From the longstanding soap opera All My Children to starring in Magic Mike, Denise Vasi has shown her talents on both the big screen and off. She’s currently on VH1’s Single Ladies as business woman Raquel Lancaster, and although she may be a single lady on the show, Vasi is living the newly married life with her husband, Anthony Mandler. She’s amazingly talented, breathtakingly beautiful, incredibly down-to-earth, so make sure you keep an eye out for Vasi in the future.
Cliché: What first got you interested in acting and modeling?
Denise Vasi: Playing Cinderella in a grammar school play. I’ve always been a storyteller. As a child, I would command everyone’s attention so I could reenact stories. I think my close friends would say I still do that [laughs]. That being said, I think modeling really became interesting when I started doing it. To be honest, before being signed to Ford, I didn’t know how girls got into Seventeen Magazine and such.
How would you describe your character on Single Ladies?
Raquel is really coming into her own. This season, she’s a lot more grounded and a little less naive. Raquel’s a passionate business woman focused on building her brand. She, however, is still the hopeless romantic. Oh, and of course she is forever the fashionista and trendsetter!
You were on All My Children, so what are the main differences between working on a network soap opera and a show like Single Ladies?
Well the differences are plentiful. The amount of cameras on stage while taping each show, the camera angles, the writing, the overall feel of the show. There are also a lot more cast members on a soap opera. Stories revolve around families in soaps. With Single Ladies, the stories only revolve around us three female characters.
What’s been the most surreal moment for you so far?
When Single Ladies announced I was joining the show via those jumbotrons in Times Square, my hometown NYC. It was similar to the feeling I had the first time I had a campaign billboard up in Times Square, but better!
Check out the Feb/March issue of Cliché for more from Denise Vasi.
Featured photo: Itaysha Jordan (@itayshaphoto)
