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Credit: Abaca Press/INSTARimages
Eva Marcille is weighing in on Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, a recently premiered Netflix docuseries about America’s Next Top Model.
Over two decades after the 41-year-old Real Housewives of Atlanta alum was featured on the series’ third installment, Eva, who was seen only in a “snippet” from the series, reacted to the stories of the show’s models, explained why the apologies Tyra Banks, 52, has offered will never be enough, and blamed the show’s producers for creating a toxic environment for their talent.
“I was gobsmacked. I was in awe … My mouth was wide open. To be a part of a club and not know what’s going on in the club is crazy,” Eva shared on the February 19 episode of CBS Mornings. “[I was] amazingly horrified [by] the stories. I have lived my experience. I have walked in my shoes, and though there is a level of relatability, one would assume someone having walked in the same shoes, I had no idea, like, absolutely no idea.”
Although Eva said she would be forever thankful to Tyra for the platform she gave her, which set her up for a career in not only modeling, but also acting and reality television, she doesn’t believe that her “I’m sorries” could ever take away what certain cast members went through during their time on Top Model.
In addition to an alleged sexual assault, eating disorders, and reported bullying, one model was asked to recreate the horrific murder of her mother for a photoshoot.
“She apologized a million times. But an apology to the person that you wronged is only as good as they could appreciate it,” Eva explained. “So for the young girls that were sexually assaulted, for the young women, for the young girls that now have eating disorders or look at themselves and never feel beautiful, that little girl in them that will always live in the woman that is them, there is no sorry, I think, that’s big enough to truly feel and heal that kind of hurt.”
According to Eva, the producers and judges of the show “absolutely” had a role in creating the environment discussed in the three-part docuseries.
“That environment could not exist without producers aiding and abetting what was going on,” she stated. “I’ve done reality now on every level. Housewives, I mean, I don’t know what is going on in someone’s life unless the producers tell me. It’s a part of how this thing works. At the time, we were kids trying to find our dreams realized and actualized by a woman that we believed could do that for us. And if she could see it in us, then the world would see it in us because the world sees it in her.”
Also during her interview, Eva responded to the scene in which she was featured.
“There’s a moment where Tyra talks about the people that have been successful on the show, and she gives a nod to what has transformed the industry, being that I was the shortest girl on my season, and the idea of a black girl and this short in the modeling business, it’s unheard of,” she revealed.
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is currently streaming on Netflix.
