Melyssa Ford Stays on Track
Exclusive Interview with Melyssa Ford by Lisa K. Stephenson
Think Like A Man actress and Hollywood Unlocked on-air host Melyssa Ford is all about revamping and finding her place in life. With an academic degree in Forensic Psychology, Melyssa could not have imaged her life now, from a seven-year-old girl reading three novels a week to a glamorous actress and television personality. She questioned what her life would have been like had she not continued on her modeling path years after her obsession with Clarice Starling began. Ford credits The Silence of the Lambs as the inspiration behind her passion for the world of forensics. While attending York University paying her way by working two to three jobs, Melyssa was heading out to model in music videos like Big Pimpin’ by rapper Jay-Z and then returning to normal life in Canada. Yet, it was her the fans simply could not get enough of, as her popularity grew Ford had a choice to make, and with a fork in the road, Ford traveled the road granting her the fame and power she now has today.
New goals and plans for the future, she’s right on track and ready to welcome a new decade of blessings. The woman behind the camera is all smiles, welcoming of her journey to come and the wonderful and empowering women she is to meet along the way. With a new show and an indescribable grind, Melyssa has not only paved the way for many up and coming video vixens but has also overcome adversary and tall tales hoping to diminish her credibility as a businesswoman. But for the sake of setting the record straight Ford spoke on the term ‘video vixen’ and its unrelenting correlation to promiscuity, “I’ve always wondered how one thing equaled the other,” chuckled Ford. “How are these two not mutually exclusive concepts? What does participating in music videos have to do with being promiscuous? But when you take a step back and look at how things have evolved. The overall appearance of music videos has altered, becoming a bit more salacious and raunchier…the times have definitely changed.” We then learned that much of what viewers are not privy to is the cost of producing such music videos. Taking a trip down memory lane the term video vixen did not consist of strippers or women simply looking to get their foot in the door, no, women like Melyssa Ford came at a price, a price many artists no longer could afford to pay. The solution, hire women at no cost in exchange for exposure and the only women willing to take this deal, were, of course, those willing to do as they were told, no matter how degrading. “I was cut from a different cloth. I was hand-picked by the directors and placed in the videos. I did not go through a casting process, so it was a big difference between me and them,” Ford enlightens us.
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