Marcille unaware of contestants' mistreatment during her time on ANTM
Producers and judges responsible for creating problematic environment on the show
Despite criticism, Marcille still grateful to Tyra Banks for changing the modeling industry
Even though Eva Marcille was a huge part of America’s Next Top Model, she had no idea what was happening to other contestants behind the scenes.
Source: JC Olivera / Getty
During her appearance on CBS Mornings on Thursday, Feb. 19, the winner of ANTM Cycle 3 shared her thoughts about the bombshell docuseries for the first time. According to Marcille, she had no idea what was going on with other contestants behind the scenes, leaving her in shock.
“I watched it and after I watched it, I was gobsmacked,” she said while speaking with Gayle King, Nate Burleson and Vladimir Duthiers. “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.”
Marcille, who competed on ANTM under her maiden name, Eva Pigford, claimed she was not approached to participate in the documentary, which she called, “very surprising.” She only appeared in Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model via a brief mention by Tyra Banks while highlighting contestants who went on to find success and reshape 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. It will never happen,” she said of her win on the series.
However, the ANTM docuseries isn’t so much focused on putting the spotlight on the franchise’s champions as it is on the show’s more controversial moments.
Among the stories resurfaced are those of former contestants who claimed they were body-shamed, racially profiled, and bullied by judges. Problematic challenges that took place in the series saw models don blackface, along with another where a contestant whose mother was shot in a violent act was asked to recreate that trauma in a photoshoot.
While Marcille told CBS Mornings she had no idea what was happening behind the scenes at the time, she said that the producers and the judges “absolutely” had a role in creating that type of environment.
“That environment could not exist without producers aiding and embedding what was going on,” said Marcille, pointing to her experience in reality TV in The Real Housewives of Atlanta and Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip. “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.”
While looking back on her time on Top Model, Marcille was shocked at how young she and her fellow contestants were. And despite being branded as “Eva the Diva,” she insisted that her mindset was singularly focused.
“We were kids trying to find our dreams realized and actualized by a woman who believed could do it for us,” she said of Banks. “And if she could see it in us, then the world could see it in us because the world sees it in her. So it was just a TV show to win a competition.”
“It was a television show, I learned later, with a competition in it,” she said. “But it was absolutely a TV show.”
Even as she’s built a prolific career as an actress, America’s Next Top Model has followed Marcille over the last two decades.
“I have been asked about Tyra for 21 years,” she explained. “No matter what project I’m doing, what I’m involved in, somehow Top Model finds its way in my interview. I’ve done 154 projects since Top Model. It’s been 21 years.”
She made it clear, though, that she still credits the series for launching her career.
“Thanks to Top Model, though,” she continued. “What I will say is I will never fail to thank Tyra. What Tyra set out to do in this business, I will always say — and especially for Top Model, initially — she set out to change the world; to change what the modeling industry looked like, sound like, felt like and expected. And she did that for me.”
But, as Banks faces criticism from fans and former contestants, Marcille says she believes apologies have limits.
“I saw the show. She apologized a million times,” Marcille said. “But an apology to the person that you wronged is only as good as they could appreciate it. And so for the young girls who were sexually assaulted… for the young girls who 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.”
