America's Prom Queen premieres on Monday, March 17, at 9pm on ABC Family. Fancast got a chance to chat with Jai Rodriguez, one of the judges on the show. He talked to us about going to his own prom with two dates, "it" crowds, fake girls and which two celebrities embody the perfect prom queen (hint: they were in a recent movie together).
On his own prom:
I actually had a great time. I went with one girl, ended up hanging out with her best friend the entire night, because the girl I went with kind of knew the deal, if you know what I mean. And she found someone who was really interested in her. So that was really funny I think an interesting story for me to have two prom dates. I had a great time, though. It was really fun. I wore a regular tuxedo with a vest and a tie, very understated. Nothing I'd look back at now and be ashamed of.
If he was prom queen what would his outfit be like?
Oh my god! [laughing] something like JLO. No. [laughing] Honestly, the girls are eighteen, I don't want the girls looking like they're going to the Hustler Ball. I don't like that look, that too much skin look. I think that's inappropriate. They're still in high school. I think it should be classy. You can still be classy and sophisticated without showing all your bits. Some of the dresses that the girls out there are choosing to wear are a little too provocative. Something's to be said about wearing something really classy and beautiful.
On the perfect prom queen:
On America's Prom Queen we're definitely looking for who the girl was on the inside and how she treated the other girl she was living with. You have to remember it's the entire school that's gonna vote, not just the "it" crowd, which is a very small percentage of the vote. Someone that gets along with everyone, someone people look up to. On our show she's gonna get the chance to be a correspondent for CosmoGIRL magazine, so it's an opportunity for her to have a platform to be a role model. That was something that came into play.
On what celebrity embodies the perfect prom queen:
Oh gosh right now it's really rough. I think Natalie Portman's great, Scarlett Johansson is just fantastic and fun. I don't know too much about these women's personal lives but the way that they sort of choose not to sort of be in the spotlight I think is very wise. There's a lot of girls out there that are publicizing the wrong thing and that gets them into trouble. And then unfortunately, girls in America say "well she's popular. Maybe if I do that I'll be popular."
On what the girls will have to do to impress him:
Honestly, coming from an acting background, being on television, I can tell when someone's faking it. If I feel I'm being given pageant answers, I don't like that. I don't like the the veneer, I don't like anything that's fake and I don't want to encourage these girls to be fake just to get ahead.
