00:00Hi, Essence family. This is Yolanda Sanguini, entertainment editor at Essence.com. Welcome to Coffee Talk, your weekly dish of what's hot on Essence.com. This week we hung out with former model, now actress, Denise Vassi, who spoke to us about her new role in VH1's Single Ladies, premiering in May.
00:20I am not replacing Stacey Dash's character, Val. Stacey Dash played Val. Denise Vassi plays Raquel. So two different actresses playing two different characters. Stacey did a wonderful job with Val. I watched the first season. She made that character her own. No one could replace her or replace Val. But since she's no longer on the show, a new character's come on who's completely different.
00:48I play Raquel Lancaster, born and bred Atlanta girl, high society, upper crust of Atlanta. Raquel is coming on strong with some deep, deep questions inside of herself. She's going to go through a major experience, episode one, that's going to just be the first thing that throws her into this place of questioning whether or not she's doing things because she really wants it.
01:18Or whether she's doing them because it just seems like that's what her parents want or what's the right thing to do. Raquel's kind of changing as we go through the season and figuring out who she is and discovering or rediscovering herself and finally living for herself and her actual wants and desires.
01:40She's not what you would expect. She could be someone who was snobbish or pompous in a way and she isn't. She's a very down to earth individual and she cares whether it's charity work or for other people and I think that that's really where the similarities lie.
02:02The fact that, you know, I'm kind of, I can live in all kinds of worlds and I've been fortunate to do that.
02:09She's not sure anymore about what she feels when it comes to love and marriage.
02:16She's, she's going out and she's trying new things and different things and things some of us would want to do but wouldn't and, and, and, and she's really pushing herself to be open to different situations and different men.
02:30It's very real. It's very real. We've all, I think that, especially for women, we've been on the side of those, you know, we've been on that side.
02:41We know what it's like to have those questions. We know what it's like to date that kind of guy or, you know, or the, the ignorance that we face out in the real world.
02:49And we know it. We look at our girlfriends. I think we find either ourselves in these characters, either parts of ourselves we're ignoring, parts of ourselves we are, or parts of ourselves we want to be, each of these characters.
03:04And I think that's what makes it so identifiable. And obviously, you know, when the audience can identify with characters is what keeps bringing them back.
03:12I mean, our cast is great to look at and we've got great fashion and there's something for everyone and I think guys watch because I think that they're like, hmm, trying to figure out exactly how we're thinking and they think that, that the show is giving them a little insight.
03:29They're right. Um, so there's, you know, there's that as well.
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