Netflix has filed a motion to strike and dismiss Tyra Banks‘ defamation lawsuit against Netflix over her portrayal in the streamer’s America’s Next Top Model docuseries, entitled Reality Check.
Banks filed a lawsuit against Netflix in June, where she argued she was falsely represented in the docuseries, arguing that her comments were “stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed.” She participated in a three-and-a-half hour long interview, outlining that just 16 minutes of her footage was used for Reality Check.
Netflix’s motion, which was filed Friday, argues that Banks’ complaints are “about ordinary editorial decisions.”
The motion confirms that Banks sat for a three-and-a-half-hour interview, adding that “After the interview, [Banks] signed an agreement granting the filmmakers the right to edit her interview footage, acknowledging she had ‘no right to review or approve’ the finished documentary, and releasing claims arising from it — including for defamation and false light. She now alleges the documentary, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model (the ‘Documentary’), defames her — not because it says anything false about her, but because she wanted advance notice of what another interviewee would say, more of her interview included, and her perspective presented differently.”
In Banks’ lawsuit, she specifically cited how she was shown in the docuseries responding to cycle two contestant Shandi Sullivan’s alleged sexual assault during filming. She was shown being asked “You remember the story with Shandi?” in Reality Check, to which she responded “um,” before the screen cuts to black, creating a “devastating and deliberate” implication that Banks couldn’t remember the assault, she argued in her suit.
“And when Banks is asked whether she remembers Sullivan’s story, the Documentary shows her answer: ‘I do remember her story.’ A documentary expressly showing Banks remembering does not imply that she forgot,” Netflix’s motion reads in response.
“Banks understands editorial discretion. She created, hosted, and executive produced 24 seasons of ANTM, making the same kinds of editorial decisions she now attacks — what footage to include, what to omit, and how to present competing narratives,” the motion continues. “The Documentary simply turned that editorial lens back on ANTM and Banks. Her disagreement with the resulting portrayal does not make it defamatory.”
A Netflix spokesperson told ABC News in a statement Friday they plan 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 statement reads. “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.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Banks’ lawyer for comment.
