EVA Marcille is larger than LIFE

Sass, energy, vitality. These are the qualities that earned Eva Marcille a highly competed victory in the third and most watched cycle of Tyra Banks’ Americas Next Top Model. This October Belle caught up with busy Eva—as she took a breather at the Atlanta airport—to find out why this woman is described as larger than life.

The America’s Next Top Model series followed fourteen women vying to prove that they had what it takes to flourish in the high-stress, high-stakes world of fashion modeling. Each week the field was narrowed via a series of competitions designed to determine a winner. The season finale began with Eva Marcille Pigford, Amanda Lynn Swafford, and Camara “Yaya” Da Costa competing in a CoverGirl photo shoot. Amanda was the first girl eliminated leaving Eva and Yaya (a 21-year-old student from Harlem, NY) to face their final challenge—walking the fashion runway for renowned designer Noriko Fukushima. The unconventional square-shaped runway, with audience members seated in the center, provided a surprise challenge, whilst runway expert J. Alexander instructed both girls that their walk should be slow and slumbered. When it came time to strut, both Eva and Yaya impressed the judges with their calm, professional air.

At the final elimination, the judges evaluated each girl’s final runway performance as well as their photographs shot throughout the competition. Instinctively Eva and Yaya had seen each other as the main competition from the start; Eva noted that both saw strength in each other and recognized that strength and yearning to win. The judges felt that the two finalists offered different representations of beauty and that each certainly had model potential. As she prepared to announce the winner, Tyra Banks commented, “The decision was hard tonight. It was so hard because you two are so different...both of you represent beauty from different aspects.” But the judges had made their decision, and Eva was announced as America’s Next Top Model.

Stunning Eva grew up in southern California, and though she had a tough childhood, she commendably maintained her composure and flamboyance while she excelled academically. Naively, she did not render herself “cute” as a teen but was innately attracted to fashion, had uncanny great taste in clothing and lifestyle, and was considered a born diva by those who knew her well. In describing Eva’s transformation from academic tomboy to runway superstar acclaimed fashion designer Nolé Marin said, “Eva... she’s like Cinderella. She comes in like a little tough boy, she turned into this incredible, gorgeous woman.”

And Eva has created history…twice. She’s the first African American winner of America’s Next Top Model; and she’s the shortest model, standing at 5’ 7”, to win the competition to date. She bubbly remarks, “You never know how it’s going to feel to win, it wasn’t real till it happened.”

So who was Eva before America’s Next Top Model and how has her life changed since? “I had no intention of becoming a top model, I was pursuing an academic degree at Clark – Atlanta University in Speech Communications, and was on the debate team, when I entered the competition and won. I’ve only become a better person, I try to be better every day than I was before,” Eva expounded. And though the Tyra Banks’ series made her famous, Eva has been modeling and working longer than most people think, having been featured in numerous photo shoots with accomplished fashion photographers and starring in the independent feature film The Walk during her freshman year. Following her America’s Next Top Model win, Eva became a runway sensation, and has since graced the covers of countless American and European fashion magazines and appeared in numerous fashion campaigns.

Eva’s acting career has also taken off. After recurring and guest star roles on Tyler Perry’s House of Pain, Smallville, and Everybody Hates Chris, Eva had a leading role in Sony Pictures’ film Crossover, and Chris Rock wrote a supporting role just for her in his Fox feature I Think I Love My Wife. Eva also served as the co-creator and producer of BET-J’s hit fall 2006 fashion series My Model Looks Better Than Your Model.

Is the modeling and acting world daunting to the young superstar? “Modeling is a beautiful outlet, it can’t be classed simply as difficult or exciting, but a combination of so many things. It’s a lifestyle,” Eva posited. Currently, she plays a recurring role in popular daytime soap, The Young and the Restless. Her character’s name is Tyra Hamilton—an inline joke from America’s Next Top Model—she had a daughter at a very young age and has recently moved to Genoa City to seek refuge…and of course drama unfolds! But you can’t come to Genoa city without drama, and Eva is certain that her character is a good girl at heart.

What’s Eva’s future plans? She has dabbled in modeling, acting and producing and believes she’s meant to do some of all. She enjoyed being behind the scenes at My Model Looks Better Than Your Model but for now she’s focused on her acting career and is certainly not bogged down with questions of ‘what’s next.’ The whole world is open to her. For Eva, the sky’s the limit.

- Danielle Watson