‘We want people to be angry’

Get ready to hit the catwalk. 

The new Netflix doc “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model” covers the behind the scenes chaos, and the complicated legacy of the iconic reality series – without Tyra Banks’ input.

“There was no creative control. Tyra is going to see the [documentary] exactly like all the 270 million households [that subscribe to Netflix],” doc director Daniel Sivan told Page Six. 

Banks, 52, appears onscreen in interviews, speaking out for the first time since “Top Model” ended in 2018.

Co-director Mor Loushy told Page Six that it “took time” to get Banks onboard, estimating that she was in talks with the production for “several months” before agreeing to participate.

“Tyra decided that it’s time for her to speak up,” she said, adding that because it was the “very first time” that Banks has spoken out, “We didn’t know what to expect. We came, and she was very emotional. She wanted to tell her side of the story, like the contestants are telling their side of the story. But everybody was participating in the show as participants, and nothing more than that.” 

“America’s Next Top Model” was a seminal reality series that premiered in 2003. Banks created and hosted the show. Along with Banks, exec producer Ken Mok appears in the doc, as well as the show’s former judges, J. Alexander, Jay Manuel, Nigel Barker, and a slew of former contestants, such as Shandi Sullivan, Dani Evans, Whitney Thompson, and Ebony Haith, and Giselle Samson. 

The show had many controversies and has since received criticism, for how Banks and the judges talked about the weight of contestants and appearances onscreen, and making the aspiring models participate in photoshoots where they pretended to be different races, or pretended to be murder victims. 

Silvan said that nobody was reluctant to participate or answer questions. 

“I think enough years have passed and enough reflection and self-reflection has been done… I think everybody came to tell their story.”

Everyone who participated in the doc, such as former contestants, Banks, Mok, and the judges were, “In a place where they accepted the good and the bad that they did,” he explained. “I think that’s commendable, people who are not shying from the ugliness, but are here to share it and show their process.”

He also didn’t get the impression that any of his interview subjects such as Banks came to do “damage control,” or say, “How do I weasel myself out of it?”

The director said, “People were here to say, ‘hey, this is me, and this is what made me do these things.” 

Both filmmakers said they want viewers to “engage” with the documentary. 

“We want people to be angry and also to love this [doc] and we want them to debate it with each other,” said Sivan. 

“We want people to keep the discussion going,” he told Page Six. “I think if it will create a debate about body images today, about sexual harassment about boundaries, about when do you need to put down the camera and scream, ‘cut!’”