Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault, Violence, Gun Violence.
Three-part Netflix docu-series, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, has finally been released and the show is even crazier than you remember.
Revisiting the chaos of the series, which was created and hosted by supermodel Tyra Banks, the documentary raises serious questions about what was once seen as an “edgy” modelling show.
At its peak, ANTM defined early-2000s reality television, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was a good thing.
In fact, both fans and producers alike watched back many of the famous scenes in horror.
But there is one photoshoot in particular that has the TV execs mortified.
What is the one shoot producers are sorry for?
In Cycle 8, models were made to pose as different crime scene victims- styled as though they had been violently murdered, and for model Dionne Walters, the crime victim shoot was particularly personal.
Dionne was told to pose as if someone had “shot her in the head” despite producers knowing her own mother was left paralysed after being shot herself.
Recalling the horrible shoot in the docu-series, Dionne said: “They knew about it from the application process, but they still chose to have me do this particular photo shoot that involved gun violence. I thought it was a coincidence at the time, but I don’t think it was.”
During the episode, a photographer complained on camera that contestant Dionne didn’t “take initiative” or improvise enough.
ANTM producers “wanted to see a mental breakdown”
Looking back, Dionne offers a very different interpretation: “I think they wanted to see some type of mental breakdown, or to see me crumble, but I’m just glad that they didn’t get the reaction that I feel like they were hoping to get.”
To make matters worse, Dionne was then eliminated from the show: “When I was eliminated, I was f***ing shocked,” she admitted.
Even ANTM’s executive producers Ken Mok now expresses regret. In Reality Check, he says to the cameras: “I take full responsibility for that shoot. That was a mistake. I look back now and I think it was a celebration of violence. It was crazy. That one I look back on and I’m like, ‘You were an idiot.'”
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