Movieline Talks to Nina Garcia About Project Runway's New Season and Most Brilliant Moments Ever

The most bizarre moments on the show have happened during the runway judging. Do any stand out as totally strange, even now?

There were a couple! Santino, the weird breakdown he had there. There was another one, where Andrae -- remember Andrae? We just asked him a question and he broke down into tears because he was so nervous. That was bizarre. That was bizarre. And there've been models who have fainted, from not eating or something.

The contestants you've sparred with most -- Santino, for example, or Ricky from Season Four -- what it is like running into them after the show is over? Is there tension?

Oh, there's no tension on my part. I wish them all well. I don't know if there is tension on their part. I haven't run into Ricky, I have run into Santino, and you know, it's Santino. What you see on TV is exactly what goes on in real life. The attitude doesn't change, it's still there.

How do you handle judging during the episodes when one contestant has clearly lost? I'm thinking of the Season Five opener, when Jerry Tam sent down that

Frankenstein/Silkwood outfit made out of grocery store materials. There was no way he wasn't going to lose.

Oh my God, they're so much fun, but you really get to see the creativity. But sometimes it becomes also comical. Like that Frankenstein outfit, I couldn't hold back the laughter. It was hysterical. But you don't want to offend them either by laughing, but [laughing] you're like -- what is this person, what are they thinking? Sometimes it's hard to maintain a straight face, and someone will say a comment, and you'll say, "Oh my" and it just cracks you up. But it's their work, so you don't want to offend them, and it is hard! And it's those particular challenges where they're doing crazy things -- and you're thinking, 'Oh God, this challenge, how boring, what were they [the producers] thinking?' -- they end up being the best challenges. You're really testing them on their creativity, and some of them come up with absolutely beautiful results. I mean, I remember we did the Hershey's challenge. Do you remember that?

Yes, and Rami won.

I was like, "Uhhh. This is such a stupid challenge. I can't imagine what they're going to come up with." And then there was -- remember that red twirl dress?

That Jillian did?

Yes, that Jillian did! You're so good, you have such a good memory. Yes. The red twirl dress that Jillian did was a work of art. It was gorgeous! They were all gorgeous, but with that one, I was blown away. Some fantastic work comes out of that. That's when you really know, wow, this person is talented and creative, and they can really pull something out of pretty unusual materials.

Lastly: For all of Project Runway's ineffable qualities, each season brings its own batch of compulsively watchable personalities or issues. What are this season's signature perks?

The group is really strong, and there's a lot of them. You know sometimes there are only four really talented ones? There's a lot of them here. There are some really colorful personalities that you're going to want to root for, really endearing personalities. One in particular -- is very endearing. There's also talent, and you'll notice there's really talent here. A lot of it. There's not four or five [talented contestants], there's more. I think the process of casting this particular season was much more thorough than in last seasons. We did a more extensive search, and we got a bunch of designers from very different areas. And it will happen very quickly that you'll see the talent. You'll notice it very soon.

Photo Credit: The fab Project RunGay

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