Brittany Brower reflected on having her time on America’s Next Top Model tied to the show’s most controversial photo shoot.
While promoting E!’s Dirty Rotten Scandals, which airs new episodes on Wednesday, March 11, Brower, 43, weighed in on the challenge in cycle 4 that called for the models to switch ethnicities, saying, “It didn’t age well. I’m 43 now and I’m looking back at my 22-year-old self, who didn’t know anything at the time. I’m just like, ‘Why did we do that? Why did they make us do that?'”
America’s Next Top Model, which ran from 2003 to 2018, followed aspiring models as they competed to receive a modeling contract, a fashion spread in a major magazine and a cosmetics campaign.
After Hulu made episodes available in 2020, new viewers questioned some of the show’s insensitive modeling challenges. Brower, meanwhile, pointed out that contestants didn’t “doubt or question” what they were told by producers — including creator Tyra Banks.
“At the time, no one thought anything of it. I hate to say it’s a different time, but it really was. Nothing seemed taboo, and we were all being changed [into different ethnicities]. When I got eliminated and my episode aired, I did a billion interviews, and not one question was ever about that. To me, it is a testament of the times,” she told Us. “Obviously, it was the way things happen in our world where people are watching it now, and in today’s standard, we just can’t do that.”
Brower pointed out that viewers were meant to feel “uncomfortable” about what was allowed at the time.
“It was very hard for all of us. The show is extremely hard. It felt like a women’s penitentiary. You have all of your normal comforts and luxuries completely stripped from you and you have no control of your life anymore whatsoever. You can’t even go into a store to get a toothbrush. Everything is completely taken from you,” she recalled. “We were all struggling. We were barely getting paid anything. It was a joke with per diem. To this day, we don’t make anything from it. Most of these challenges and everything we did was humiliating, and we don’t get anything for it.”
She continued: “We would love some of those residuals. They use you and abuse you and throw you out. And ANTM doesn’t define me. I have a great life. I have two beautiful boys and I have a husband that I love. Life is good, so I am in no way a victim and never would be. But it doesn’t mean that it still doesn’t hurt and that it still wasn’t sad — especially after the fact.”
Since her time on the show, Brower shifted to onscreen work with hosting opportunities and more modeling gigs.
“I stayed busy and was constantly booking things. Then when I moved to Vegas, I got married and I got pregnant two years later and I was ready to hang up those high heels. This has been the most fun I’ve had in my entire life. I’m the healthiest that I have ever been in my entire life. I prioritize my health, nutrition, working out and I just feel great,” Brower shared. “I’m in such a good place now and I have to give all honor to my faith. Life has just been a blessing. I’m so grateful every single day that I get to wake up and see my kids and be a mom. I couldn’t be happier. This has been my favorite job so far. I don’t regret any of that — it’s just they could have done some things better.”
Dirty Rotten Scandals: America’s Next Top Model airs Wednesday, March 11, at 9 p.m. ET, with Dirty Rotten Scandals: The Price is Right premiering on Wednesday, March 18.
