In an interview with DJ Envy, Charlamagne Tha God and Angela Yee of The Breakfast Club, Blood Sweat and Heels star Melyssa Ford sat down to serve some tea on her struggle to try and get past her days as a “video vixen” and be taken more seriously in other endeavors, including TV. During the conversation, Ford brought up the fact that part of the struggle comes from the fact that people can’t seem to separate regular video models from models who sleep around on sets. She says that after Karrine Steffans wrote her book, Confessions of a Video Vixen, all video models received a bad rap. She says that it was always her plan to leave videos behind (even though she claims she was making $5,000 A DAY), but it hasn’t been easy. Here’s the tea:
On Her Exit Strategy To Leave Video Modeling Behind:
[6:00 minute mark] Who would want do do that forever? Whose trying to be a 35-year-old video girl? You gotta have an exit strategy for just about everything. In terms of business, the whole point is to dominate and then leverage it and then move on to the next. Hopefully, it’s not a lateral move, hopefully, you’re moving on up. I just took my popularity and leveraged it, branded myself and started creating product: calendars, behind-the-scenes DVDs, pep posters–you name it, I slapped my name on it. After I accummulated this fan base, then I started to solicit television opportunities. I was already on BET’s radar. A lot of what’s happened in my career has been solely based on timing.
Why Karrine Steffans Made Things Hard For All Video Models:
[8:00 minute mark] You know the answer to that. It’s kind of a book that came out. Here’s the craziest part, Karrine, I’m sure that personally she’s a lovely girl, I don’t know her personally…Here’s the truth of the matter, when I was on video sets, no one knew who this girl was. I thought she was the Snuffleupagus. I thought she was an urban myth, I didn’t think she existed because I didn’t know anyone that had ever seen her before. Her name just floated around like this big mystery. Then this book came out and it defined an entire group! Like all video vixens–hos. I was just like, ‘hold on, your story and mine are two very, very different stories.’ I was the queen of no…You really have to monitor what’s going on around you in a video set.
Of course, Ford has come a long way and she knows what she’s capable of. Go, girl! Check out her interview with The Breakfast Club below, where she also talks about her ex, Flo Rida, and his ex, Eva Marcille, who she had a light beef with. I mean, if you have 40 minutes to spare…
