'The Celebrity Apprentice' -- Vivica A. Fox talks about the seventh season

The Celebrity Apprentice's seventh season kicks off with a two-night event on Sunday, January 4 and Monday, January 5 on NBC.


Part of the star-studded cast is Vivica A. Fox, an actress who appeared in flicks such as Independence Day. She also competed in the third season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars during which she was voted off in the fourth week.

In addition, viewers might have seen Vivica hosting Glam God in 2008, hosting Lifetime's Prank My Mom, or serving as a judge on The WB's talent show The Starlet.

During a recent conference call with reporters, Vivica was joined by Leeza Gibbons and Ian Ziering to tease the upcoming season and talk about their experiences on The Celebrity Apprentice. Below is Vivica's portion of the interview. Check back with Reality TV World soon for more from Leeza and Ian.

Do you think you've done your best on this show and what were some of your setbacks?


Vivica A. Fox:  Absolutely. I mean not everyone, you know, I think what Leeza, Ian and I have is we're so used to taking constructive criticism from producers and directors that we know how to bend, and not everyone bends as easily as others. That's what I found out from working this season on The Celebrity Apprentice.

Could you please talk about working with Joan Rivers whom I know was an advisor on two of the episodes this season?

Vivica A. Fox:  Well for me, it was an absolute pleasure, because I had met Joan over the years just being on the Red Carpet, you know, with the famous, you know, who are you wearing? And when she would show up, you know, it was always so much love and such a pleasant surprise.

And she was tough. She would let you know you're not doing a good job or you need to step it up, so it was definitely tough love and an absolute pleasure to spend some time with her. And I was just as shocked and devastated as everyone else was of her passing.

There's a couple of Atlanta people on the show, Keshia Knight Pulliam and Kenya Moore, I know you can't tell me what exactly happens in the show, but what were your impressions or past, you know, talking with either of those women?


Vivica A. Fox:  From your two Atlanta natives, I found them to be very intelligent, very outgoing and very driven, and they make the show very interesting this season.

So Atlantans will be very proud of Kenya and, gosh, Keshia. And then I remember, like, one of our first challenges. Me and Kenya, we were out on the streets of New York, passing out flyers, bringing people to our competition and had no shame in our game at all, so they both worked really hard.

Compare this experience to your stint on Dancing with the Stars. What's the difference?

Vivica A. Fox: This was... definitely harder than Dancing with the Stars. It is, for me, it definitely was. Dancing with the Stars, you got to rehearse like, you know, six hours a day, but then you got to walk away from it.

We worked like 12-hour days, six days a week and, wow, there were some nights that I could barely go to sleep because my brain wouldn't shut-off because I was thinking -- because we were turning the task around so fast.


We were wondering if you could clue us into some of the most shocking moments of the season, did anything come as a surprise to you?

Vivica A. Fox: Yes. And then also you -- I think shocking things that you'll be able to see -- shocked to see -- are some of the friendships that develop, like who works really well with each other and who doesn't work so well with each other.

That will be shocking to find out. Ian's fashions were pretty hot too. [He was] definitely bringing his A game too with the fashion, so, we'll say the fashions will be shocking as well, because we were sharp.

What was it like working with Ian, first on Sharknato 2 and then competing against him on The Celebrity Apprentice?

Vivica A. Fox: [I love him]. For me, it was a welcomed surprise to find out that we were then going to do Celebrity Apprentice together. So last year we spent, you know, what about four or five months straight almost in New York. And it was cold, I can tell you that. It was a cold season.


But it was good some days to see a kind face that I knew, that when it got really tough -- and it did get mentally exhausting some days -- just to go over and I was able to get a hug or just say, "Whoo, you know, are you hanging in there?"

Just to be able to separate and get to know Ian really as a friend outside of a competitor on the show. So I was blessed and very, very happy that we got to do the two projects back-to-back.

How do you prepare for something like this? We've heard from prior competitors it is obviously very physically and emotionally taxing, so what's the mindset coming into it?

