How to nail a Love Island application and audition, by ex-Islanders
âDonât be a Molly-Maeâ đŹ
Applications are always open for Love Island, but the application and audition process is notoriously difficult to nail â with over 100,000 hopefuls sending off to be on the show in the past.
The process is gruelling â contestants must fill out a form with their bad habits, likes and dislikes and about their taste in someone to date. They also have to send in an audition video and thereâs a round of telephone interviews before around 1,000 people get through to the final rounds and end up being auditioned by the producers. So, how the hell are you meant to make yourself stand out?
We asked a bunch of ex-Islanders how to nail the Love Island application and audition process and found times when Islanders have spoken about it previously â hereâs what they had to say.
âDonât put pressure on yourself and focus on what makes you differentâ
You should use the audition process to come across as yourself and be natural with no pressure, according to 2021 Islander Sharon Gaffka. She told The Tab: âA lot of people when they apply put a lot of pressure on themselves because they want it so bad. Because I didnât, I just came across as myself. I was surprised every stage further I got into the show. I was just like, âI canât believe this is happeningâ.â
Speaking of the one-minute video contestants have to submit, she said: âContestants have stuff going on in their lives. There are other things about them that makes them different from other people and, in your application, you really should focus on that as opposed to why you want to be on the show.â
âDonât be a Molly-Maeâ
Savagely, 2022 winners Ekin-Su and Davide have said one of their top tips for nailing a Love Island audition is to not be like 2019âs Molly-Mae Hague. âIâve got the best advice for anyone applying now,â Ekin-Su said in an interview. âDonât copy past Love Islanders, donât try and be a Molly-Mae, donât try and be an Amber Davies, donât try and be a Tommy Fury.
âBe you. Be authentic on the application and donât worry about sounding fancy. If you like eating doughnuts with salmon, write that. People like quirky personalities, you donât want to fake it. You can only hide that mask for two days and it falls off.â Davide echoed Ekin-Su, adding âdonât go for the fame, just go because you genuinely want to find someoneâ.
âUse your best assetsâ
2018 star Laura Anderson credits her one-minute video to getting on the show. She did a documentary style day-in-the-life video from Dubai. âI just used my best assets, I had to really think about what makes me different because I knew they must want individuals,â she told RadioTimes.
âMy job was interesting, and also that Iâm Scottish but lived in Dubai. So I just used that in my video initially. Although I had a good life in Dubai, I felt I wasnât moving forward and I knew it wasnât forever. Iâm so glad I took the leap of faith and just applied for the show, itâs definitely paid off.â
Have some good stories about yourself
During the interview process, Love Island hopefuls are invited to ITV offices to chat to producers. Season two Islander, Scott Thomas, said in an interview his top tip here is to have some good stories about yourself ready. The more wild the better, you want the casting team to take notice, after all.
âItâs a dead relaxed and chilled process,â he said. âThey ask you about some of the crazier things youâve done. The casting directors are definitely looking for people who will go in there and wear their heart on their sleeve.â
âHave fun and flirt with the person whoâs castingâ
Itâs a dating show after all, so Casa Amor 2020 Islander Biggs Chris highly recommends getting your flirt on from the outset. âDonât overthink, go in the audition with high hopes, and remember itâs normal to be nervous â we are human beings,â he told The Tab. âDonât worry about making mistakes, go in and smash it, have fun and flirt with the person casting â it always helps, thatâs what I did!â
Be yourself
Lots of Islanders have echoed the same message with their top tips to nail the Love Island application process â to simply be yourself. Winter Islander Biggs told The Tab this is his number one tip for any hopeful contestant. âI canât stress this enough,â he said. âIf youâre a bad boy, keep this energy for the audition and the show and if youâre chilled or a quiet person keep that energy â donât be someone youâre not, not being yourself will come across as fake.â
Sharing on her Instagram story her top tips for having a successful audition process for Love Island, 2021 favourite Liberty Poole said you need to be âunapologetically yourselfâ. âTo be fair, I mean, just be yourself. Like, I am an absolute nutter and they liked it,â she posted. She urged hopefuls to have fun and get creative. âWith me, I did a Peri-o-meter because I worked at Nandoâs so it still showed who I was, but in a different way,â she said. âAnd just have fun with it and donât be too serious. And then I was like glamour queen by night and marketing student by day and I switched outfits, and I was just myself.â
Laura Anderson added: âI think you just have to be genuine because the camera never lies. You canât plan for whether youâre liked or not.â
Donât take it too seriously
Season threeâs Theo Campbell added that you need to not be afraid to take the piss out of the process, and even the show. âI just flipped it round and ended up interviewing the girls interviewing me,â he told RadioTimes. âI convinced them both that theyâd been cheated on. They asked me what Iâd do if Iâd won the money. I said pay off all my parking tickets. If there was any money left over, Iâd put them aside for more parking tickets. I was only messing with them, but I guess I made an impression there. I just had a laugh and was myself. I had no real intention of going on the show at the time.â
âDonât do it how I did it â I cried the whole way through!â
Speaking on her Instagram story, 2021âs Faye Winter told anyone looking to apply to just not do it how she did. She went on to explain her application and interview process, saying: âI had my first interview, was a bit of a hard-faced cow then I had to have a second one with a different casting researcher because they wanted to see a softer side of me and I cried the whole way through it.
âBut he could see I was as soft as a fucking Mr Whippy ice cream. So then I went to meet the execs and I think they could all see I was soft as shit.â She then concluded she was âso soft but I had such a hard exterior and didnât want to let anyone inâ. She said her top tip for the interview is âbe as open and honest as you can be.â
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