MTV is currently airing The Real World: Brooklyn while filming the next sesaon in Cancun, Mexico.  With one season underway and another in production, it's already time to begin casting season 23 (if you can believe it).  Open casting calls are being held around the country and Bunim/Murray Productions is also accepting casting tapes.  To help those interested in trying out for The Real World, we sat down with casting director Damon Furberg to get an inside peek at what he's looking for, what he can't stand, as well as his thoughts on the current season.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: I can’t help but notice that the cast of The Real World: Brooklyn seems to be different than recent casts.  They remind me of old school casts like Seattle or Boston.  Was that intentional?
A. Damon: Yeah, it was.  When we look at the overall cast, decisions like that like, “Oh, this is gonna be a little more old school” come into play.  We wanted to deliberately head in the opposite direction that reality tv was going.  We thought, “Why don’t we see what happens?”  I think it worked out well.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: The cast this season didn’t have a specific job and were allowed to pursue their own careers individually.  Is that something you plan on doing again next season?
A. Damon: It depends on the circumstances.  That decision grew out of… these people have enough going on and it was also a nod to the original New York season who, of course, didn’t have jobs.  I think it’s a direction we’re going to head in.  With The Real World, you’ve got two types of seasons: a story season and a drama season.  Of course, you always wanna have a little of both but The Real World: Brooklyn is certainly a story season.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: It’s gotta be tough to cast The Real World, which is heading into its 23rd season.  You have people who really know the show and they must really try fit into a stereotype of a Real World cast member.
A. Damon: It’s so tragic when people do that because it’s an immediate strike against you in casting.  The biggest challenge we face is that we are going into our 23rd season and how do you find a new type of person that we haven’t seen before?  It’s never easy and it gets harder every season.  Ryan, from the Brooklyn cast, is a perfect example… all of them are.  They’re layered.  At first, you think Ryan’s a typical frat guy but he’s not at all.  His layers unfold naturally.  With Katelynn, we just got lucky.  It’s so hard to find someone who has such an incredible story to tell and then, who is so interesting to watch.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Obviously, there are people this season who came on The Real World to find some kind of fame.  When someone is trying out for the show, do you prefer that they are in it for the fame or for the experience?
A. Damon: The ideal applicant is someone who wants to do this for the experience.  I tell people, “If you’re doing this to become the next Meryl Streep, you might be disappointed.”  I think it’s fine to want some fame out of this but not to look at The Real World as a springboard or something to put on your resume.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: The most common advice we get for our readers, from casting directors and cast members, is to be yourself.  Some people must feel, though, that being themselves isn’t enough.  Can you elaborate a little more about being yourself in a casting call?
A. Damon: People say that it’s terrible advice because it’s so vague but it really is true: be yourself.  It’s important to walk into a casting call knowing what’s special about you… the bullet points of your life, things that would jump out at a casting director.  At the same time, don’t rehearse what you’re going to say.  There’s this interesting phenomenon that happens all the time.  Someone who is a fan of the show or desperate to get on television brings along a friend to a casting who really doesn’t care and the friend ends up getting picked.  Just think to yourself, “I’m gonna have fun, be myself, but I’m not auditioning for a Broadway show.”  If you get rejected, you can’t take it personally.  We only take 7 or 8 people out of the thousands and thousands that try out.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What’s the biggest turnoff for you when casting?
A. Damon: I think it goes back to performances, that fake quality.  Don’t walk into a casting and tell me that you know what I’m looking for because I don’t even know what I’m looking for.  We’re looking for people who are natural and can’t help but be themselves.  That is so hard to find.  We’re in a generation of people who never knew life without reality tv.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Last question.  Can you spill any Real World season 23 secrets?
A. Damon: Usually, we don’t know what city we’re going to be in until after the cast is put together or right before.  I have no info on that.  The next season is filming in Cancun and it’s going really well.

Check out all the casting info for The Real World season 23 HERE.

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