The filing claims the ‘Reality Check’ filmmakers misrepresented Banks “through selective deletion, rearrangement and other editing techniques,” per Deadline
Credit: Netflix
NEED TO KNOW
- Tyra Banks has issued a new filing in her defamation case against the filmmakers behind Netflix’s Reality Check docuseries, which examines the history of reality competition series America’s Next Top Model and its controversies
- The filing includes video examples that claim to show how Reality Check filmmakers misrepresented Banks, who hosted ANTM for 23 cycles, “through selective deletion, rearrangement and other editing techniques,” Deadline reported on Tuesday, Sept. 22
- One video example compares Banks’ reaction to being asked about the sexual assault of ANTM contestant Shandi Sullivan as it was presented in the documentary versus what was actually filmed
Tyra Banks has filed another claim against Netflix after the streaming service hit back at the former America’s Next Top Model host’s defamation lawsuit.
The supermodel, 52, sued Netflix in June over her depiction in Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, the three-part docuseries about the modeling competition show. In August, Netflix filed a motion to dismiss Banks’ suit. Netflix and EverWonder Studio also filed an anti-SLAPP motion, a legal tool intended to dismiss lawsuits that are without merit.
On Tuesday, Sept. 22, Banks and her attorneys made another filing in the suit, this time including side-by-side video examples to bolster their claim that Reality Check filmmakers misrepresented Banks “through selective deletion, rearrangement and other editing techniques,” Deadline reported.
The first example compares Banks’ reaction to being asked about the sexual assault of ANTM contestant Shandi Sullivan as it was presented in the documentary versus what was actually filmed.
The opposition filing describes the comparison, stating, according to the outlet, “After conveying to viewers Sullivan’s story of sexual assault, Banks was asked on camera, ‘You remember the story with Shandi?’ Banks nodded and said, ‘Um … I do remember her story.’ Episode 1 airs the question. It airs the ‘Um.’ It removes the nod from between them, cuts the answer, and goes to black. Banks is left apparently unable to say whether she remembers the assault of a contestant on her own show. The nod was not cut off. It was cut out.”
The motion claims that the “defendants held the full footage, understood that it contradicted the impressions they were creating, and cut it for the purpose of conveying those false impressions.”
The second example compares a conversation around cheating that involved Sullivan. The clip originally aired in 2004 as part of cycle 2 and was featured in Reality Check.
Banks’ filing claims that the conversation was unfairly edited to portray her as instigating the conversation, whereas the original clip shows that Sullivan asked Banks about her personal experience with cheating.
“As originally broadcast, Sullivan asks Banks whether she has ever cheated or been cheated on. Banks answers, sees Sullivan tearing up, and asks whether she is okay. The Docuseries deletes Sullivan’s question, reverses the order, and adds a commentator to tell viewers that ‘it is not a coincidence that she starts talking about cheating’ and that she has ‘producers in her ear.’ Sullivan raised the subject. The Docuseries say Banks did,” the filing reads, per Deadline.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Banks hosted America’s Next Top Model for 23 cycles, the first of which aired in 2003.
The Netflix documentary takes viewers through the history of the series, beginning with Banks first conceiving the idea with the help of Ken Mok, who co-executive-produced the show with her and also took part in the docuseries.
In the three-part project, Banks was asked to address head-on some of the more controversial moments from the show’s tenure, including Sullivan’s alleged sexual assault in cycle 2, which took place during an episode where the models were in Italy, and male models came over to their house.
Credit: Netflix
In the lawsuit, Banks claims that she was unaware that Sullivan classified what happened to her as sexual assault.
The lawsuit alleges that just 16 minutes of Banks’ lengthy interview was used in the docuseries, and that the clips were “stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed.”
At the time of Netflix’s countersuit, a Netflix spokesperson told PEOPLE in a statement that it plans to “vigorously defend” the docuseries and those behind it.
“Directors Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy are respected documentarians who thoroughly interviewed the people behind America’s Next Top Model,” the streamer’s statement read. “Tyra Banks was given the opportunity to speak openly about her experience and the creators fairly presented her perspective alongside those of every other participant shown in this documentary. We stand behind Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model and will continue to vigorously defend it.”
Sources from the company also told PEOPLE that since the beginning of the docuseries’ production process, the creative team was candid about the importance of Banks’ perspective while also being clear that she would have no editorial control over the series.
Banks’ attorney, Tom Clare, told PEOPLE in a statement that her lawsuit “raises a simple question: can viewers trust that a documentary presented as fact fairly represents what happened and what people actually said?”
Read the full article here
