Atop a New York City roof on an unseasonably warm afternoon, my subject stood clad in an authoritative get-up embodying a stoic veneer that seemed tough to crack. During our ensuing dialogue, I would attempt to chisel away at the surface of a soon-to-be well-known face. She tells me that her career is what she does, not who she is. And so, it was time to get to the crux of the matter.
Susie Castillo grew up in a low-income, predominantly Latino neighborhood in Methuen, Massachusetts. Raised by a single-mother who often worked two or three jobs at a time to make ends meet, Susie and her two sisters were encouraged to be strong, independent women with successful careers. "Anything we wanted to do she supported. There were never any limits as to what I could do and what I could achieve. I literally grew up believing I could be anything I wanted." After entering and winning the Miss Massachusetts pageant, she competed for the Miss USA title and in 2003, Susie became the third Latina in history to win the coveted crown. Soon, execs at MTV took notice and in 2005, she became co-host of TRL.
As an MTV VJ, she has interviewed some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry, but it was a certain Bronx-bred celebrity that proved to be the most intimidating interview she has conducted to date. "The first time I met Jennifer Lopez I was shaking. I don't really get star-struck [but] I was star-struck with her. [That's] the career that I'm looking toward for my future. She made it happen."
It is this background and mentality that fuels Susie's ambition and drive. She never tires of the limelight and tells me, "I want to be on the cover of UnChin. I'd rather be on the cover than [only] on the inside." Throughout our conversation, the word 'positive' is dropped countless times, and you get nothing less than what you would expect from a former Miss USA. Her answers are optimistic and energetic, thoughtful and intelligent. She is in person what you see on MTV: A happy, bubbly personality that can flawlessly diffuse an awkward situation or give the nastiest cloud a silver-lining. "I do my best to see the positive in things. I didn't get to where I am now by thinking negatively and adopting negative ways. I try to learn by other people's mistakes."
Being immersed in a celebrity-driven environment has led Susie to wonder about the antics of several media darlings. “You see people like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan and they’re always in the media for these outrageous things, but usually it’s more for their personal life than their work...... this persona that everybody sees, do they do it on purpose or is that just them, the way they are?”
Although she makes her living in a business that is known for its materialistic ways and shallow endeavors, she is a long-time advocate of cancer and environmental issues, and is fiercely loyal to her family and fiancé, who proposed to her on the 'On-Air with Ryan Seacrest' show. Her career is taking off and her attempt at making a jump into acting are currently in place, having just signed on to play a reporter in the upcoming Disney production of Underdog.
Despite the picture-perfect credentials, I wonder if there is something more raw lying beneath the surface. I still want to get to the core of the woman who says the most rebellious thing she's ever done was pierce her tongue, "just to see what all the fuss was about.”
And just when I thought that what I was seeing was what I was getting, our talk turns to her father, who left the family when Susie was only 6 years old. When I ask her if it’s a relationship she would ever consider reconciling, her eyes squint slightly and I can almost catch a glimpse of the little girl with big dreams growing up in Methuen: “I’ve tried several times to have him back in my life. He’s disappointed me every time. It’s not hard - be a real person. I’m your daughter - you have other daughters. How could you not want to be part of our lives? And he’s made that choice. I certainly didn’t.”
Magazine: UnChin, Issue 06
Location: NYC Rooftop, May 2006
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