Eva Marcille is proud of how far she has come after winning America’s Next Top Model.
More than 20 years after being crowned the winner on cycle 3 of Tyra Banks’ reality show, Marcille, 41, (who was previously known as Eva Pigford) explained her career evolution after earning the title of Top Model.
“I walk into a room, and I am known as Eva — not the model girl, not the this and not the that, and not because it wasn’t hard. It was very difficult to pay my dues,” Marcille exclusively shared with Us Weekly while supporting her new Lifetime movie, Pushed Off a Plane and Survived. “But [Tyra] gave me the opportunity to pay my dues on the back end, and a lot of entertainers have to pay it on the front end, and then they’re famed. A lot of people from Top Model didn’t realize becoming famed doesn’t mean that you now have a career.”
From the moment Marcille was crowned the winner, she made it her mission to “fight for that career.”
“That’s what I feel like was missing on Top Model because I got the scarlet letter. I changed my name to Marcille so that when I walked into an audition, I wasn’t prejudged,” she explained to Us. “But I’m prejudged in everything I do, and so I am not going to hang my hat on Tyra and make it as if she is the reason why the industry has been difficult.”
Marcille added, “The industry is difficult because it is difficult — period. Tyra did us — did me — a service, and helped me a lot. And I’m very appreciative of her.”
Like many previous America’s Next Top Model participants, Marcille has watched Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.
Models, judges and Banks herself agreed to look back at the reality show’s complicated legacy in an eye-opening Netflix documentary series.
Eva Marcille Us Weekly
While some contestants are quick to criticize Banks, 52, Marcille has empathy for the TV personality who became the first Black woman to appear on the covers of GQ, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and the Victoria’s Secret catalog.
“I don’t know what the world wants from Tyra,” Marcille shared. “I know I heard her say ‘sorry’ multiple times. I’m not one to tell you how genuine I thought it was or was not. I definitely heard it, but I think it’s really hard when your back is up against the wall and the entire business is now pointing a finger at you and not for anything you did good, but for only your flaws. … I feel for Tyra. I truly do, because this is the day and age where we gaslight and we blackball and we cancel. It’s a cancel culture, and I don’t think she deserves that.”
Modeling aside, Marcille is excited for fans to see her next movie role on Lifetime.
Former America’s Next Top Model Eva Marcille is weighing in after the reality series was explored in a new bombshell Netflix documentary. “I watched it and after I watched it, I was gobsmacked,” Marcille, 41, said during the Thursday, February 19, episode of CBS Mornings. “I was in awe … My mouth was wide open. […]
In Pushed Off a Plane and Survived, a skydiving trip turns into a nightmare when Jaynie (played by Marcille) plummets 4,000 feet from the sky and somehow survives against all odds.
“Lifetime does a beautiful job at finding stories that are ripped from the headlines, and as an actor, art depicts life,” Marcille shared. “What yummier story to tell than a real-life story and to be pushed from a plane?”
Pushed Off a Plane and Survived premieres on Lifetime Saturday, February 28, at 8 p.m. ET.
