Tyra Banks Explains Why She Regrets Her Role in 2002’s ‘Halloween: Resurrection’

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Tyra Banks is looking back on one movie role that definitely didn’t turn out the way she hoped.

Nearly 25 years after starring in 2002’s “Halloween: Resurrection,” Banks, 52, admitted she has no fond memories of making the horror sequel. When Entertainment Weekly asked whether she looks back fondly on the experience, her answer was immediate.

“No,” Banks said. “Not even a little bit. Like, not even a tiny bit.”

Banks explained that she wasn’t sold on appearing in the eighth “Halloween” movie from the start. At the time, she was already a successful model trying to grow her acting career and wondered whether joining the horror franchise was the right move.

An agent eventually convinced her by bringing up Josh Hartnett, who appeared in 1998’s “Halloween H20” before his acting career took off.

“I was like, ‘I’m not going to do that.’ What is it going to do for my career?” Banks recalled. “I’m a model, and I need to do things that are kind of different to get this acting career that I want.”

But her agent had a convincing response: “No, Josh Hartnett did ‘Halloween,’ and look what he’s doing now!”

Tyra Banks Thought ‘Halloween’ Would Help Her Acting Career

Banks ultimately took the role, believing it could give her the kind of career boost she was looking for.

“So I was like, yeah, okay, this is going to do it for me,” she recalled.

Banks played Nora Winston, a producer behind an internet reality show that sends a group of young people into Michael Myers’ childhood home in Haddonfield. She appeared alongside Busta Rhymes, who played Freddie Harris.

Unfortunately for Banks, things didn’t go according to plan. She said the movie didn’t do much for her acting career, and the memorable moment she thought she would get from the role never made it into the finished film.

“Not only did it not do anything for me, they cut the damn death scene,” Banks said.

Although Michael Myers kills Nora in the movie, viewers don’t actually see the attack. Instead, her body is shown afterward. The deleted version of the scene has since surfaced online.

Banks joked that she went into the project expecting both a potential career boost and a horror movie death audiences would remember.

She said she was “promised the career of Josh Hartnett, of an actor, and promised an iconic death scene that will last forever, and neither of them happened.”

Tyra Banks Found Success Elsewhere After ‘Halloween: Resurrection’

While the movie didn’t become the acting breakthrough Banks expected, it was only one part of her career on screen.

Before “Halloween: Resurrection,” Banks landed her first major film role in 1995’s “Higher Learning.” She later appeared in 2000’s “Coyote Ugly” and starred alongside Lindsay Lohan in Disney’s “Life-Size.” She eventually returned as Eve in “Life-Size 2” in 2018.

Her television career took off shortly after her turn in the “Halloween” franchise. According to Us Weekly, Banks created and hosted “America’s Next Top Model,” which premiered in 2003, one year after “Halloween: Resurrection.” The competition series went on to run until 2018.

Banks also hosted “The Tyra Banks Show,” earning two Daytime Emmy Awards, and later hosted “Dancing With the Stars” from 2020 to 2022. She recently returned to acting on television with a role on “Bel-Air.”

More than two decades later, Banks can laugh about what she was originally promised when she agreed to face Michael Myers. But her feelings about how the experience actually turned out remain pretty clear.

“So, I have beef with ‘Halloween 8’!” Banks said.