Behind the scenes at the Victoria's Secret casting: It's all long limbs, big smiles, and tears.

If you thought the Victoria’s Secret runway was just a parade of the genetically blessed… well, you’d be right.

However, it takes a lot more than just having a body on which nothing moves (except your breasts, which should jiggle in an alluring fashion).

Securing a position in that showcase of lissome limbs and cheap nylon underwear is actually a gruelling undertaking, requiring dedication not dissimilar to that of a Navy SEAL.

Between 400 and 500 women vie for the Victoria’s Secret auditions, but only 45 will have the honour of strutting down the runway.

Those auditions must simply do wonders for the self-esteem!

Observe the audition process here… Post continues after video.

And just because you’ve walked in the VS show before, doesn’t guarantee you a position again.

“Every year it feels like it’s the very, very first show and one thing that I do all year long is really try to… work as hard as I can,” says Brazilian model Izabel Goulart, 31, fighting tears.

“So I can deserve to be here, to be a part of the moment that only happens at the show, at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.”

It kind of feels like the auditions are only for some of the lesser-known models.

For other more famous ones, such as model-of-the-moment Gigi Hadid, inclusion is a fait accompli even though she too has to strut in the same underwear in front of a panel of middle-aged judges like the others.

Hadid is informed she’ll be joining the VS show at her audition, but other models must wait while the judges deliberate, saying things like, “I think she’s in better shape than she’s been in some time,” and “she’s powerful on the runway,” which I can only imagine means she dead-lifts weights on her way down it.

This is a show for which Kate Upton was considered “too obvious”.

“She’s like a footballer’s wife, with the too-blonde hair and that kind of face that anyone with enough money can go out and buy,” sniffed VS casting director Sophia Neophitou. Charming.

Models who make it conduct themselves like elite athletes. Lily Aldridge, who this year will wear the coveted Victoria’s Secret wings (SHRUG), works out six times a week.

Karlie Kloss appears to subsist on egg whites and grapefruit, if her Instagram account is any indication of her dietary habits.

In this year’s show there are newcomers like Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner, veterans such as Lily Aldridge, Alessandra Ambrosio and Adrianna Lima, Behati Prinsloo and Candice Swanepoel. And yes, Izabel Goulart did make it.