by Gina Scarpa and Thea Napolitano

Last week on America's Next Top Model, Mike and Jeremy landed in the bottom after a beauty pageant meets trailer park photo shoot. Thanks to the fan vote, Jeremy was safe and Mike was eliminated. The 26 year old was discovered in L.A. by Tyra Banks herself and was asked to audition but his time in the competition ended up being short lived. We talked to Mike after his elimination about who he looked up, his fight with Chris, and the biggest thing he's taking away from his experience on ANTM.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: The story of Tyra discovering you at work and asking you to be on Top Model is a pretty cool one. As you went through the audition process, were you expecting to get on the show?
A. Mike: Until Tyra called my name at that ceremony, I literally didn't think I was going to be on. I'm very go with the flow but until she finally calls your name, you don't believe it. The whole way it happened is just mind blowing when I think about it sometimes! Why that shift? Why that day? Why wasn't anyone else there? Why was she around? It's pretty remarkable!

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Was there anyone that stood out as your biggest competition or someone to look up to?
A. Mike: I mean, I was the oldest one there so I didn't look up to anyone in that regard. To me, for such a new experience, modeling in general... you're always competing against everyone. It was just one big competition! I'm fighting against everyone.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You were up and down in the competition with the judges. Was it stressful to feel like you didn't know where you stood with them?
A. Mike: Of course! I think they want that. The whole time you're there, there's a knot in your stomach because you don't know what's coming next. We don't even know what we're doing. We just know we need to be ready in the morning. You're constantly guessing what's coming next. It's just one total big mind f---. I don't know how else to put it!

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You were eliminated before you could talk things out with Chris. What's your take on the fight between you two?
A. Mike: I mean basically, without getting super into it, the context of it was really blown out of proportion. He kept interrupting me when I was trying to say something important to everyone in the house. It was a natural reaction, I wasn't attacking him in any way. To me, it wasn't a big deal. A couple minutes later, when the cameras were there, he got in my face about it. I don't know... to me, I had fun in the experience. Chris is someone who I can tell you was different when the cameras were on. He wants to make things overly dramatic and start things with people. If that's what he wants to do, that's fine, but I'm not going to buy into it.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Do you feel like your runway walk was one of the weakest?
A. Mike: Oh, it was definitely one of the weaker ones! In the house, we would have runway practices and people would help me out. It's a competition but you wanna help the people out that are next to you.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What did you gain from being on ANTM and what's next for you?
A. Mike: Looking back and reflecting on the whole thing, I think Tyra helped me find something in me that I felt was always there but I didn't know how to go about it. I'm just forever grateful and thankful to her. I really kind of found a passion for doing this and it's certainly something I want to continue to do. I've been doing test photo shoots and practicing my walk. Once the whole show is done, then I can really pursue it 110%.

America's Next Top Model airs Fridays at 8/7c on The CW.

(Image courtesy of The CW)

Follow Gina @ginascarpa