J. Alexander still knows how to command a room, even through a laptop screen. A ’90s runway coach who taught supermodels like Naomi Campbell and Kimora Lee Simmons how to walk a catwalk, Alexander shifted careers in 2003 when one of his pupils, Tyra Banks, tapped him to join her on a little UPN show called America’s Next Top Model. As a judge and runway coach for a passel of wannabe supermodels, he transformed into “Miss J,” bringing drag to the screen at a time when queerness was vanishingly rare on American TV screens. Even those who’ve never watched Top Model will recognize his face from any number of reaction GIFs that still circulate online.
As the new Netflix documentary Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model depicts, ANTM started out as an experiment rejected by every major network and grew into a reality-TV behemoth with its own language and lore. Scandal rocked the set; lingo like smize, tooch, and flawsome entered the vernacular; and one particular Banks blowup went viral years before the word viral itself went mainstream. Top Model was not without its flaws and detractors, many of which the doc tackles head on — from racist challengesand narrow body standards to manipulative editing. Today, Alexander emphasizes, as he does in the documentary, that his influence over certain things, like challenges, was limited. “If I was there for the meetings,” he says, “I would’ve said, ‘Ehhh, you really want to do that?’”
