The actress is reflecting on her longtime career and achievements in her new memoir.
Vivica A. Fox is not a person who holds back.
In her new book, Every Day I'm Hustling -- which is part memoir, part self-help -- Fox recounts her time in Hollywood, which includes standout performances in Independence Day, Kill Bill, Two Can Play That Game, Soul Food and most recently, a recurring arc on Empire. She details everything from Uma Thurman’s life-changing advice on the set of Kill Bill to her ongoing feud with rapper 50 Cent, offering an honest and funny perspective on her career.
But when writing the book, she also realized it was a chance to acknowledge something bigger than her own success. “I realized I wasn’t sowing these seeds for me. I think about the women I came up with: Halle, Angela, Latifah, Jada,” Fox says in an exclusive excerpt from the Audible version of the book, naming fellow black actresses who all rose to fame in the ‘90s.
While those women came after the glass-breaking work of Diahann Carroll, Lena Horne, Ruby Dee, Fox explains it’s the women who are taking charge behind the screen that represent a watershed moment. “The breakthrough for me was to see that now we have these leading ladies breaking through as producers,” she says before naming Viola Davis, Regina King among other black women in Hollywood currently starring in and producing TV. “[They’re] all incredibly talented women who are making things possible.”
True to the theme of the book -- that you make your own luck -- Fox says it’s the “head chicks in charge” who are changing the game, with or without Hollywood’s support.
When speaking with the New York Times, Fox recalled how she had to fight to get Two Can Play That Game made, while celebrating a shift in power and autonomy in Hollywood. “I’m just glad that now we have an opportunity to do our own projects and not be told how we walk and talk.
“For the first time since I’ve been doing this, women are having opportunities that we would have never had -- directing, producing, starring, everything,” Fox said. “It’s a good time for us.”
Every Day I'm Hustling (St. Martin’s Press) is out now. An exclusive audio performance by Fox is also available on Audible.
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