Published: Sunday - February 27, 2005
Words by Mark Lelinwalla
Vida Guerra (Photo: BallerStatus (file))
The reigning days of the slender, non-curvaceous Hollywood female prototype are in grave danger. To the guys' delight, Jennifer Lopez may have first put booty on the mainstream Hollywood map, but Vida Guerra plans on putting it on the world!
That's right, when it comes to eye candy in the game; the soon-to-be 26-year-old Vida Guerra has been making the fellas pump their breaks for some serious bumper double-takes! Her first appearance in FHM magazine spawned a massive fan following in urban hip-hop culture and white America. Subsequent sizzling magazine shoots and cameos in music videos like Diddy and Nelly's "Shake Ya Tailfeather," Cassidy's "Get No Betta" and currently Frankie J's "Obsession" not only helped showcased her assets, but also added to her allure.
Now, like Lopez did, Vida is focused on spreading her talents in the music and acting worlds. Vida played three roles in Fake Preacher" and while she's currently reviewing other scripts, she promises a hot R&B, pop sound for her album, Mi Vida, tentatively due in September of this year.
Something tells us at Ballerstatus.com that the parallels between her and J-Lo are just starting and there's a pattern developing. Therefore, before she truly becomes a household name, we here at BallerStatus had the privilege of conducting this interview with Vida at her GSPN management headquarters in New Jersey. Vida always looks confident in her pictures, but during the interview she also proved to be humble and just downright cool. So ladies with the backyards be proud and fellas pay attention as we get to know the stunning Vida Guerra.
BallerStatus.com: You're known for your lovely backside and speaking of which, do you ever get tired of people mentioning it? I'm looking at you right now and you have a beautiful face. Do you ever feel like, "Pay attention to the rest of me?"
Vida: No, because that's what the initial attention and hype was all about. It's all good because my talents will reveal itself, and speak for themselves; so it's all good.
BallerStatus.com: Can you share with us what you have on your plate right now and what things we can expect?
Vida: I have a record contract, so I'll be releasing a record hopefully this year -- God willing by September 8. The name of the album is going to be Mi Vida, and I have a few movie scripts that I'm reviewing. Right now, I just did a Burger King commercial, so that airs in two weeks. That's good.
BallerStatus.com: What kind of music are you going to put out?
Vida: R&B, pop.
BallerStatus.com: Have you already started working on that?
Vida: Yea, first song is "You Ain"t Ready."
BallerStatus.com: Tell us about the song.
Vida: The song "You Ain't Ready" could be taken two different ways. Like, I have a hard time finding a guy... It's just like I'm a sex symbol, so people when they approach me, they approach me differently. It's really hard to find someone who's genuinely nice and has good intentions. So every guy is like, "Yea, I can put it down" or whatever and I'm saying, "No, You ain't ready!" You ain't ready for me, and what I want or it can be taken as the music industry is not ready for me, because no one knows that I was singing. I've been singing since I was young, but then for a while I didn't do anything with it and kind of just now -- with all the different things that's going on -- opportunities presented themselves and I said, "You know what, let me just go for it." You won't know till you try.
BallerStatus.com: I read into what you just said a little more and are you telling us right now because Valentine's Day is around the corner, that Vida does not have a Valentine?
Vida: (Pretends to wipe tears with her hand) Vida doesn't have a Valentine.
BallerStatus.com: So how does a young hip-hop and sports reporter go about applying for that!?
Vida: (Laughs and points to the writer like, "listen to this guy") You know what it is? It takes time. I'm the type of person that I'm not be drawn to somebody by their looks or what they have. It's so much more than superficial things and just to get to know the person; it takes time. It's hard, because I don't have time to get to know somebody and then the people I am approached by are thinking about, "Can I hit that?" or whatever. It's just hard. Today I was like, "I don't think I'm going to ever get married." Like nothing is ever going to happen in the love department for me.
BallerStatus.com: That's not true. What are your turn-ons and turn-offs? What do you look for in a guy; physicality, does race and age count?
Vida: No physicality, no nothing. It's just how a person is, their heart, how they treat me. I don't like people that lie or people that are shady. Like once they're shady and I feel that they're shady -- because I'm very intuitive -- I just cross them right out like they don't even... it's not worth it to me, to invest time and energy into something.
BallerStatus.com: You have already been linked to guys like Jeremy Shockey and Derek Jeter? Are you ready for more gossip everyday? How do you go about handling that?
