“Very cookie-cutter”: Meghan Markle recalls Deal or No Deal days
Grateful for the early career gig but Meghan reveals, "I didn’t like feeling forced to be all looks and little substance."
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Meghan Markle has recalled her days as a ‘Briefcase Girl’ when she appeared on Deal or No Deal.
Between 2006 and 2007, Markle worked on 34 episodes of the US-version of the game show on NBC.
“There was a very cookie-cutter idea of what we should look like,” she said in a new podcast. “It was solely about beauty and not necessarily about brains.”
“I ended up quitting the show,” said Markle. “I was thankful for the job, but not the way it made me feel, which was: Not smart.”
“My experience on the show, which included holding said briefcase on stage, alongside 25 other women doing the same. It was for me, fascinating,” she said. “I had studied acting in college at Northwestern University, and like a lot of the other women standing on stage with me, acting was what I was pursuing. So while Deal or No Deal wasn’t about acting, I was still really grateful as an auditioning actress to have a job that could pay my bills.
“All the girls, we would line up and there were different stations for having your lashes put on or your extensions put in, or the padding in your bra. We were even given spray tan vouchers each week because there was a very cookie cutter idea of precisely what we should look like.
“I was surrounded by smart women on that stage with me, but that wasn’t the focus of why we were there,” she added. “And I would end up leaving with this pit in my stomach, knowing that I was so much more than what was being objectified on the stage. I didn’t like feeling forced to be all looks and little substance. And that’s how it felt for me at the time, being reduced to this specific archetype.”
But Real Housewives of Atlanta star Claudia Jordan who starred for four seasons from 2005 to 2009, claimed the show ‘never treated them like bimbos’ and that it helped provide ‘so many opportunities’ for them.
“For clarity – yes getting a modeling gig on a game show isn’t necessarily about your intellect, but every show the executive producers picked five models with the most outgoing and fun personalities to place mics on, who they knew would engage with the contestants,” she wrote in a post shared on Instagram.
“And Deal or No Deal never treated us like bimbos. We got so many opportunities because of that show.”
The show also had a hit Australian series hosted by Andrew O’Keefe.
Source: Deadline, Daily Mail
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6 Responses
I believe the collective noun Andrew O’Keefe used for these ladies in Australia was ‘Dealettes”
Thanks for that, what a great description, going to use that one when I encounter the next pushy saleswoman.
I really liked the Aussie model (excuse the pun) that had audience block-mates of the player hold the cases, and maybe win cash for themselves. May not have been as glamorous but it was a lot more dignified and fun.
Waiting for the Megan bashes to appear with knives out again picking her to shreds.
Don’t really have much of an opinion of her either way, but she’s standing there wearing a red cocktail dress and she appears to be under the impression she’s doing Lady Macbeth!
Nobody forced her “to be all looks and no substance”. She made the conscious decision to apply for a job for which her appearance was valued above her other attributes. She complains far too much for one who is extremely privileged.