At a recent fall festival at Hofstra University, theGrio sat down with reality star La La Vasquez Anthony and discussed her life at the hands of the media and where she’s headed.
From rumors about her famous husband, New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony, to her life as the “first lady” of basketball, La La and her extended family have been topics of conversation since their move to the Big Apple earlier this year.
Despite her high NBA profile, La La is reluctant to comment on the show Basketball Wives because she feels anything she says will be misconstrued. La La made it clear that she refuses to feed into drama. “It’s good to have a balance where you get that and then you get what my show brings, which is something very different,” she said.
And with her new VH1 series La La’s Full Court Life, she has become even more susceptible to the media. But La La says that, “You know what you’re getting yourself into when you do reality television, so I was up for it. I knew what it was.”
On the most recent season of La La’s Full Court Life, we see her dealing with baby rumors about husband. She also addresses her weight insecurity; a shared issue that many women can identify with. When asked how it was to be vulnerable to the world, La La said, “It wasn’t an issue for me because it’s reality and I wanted people to feel like they saw who I really was.”
And we are definitely seeing who La La really is. Her show is a testimonial to her relatable, down to earth, girl next-door personality.
But it’s her Hollywood hopes that is now taking center stage. Both she and her hubby are tackling new acting roles. According to a recent tweet, “Congrats to my babe @CarmeloAnthony… great job on Law and Order tonight! Ur a natural.”
La La first hit the silver screen in 2001 with her cameo in Two Can Play That Game as Bobby the DJ. In most of her other film credits, La La played herself, but is now trying to break into character roles, like friend and BET’s 106 and Park host Terrence J.
La La also just wrapped the movie adaptation of Steve Harvey’s book, Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man, alongside stars like Gabrielle Union, Taraji P. Henson, Michael Ealy and comedian Kevin Hart.
Also, premiering October 5th, La La will make her debut on stage in an off Broadway play, Love, Lost and What I Wore, a whimsical tale of how clothing and accessories trigger the memories of yesterday.
The former Request Live VJ for MTV says, “I want to expand what I do and definitely focus a little more in the acting, theater world.”
La La says that she will host, “when it makes sense” but is now focusing on advancing her career to new heights.
La La says there is more to her than her roles as host, basketball wife and mom and says that she wants the world to see her many talents.
“There’s many sides to a coin and one person can in fact do a lot of different things.”