Vida: I just think like growing up... I grew up in a small town, people knew who I was. The guys liked me and the girls didn't like me. It was the gossip thing, and I always said that I'm just a regular girl and I don't know why people hate on me; I'm just an average girl. Like if I was in the magazines, or movies, or singing then people have reason to say, "Hey." Like the first time I came out in a magazine it's like, "OK, now you can hate on me." But I just feel like all my life I've been preparing for this' and I know how to deal with this because I dealt with it. I know it's going to get greater with a lot more people, but you can't listen to it because a lot of people are going to have their own opinion. You just brush it off and keep going; you live for you. You don't live your life for anyone else. So, yea, there are going to be rumors. I was never with Jeremy, I was never with Usher. I'm just friends with Derek. Like, I just did a music video with Frankie J, and people have me linked to him. It's like whomever you're next to. Like, I'm afraid. I was on the red carpet this past weekend for Super Bowl with Johnny Chan and Chris Moneymaker -- these guys are like big poker guys -- because they have these new chips that are Vida Guerra chips. Now they're going to be saying that I'm with them both and that's not true. It's so stupid, but I guess that's how the media makes its money. It keeps people interested, because for some reason people like the negative stuff.
BallerStatus.com: I know you must hear, "Vida's ass, Vida's ass" all the time. I'm going to go over a list of other names that if you could for a day, change the word ass to blank. Badunka? Bumper? Fatty?
Vida: Caboose. Ever heard of that?
BallerStatus.com: Yea, I heard of that.
Vida: That's in the Burger King commercial. Part of the single is, "Here comes the girl with the nice caboose" and I'm like (begins to groove).
BallerStatus.com: Ok tell me about the movies. You said you are working on a couple of scripts.
Vida: Yea, I have two scripts that I can't speak about because I mean; I haven't done anything or signed anything. I could speak on the movie that I did. It was called, "Fake Preacher." The movie is about this guy who's a preacher, but he's actually a con-man and he cons people into giving money to the church, which is really going into his pocket and his wife is a scam-artist too; she does ATM scams. So my character is an undercover police officer, an FBI agent that goes under cover. I go to church pretending I'm a good church girl, and I also run the ATM scams with the wife.
BallerStatus.com: Ohh, scandalous.
Vida: Yea, I play three different roles, which is kind of cool.
BallerStatus.com: What do you like doing the best so far? You're doing the music -- that I didn't know about -- acting and the modeling. Do you want to do as much as you can for as long as you can or do you want to field off into one?
Vida: The modeling is what got me in right now. Eventually, as I get older I'm going to start going more into the music and the TV. The modeling is just the beginning. Like I said, I wasn't thinking about the modeling. It was just something that happened, but I take it to you know.
BallerStatus.com: The poker chips you have coming, are kinda different, right?
Vida: Yea, it's so cool because like Suge Knight's [poker chip packaging] is like a coffin and then you lift it up and all the poker chips are in there. Mine, they haven't done it. But the chips are just pictures of me. I gave them the idea to do the world, because it goes with Vidasworld.com; my website. So, I don't know what they're going to do with packaging.
BallerStatus.com: I know in Spanish, Vida means life and Guerra means war. Which word would you choose to go with to best describe you intimately?
Vida: (Smiles) I can give you life, and I could give you war.
BallerStatus.com: Is it a burst of life or is it a war?
Vida: (Smiles) It could be a war; it could be life, depending on the mood that I'm in. That's just in a relationship; I can give you life and I can give you war.
BallerStatus.com: You've created a following for yourself just from the magazines, how do you feel about the fan base that you've built starting with FHM?
Vida: Oh my God! I'm so happy and grateful. Thank you for the love and support. Like I said, it's totally unexpected, and I couldn't be here today if it wasn't for my loyal fan base. That's why on my website, I've created a membership area, and my members can go and log onto that. The first thousand members have a chance to send me emails -- we still don't have the thousand, so if anyone wants to be a member (smiles) you can still go and sign up. I'm the one that responds, so sometimes it takes a little long.
BallerStatus.com: Before Jennifer Lopez came along, the whole Hollywood female prototype was the blond hair, blue eyes, skinny, with a big rack. How do you feel, along with J-Lo and Beyonce' in being one of the women at the forefront, pushing the more curvaceous figure along the lines?
Vida: I feel good because we have to open that up, because obviously, when the [FHM magazine] came out -- and they had other girls there -- they weren't shaped like me, and I got such a huge response. That means that's what they want to see. That's what they should get more of. Not everyone is into the girl that's 5'10" and skinny with no curves whatsoever. I think the model style is totally changing. It's been happening since J-Lo hit the scene, and all that is just changing. Hollywood is changing too, because in Hollywood they want you to be all skinny. If there's a set of people that say this is the way it's supposed to be, but the majority says, "No, this is what we like," then why not?
BallerStatus.com: Women like you are making believers out of Ol' School Hollywood and White America. But and this isn't based on facts, but I would think that a lot of White America is still hooked on that old type.
Vida: They are. It's just going to take some time for people to accept some things different. This is a world with many colors, many...it's so different. People are just going to have to learn how to accept that. Deal with it!
For more info on Vida Guerra, visit her official website at VidasWorld.com.
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