Tyra Banks has filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix and the directors of its docuseries Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model, alleging that the producers stripped down hours of interview footage to construct a false narrative. In the lawsuit filed Saturday in Los Angeles federal court, the model who created and hosted America's Next Top Model said she was interviewed for 3 ½ hours, during which she took responsibility for some of the show's controversial decisions. Those interviews were edited down to 16 minutes and manipulated "to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed," the lawsuit said. "The accountability Ms. Banks took ended up on the cutting room floor. It was there, but viewers were never given the opportunity to see it."
Banks is seeking damages in her lawsuit against Netflix, the directors Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy, and EverWonder Studio, reports the AP. She's also seeking an injunction barring the use of her image in connection with the docuseries' soundtrack, released as an album. America's Next Top Model launched in 2003 and ran for 24 seasons. In recent years, the reality competition series has undergone a critical reevaluation over accusations of body shaming, manipulation of contestants, and problematic photoshoots. Banks has previously addressed those criticisms, acknowledging "the insensitivity of past ANTM moments" and "some really off choices."
The lawsuit contends that the producers of the Netflix docuseries used "selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage" to formulate a narrative that Banks allowed a contestant to be sexually assaulted on the show, used the contestant's trauma to drum up ratings, and then couldn't remember it when asked during the interviews. "Defendants edited the Netflix Series to make it appear that Ms. Banks knew she was being asked about a sexual assault and was intentionally trying to evade the topic," the lawsuit stated, contending that Banks hadn't been told—or asked—about the assault during the interview. Banks' lawyers reached out to Netflix in March to request access to the full footage of her interviews. Netflix and EverWonder denied that request, according to the lawsuit.
Banks' lawyers wrote that she wasn't permitted to review the docuseries until a day before its Feb. 16 release. According to the lawsuit, she was not contacted for fact-checking after her interviews, and was not given an opportunity to respond to accusations from other participants. Other judges from the show, including one her lawyers contend holds a grudge against Banks, consulted on the docuseries. "Had Ms. Banks known these individuals were so deeply involved in the formulation of the Netflix Series, also serving as consultants shaping the editorial direction, and that she had been excluded from such a role, it would have raised a red flag," the lawsuit read. "She would have known she was being set up. She would not have participated."
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