
Amy said she prefers film.
Do you like traveling (to movie sets) compared to regularly going to a TV studio every day?
Amy joked that she likes living on the edge. She said she really doesn’t like traveling. She said she had travelled all over before even getting hooked up with WWE and traveling every week. She said she likes TV and wouldn’t turn down another good series. But she likes film because after three or four months you’re off to something new, and she gets bored with things. She agrees that she likes the consistency of TV, but she has other ventures like a modeling agency and an investment company that is her “solid ground”, so she doesn’t need the stability of a TV series. She doesn’t want to do TV just for the sake of doing it, and wouldn’t go back on a soap opera.
Vince McMahon announced that WWE would be doing the first Raw Diva Search contest in May of 2004. How did you hear about the contest and what made you decide to go for it?
Amy said she had actually sent girls from her modeling agency in for the audition. The casting director found out that it was her agency and started contacting her assistant to have her come in. Amy said she wasn’t interested at first but thought she would check out the audition for fun. She showed up and there were girls there that knew her from other projects and wondered why she was there. “It was really an interesting process and I just think it’s always good to sort of get out of your safety zone and it also puts a lot of things into perspective about where you’re going and your dreams and are you on the right path. And I think that was part of the reason why I went down. I’m not sure how I ended up in the top ten but that’s just the way it played out.”
When you think of pro wrestling compared to “mainstream” stuff, it’s a whole new world. This wasn’t something you heard about and immediately said, “This is something I want to do.”
Amy said not at all. She said they told her she would have to be in a bikini. “What? Are you joking? How long has it been since I’ve modeled in a bikini?” she said. “It was a complete stretch and I think that’s what really drew me to it.”
Is it true you followed wrestling in the 90’s?
Amy said she did. Her assistant was a huge wrestling fan and helped convince her to do the Raw Diva Search contest. Her godfather was also a big fan. They went to a WWE show at Staples Center in LA and The Rock was there. “That’s what really hooked me. He was just so charismatic,” she said. “There was just something about him that you just wanted to know what he was gonna do next.”
How did the Raw Diva Search auditioning process measure up to the auditions you were used to?
Amy said there were hundreds of girls and she doesn’t know how they managed to narrow them down. At one point everyone started looking alike to her. She said WWE obviously knew what they wanted, and she likened it to a fast paced beauty pageant. She explained that they had rounds; you go in to look athletic, then you go in in a bathing suit, then you go in and do interviews, etc.
It was July of 2004 that WWE brought the finalists to Raw and started showcasing them live on television. Sometimes they devoted 15, 20, even 30 minutes to the contest each week.
“People hated us,” said Amy.
How were you guys perceived by the talent? Some guys are lucky to get a couple of minutes of TV time.
Amy said in a way you couldn’t blame them. She said they go to OVW and bust their asses hoping to get a place on one of the rosters. She said they get paid dirt, eat dirt, and go on the road “like a carny”, and then these girls come in and they’re being offered big money and they’re taking time away from shows and main events and people who could be out there doing their thing. “On that level, I get it,” she said. “But on the other level it’s sort of like, okay, not our fault. So it was hard. Some people were very welcoming and nice and I think those were the people that were just secure with their position. And that’s how it is in life. Even in Hollywood when you work with people that are more B-level they’re not very nice people. But I think it’s because they just feel like they’ve got one foot out on that ledge whereas people that are A-list actors, they’re just secure.” Amy said she’s a loner and she didn’t care if she was liked in WWE. She said she was there because it was an experience and she was going to try to play it out as long as it was meant to be.
Amy said people who didn’t know her personal background were using derogatory terms to describe her. She said it was okay because it wasn’t their fault, it was ignorance.
How did the fans treat you at the live shows?
She said the crowds at Raw during the Diva Search were amazing. “Great pops, they were wonderful,” she said. When she was working on SmackDown! though some things were said by the fans that made it hard to keep a straight face.
How would you describe the live experience in WWE compared to being in a studio?
