The divas are back for the holiday season! VH1's A New Diva Christmas Carol might have you thinking of the 2000 original television film of the same name, starring Vanessa L. Williams and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, but this new story is a different take on the classic Charles Dickens' tale.
According to star Vivica A. Fox, the key to the new contemporary twist on a holiday classic is the special trio of holiday spirits played by Fox, Robin Givens and Eva Marcille.
Executive produced by Idris Elba, A New Diva Christmas Carol tells the story of Aphrodite (GRAMMY winner Ashanti), a mean-spirited singer who becomes a judge on a reality show and is visited by three ghosts who take her on a journey through Christmas past, present and future to give her a new attitude.
Although Fox told ET's Rachel Smith that Elba was undoubtedly the big draw for her initially joining the project, she shared that the film "just kept getting better" when she learned of her co-stars.
"It just kept getting better when they were like, 'And also, you're going to be with Ashanti, she's gonna play Aphrodite, then your two other sister spirits are going to be Robin Givens, who plays Zara, and Eva Marcille,' who's like a baby sister to me. She plays Zero, who is the spirit of service," Fox explained.
"I love this fun, fierce group of leading ladies," Fox added, also praising their production team for ensuring each "diva" had a unique character to bring to life. "Sometimes it’s difficult to make each character different and we did a really good job with the three girls. And we really bonded a lot while filming, we really did."
Fox shared how, unlike her character, Ashanti handled her role as the film's lead with grace. "She had so much going on -- she was the lead of the movie, she was in... 90 percent of the movie, so she worked a lot and then on the weekends she'd go do some shows," the actress recalled. "I was like, 'I don’t know how you’re doing this' girl, but kudos to you!' She had a lot on her plate, but she handled it very gracefully."
She also described Ashanti's character, Aphrodite, as the worst kind of diva -- a bitter one!
"She's a bitter diva who lost her thrill of love and Christmas -- all the wonderful things that happen at this time of the year that Christmas should be about," she shared. "She lost her spirit but you find out why, that’s what’s very important about this story."
Reflecting on her own career, Fox acknowledged there was a point where she had diva-like qualities.
"I mean, you know, in my career I had five huge box office hits from Soul Food, to Independence Day to Set It Off to Two Can Play That Game and Booty Call, so my head was this big, OK?" she joked.
When asked what humbled her, she cracked, "The phone not ringing."
On a more serious note, she said a couple of her close friends brought her back to earth and shared her advice for other actresses.
"Yeah, if I think about it, I would say maybe a couple of my friends, like my business partner, you know, she was like, 'Wow that head's getting kinda big coming through the door right about now. Feeling yourself?' ... You go through chapters of your career, that's what I always tell actresses. You're not gonna always be he a hot piece at all times, you know, we're in a business where things change constantly. So I had to go and reinvent myself, so I went back to the theater, I went and got on the road and did plays and I reintroduced myself to my audience because, you know, for a while there it was just about, hey, we're more concerned about my love life than my talent, and that happens. So, what I learned from that experience was keep things private and do the work."
Meanwhile, in a departure from the usual Dickens' format, Fox revealed that the holiday spirits in A New Diva Christmas Carol take a different approach to meet their new charge. "[In so] many Christmas movies you’ll have the ghost of past, present and future all come at different times, [but] not with this one. We all showed up together [and] we showed her the error [of] her ways," she explained. "That’s what I really like about this story, that made it different than the original."
And, of course, there's the music! With a songstress like Ashanti as the lead, as well as Spice Girl Mel B. in the cast, the festive flick is sure to have a great musical moment or two for viewers to enjoy.
A New Diva Christmas Carol premieres on Dec. 14 at 8 p.m. on VH1.
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