LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tyra Banks has initiated a defamation lawsuit targeting Netflix and the creators of the docuseries “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.” In her claim, Banks accuses the producers of distorting extensive interview footage to fabricate a misleading narrative.
Filed on Saturday in a Los Angeles federal court, the lawsuit asserts that Banks, the mastermind and host behind “America’s Next Top Model,” participated in a 3 ½-hour interview. During this session, she addressed and took ownership of several contentious elements from the show. However, the footage was heavily edited, reduced to just 16 minutes, and altered to convey a narrative that she argues misrepresents her actual statements.
“The moments where Ms. Banks acknowledged responsibility were entirely omitted,” her attorneys stated. “These segments existed but were never shown to the audience.”
In her legal action, Banks is seeking financial compensation from Netflix, directors Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy, and EverWonder Studio. Additionally, she is pursuing a court order to prevent the use of her likeness in connection with the docuseries’ soundtrack, which has been released as an album.
Requests for comment were sent on Sunday to the representatives of the defendants.
“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 wrote that she wasn’t permitted to review the docuseries until a day before its Feb. 16 release. According to the lawsuit, she had not been 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.”
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. Since the docuseries’ release, public reaction has been “swift, harsh, and directed squarely at Ms. Banks” — even SMiZE & DREAM, her ice cream shop in Sydney, Australia, has been subject to review bombing on Google, the lawsuit read.
“Every other conversation about ANTM’s legacy — including the candid reflection Ms. Banks came prepared to have — is now drowned out by an accusation she was never given the chance to answer,” her lawyers wrote. “This lawsuit is that answer — particularly after her efforts to resolve the matter directly with Netflix and the producers were refused.”