“Energizing… Honestly it is the closest thing I think anyone will get to to being a rock star,” she said.
Had you ever done anything like that before?
She joked that she hadn’t other than being an idiot during Spring Break.
The Rock has made huge money in Hollywood and been a leading man in film, yet he would go back to WWE to do appearances on Raw due to wanting that live experience.
“You feel it in your soul. It’s craziness. It’s just a collective energy from the crowd. The atmosphere… it’s really hard to put into words but it’s definitely something to be experienced,” she said.
What did you think of meeting Vince McMahon?
“I thought he was wonderful,” she said.
Did you find him intimidating at first, or did you not have the same view of him because you didn’t come from a wrestling background?
“I wasn’t intimidated by him but only because I’m not that girl,” she said. “And that’s what he liked about me, and that’s what he said he liked about me, is that I knew when not to back down. He respected my “balls” for lack of a better word.”
Did you get along with the other Diva Search girls?
“Yes I did, up until the very end.”
Do you still keep in touch with anybody from WWE?
“I keep in touch with Big Show,” she said. “Paul and I became very good friends; he was very protective of me.”
There was some disdain with Carmella DeCesare and the other girls, and it seemed that WWE was trying to make her out to be the “bad guy”. How much of that was legitimate and how much of it was just cooked up by WWE to add interest to the contest?
“She was the bad guy,” said Amy. “Once you get on the road and you start learning basically what these people go through and what they put themselves through to entertain an audience not just for the TV shows but for the house shows, and you see that, and here we are… and when someone is basically putting down what you’re trying to become a part of, and making fun of, and not taking seriously, and constantly talking crap about every girl, I’m sorry but I’m not fake and I just can’t smile and turn the other way.” Amy said Carmella would be talking on the phone loud enough so they could all hear her, and she would be talking to people ripping the girls in their swimsuits and saying they needed lipo. “She was just not a nice person. And yet every other girl besides her, we all got along.” Amy said there wasn’t any cattiness, and when girls were eliminated they would all cry. “I just could not stand this girl who thought that she was above… and then she would say stuff like, ‘Oh yeah well they have to fly me first class,’ … acting like she was just above all of us.”
I heard she made a threat saying she would “kick your ass”…
Amy said Carmella told Coach that she was going to kick her ass so Amy confronted her about it and dared her to. She said the other girls stood behind Amy.
It seemed towards the end that WWE was maneuvering to position Christy and Carmella into the top two. Do you think the entire contest was legitimate, or do you think towards the end they set it up to get it down to those two?
Amy said she’s not sure. “I would really hate to think that it was not (legitimate) but I mean, who’s to say, and at this point it’s water under the bridge.” Amy went on to suggest that Carmella’s positioning could have been dictated by her association with Playboy. “I’m sure that just by being associated with Playboy because… the top selling Playboys of all time had wrestlers on the cover. Playboy is definitely in bed with the WWE so to speak. And that’s okay, that’s business.” She said everyone said the contest was fixed, but that sounds like sour grapes to her.
What was it like standing backstage, and a curtain opens, and Kamala is there. Did you have any idea who Kamala was?
“No I had no idea, because he’s really old school,” she said.
Did you know beforehand he was going to be there or did they really make it a surprise?
Amy said they really made it a surprise. She said the girls were standing outside the door and they could hear Kamala’s noises (and she impersonated them). She said they thought it was Eugene . But they were told that they had to seduce a *former* WWE wrestler so they didn’t know. She said she thought maybe it was Diamond Dallas Page (who she knows). “It was very shocking, and that’s where you really have to be good on your feet.”
Part one of the interview (which is 27 minutes in length) is now online at JimmyVan.com in Windows Media and Real Audio formats. You can also listen to a five-minute preview clip of the interview in Real Audio format at this link.
Stay tuned for parts two and three of our exclusive Amy Weber interview in the coming days!
Visit Amy Weber’s newly designed website at www.amyweber.net.