Vivica A. Fox: What I did is, I asked a couple of people that had been on there in the past from Star Jones to Holly Robinson Peete to Mark McGrath, who we were doing Sharknato 2 with, wow, what was it like.

And the first thing that they all said is, "Be prepared to work." So I said, "Okay, this isn't going to be [a lot of] work." So that, you know, I said, "Okay, you've got to be mentally tough and physically tough to endure this."


The great thing about watching this show is that we get to see celebrities out of their element and we get to learn things about them that we didn't know. And I think the other great thing is that you get to learn things about yourselves. Tell me a little bit about that.

Vivica A. Fox: Well for me, it was my patience. I definitely learned to be a lot more patient and learned to kind of know my place, play my position and stay in my lane. Because there were times that you were the project manager and had to take the lead, and then there were other times that your job was to be an assistant.

So being that we all are the type of people that are in charge of our careers and we run our system, we converse with our manager and our agent on what direction we want to go in.

The tasks that we were given sometimes and just knowing your place and playing your position and staying in my lane, for me, was like, "Oh wow, okay, I'm good at strategizing." And more than anything else, I learned about patience because there were days that my patience was definitely tested. 

Would you say it was a life-changing experience for you?

Vivica A. Fox: For me, [yes]. And I thought I knew New York but I sure learned a lot more about New York than what I ever thought to know.


I was wondering, could you each speak about what it was like to work with Donald Trump and whether you'd met him before. Is he similar or very different from what we see on TV, his persona if you will?

Vivica A. Fox: Well if I, that was my first time having that much contact with Mr. Trump and I found him to be a straight shooter, which is the kind of person that I like. I found that if you were honest with him and you didn't try to BS him, that you -- that he would -- he would just responded to you a lot more positively.

So, like I said, I got to know him and I personally got even more respect for him because he's a straight shooter and he likes making things happen and that's my kind of guy. [His family] had an excellent presence, excellent presence.

[Donald] was very funny. [His building expansion] was surprising to find out too. [Ivanka Trump] is beautiful... A lot of the girls got "girl crushes" on [Ivanka]. Like Ivanka's here today, oh my God, she's got on good shoes, she was awesome.

How did your communication skills improve during this process?

Vivica A. Fox: For me, I thought [it made] sense to dish out constructive criticism sometimes. I had to learn, like per episode, you know, each person and how to manipulate them to get the end result of what I wanted.


Because you couldn't -- some people, you had to kind of handle them with kid gloves, and other people, you could just be a straight shooter with. So you had to learn the difference of working with the personality per cast member.

Would you mind telling me the charity or foundation you're working so hard for this season?

Vivica A. Fox: I'm the last one. I played for Best Buddies. I was introduced to Best Buddies with -- through Olympian Carl Lewis -- years ago, and I fell in love with the Kennedy/Shriver family who works very, very hard to provide housing and employment opportunities for kids with special needs and adults with special needs.

To see these kids with special needs, how they just want to be normal, the things that we take for granted, getting up, going to work, having someone take you seriously, having someone look at your talent and not look at you because you have a special need and let it be a detriment, it's something I've been involved in for the last 10 years.

And they actually came by and celebrated a birthday with me when I was filming the show. And for me, Best Buddies is just something that I believe in and I was proud to represent them.

So you're fighting for your charity. Let's say you are in the boardroom fighting for your spot. What's your best strategy to not get fired and how do you balance your professionalism with Mr. Trump but also put up a good fight for yourself?


Vivica A. Fox: Well for me, I found that just being honest with Mr. Trump and not trying to sugar coat if things didn't go well, to take responsibility and to learn from each task. And I just felt, for me, my strongest tool for survival in the boardroom was honesty but don't come at me crazy, boo, because it's all in my popcorn and I'm going to leave it there.

Check back with Reality TV World soon for interviews with fellow The Celebrity Apprentice cast members Leeza Gibbons and Ian Ziering.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski