Netflix has clapped back at Tyra Banks’ defamation lawsuit against the streaming channel for her portrayal in the America’s Next Top Model docuseries, Reality Check.
The American model and TV personality sued Netflix in June alleging that the streaming platform negatively portrayed her in the docuseries and that her remarks were “stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed.”
She pointed out that out of a three-and-a-half hour long interview, her footage was shown for 16 minutes only.
Now Netflix has filed a counter motion on Friday to dismiss the model’s lawsuit claiming that Tyra’s part in the docuseries was “ordinary editorial decisions.”
The streaming platform also argued that Tyra herself gave permission to edit her parts.
The motion says, as per The Hollywood Reporter, “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.”
Tyra in her filing specifically objected on how the documentary showed her discussing former contestant Shandi Sullivan’s alleged sexual assault. She claimed the editing created a “devastating and deliberate” impression that she could not remember what happened.
Netflix argued in the latest filing, “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.”
Moreover, the motion mentioned that the previous 24 seasons of America’s Next Top Model was created, hosted and executive produced by Tyra, who made similar editing decisions.
“Her disagreement with the resulting portrayal does not make it defamatory,” Netflix said.
The streaming platform also mentioned that it will “vigorously defend” the documentary and its creators.
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