Charity Shea is one fifth of our COCOBelle of the Month feature with the cast of VH1’s Single Ladies. The actress, originally from Colorado, was discovered in an amateur showcase, and has been showing off her acting chops ever since. She has starred alongside heavy hitters like Justin Timberlake and Bruce Willis (Alpha Dog), and had high profile television roles on HBO’s Entourage and CSI: Miami.
With the season 3 premier quickly approaching, we were excited to get the opportunity to sit down with Charity and find out about what makes her character, April, tick; how she manages to keep her body in such great shape with the long hours the cast works; and discovered that she is a certified nutritionist! Read on to learn more about the multi-talented Charity Shea.
Season 3, Episode 1 will air on January 6th! Let’s talk about April and her new boss, a storyline we’ll see in the first episode.
I feel like April has a solid story line that makes sense. I was so happy with this season: not only does she deal with relationship and love issues, there’s friendship and there’s career. I love love my story line this year. We are going to see April bring out her competitive edge, see her go through a lot of situations that are compromising and see how she handles them. My love interest is played by Damien Dante Wayans; he is a comedian and hysterical to work with and he’s one of my greatest friends now. I’m so happy I met him.
Tell us about how April has evolved, and where she stands with level of maturity.
April was thrown into a marriage. When you are 17-18 you think you are grown up and she found this guy and fell head over heels. We all watch Cinderella and Snow White and think that our Prince Charming is going to come. Later, it hit her that she didn’t really want married life, but instead to have fun and experience different people, guys etc. I think she was sheltered in the beginning and now she’s matured since she’s had life experiences and heart break. It has matured her because when you go through situations you learn lessons and you become smarter and make better decisions.
Tell us about your lifestyle routine—beauty, fitness, diet. What is your favorite way to fit them into your busy schedule?
With me it’s about diet and I will do what I can. I like to change it up: I will jog, run or hike, and I like Pilates occasionally, as well as Tracy Anderson workouts. When you change it up it confuses your muscles in your body and it changes the routine and it’s more exciting. But it’s hard (to fit in exercise) when we are working 15 hours a day every day, so it comes down to a flawless diet.
When I am on set, I eat all organic foods with no pesticides:
Breakfast - scrambled eggs, and sometimes, I’ll put veggies in it. I also have smoothies in the morning that are infused with all kinds of vitamins. I don’t have coffee so that smoothie and the eggs give me energy.
Lunch –fish and veggies
Dinner - lamb and veggies
My blood type is O, so I need my protein. I try to get 5 oz of protein. Every now and then I have a protein Chocolate bar--it’s healthy, though it has dates in it. Overall, if I stay on that (diet) my body looks great. It’s hard though!
Before acting and Single Ladies, did you eat this healthily? Were you into sports?
My mom raised me to be healthy from when I was a little girl, but when I was in high school, I wasn’t as strict. When I went away for my first show at college I put on weight. I went crazy! I gained the freshman 15, and after that I became a nutritionist. I learned about health. I wanted nice skin and a shapely body, so I wanted to learn all about it.
So you are a certified nutritionist?
Yep
Are you into juicing as well?
It’s the only way that I can do the hours on Single Ladies. We put garbage make-up on our faces, we’re under lights, they are curling our hair, and the mascara is breaking our lashes. Plus we are tired. By the time we get home, work out and memorize our lines, we get like 2 or 3 hours of sleep. I get through by supplementing and taking tons of vitamin drinks.
Do you replace a meal with juice or use them only as a supplement?
(Juicing) is a supplement but if I’m in a hurry it can act as a meal replacement too because I get so much nutrition. It’s hard to get nutrients from a lot of our food because it’s so depleted. As I said, I have an O blood type so I need protein--sometimes I’ll grab turkey with a juice and that’s my meat and veggie.
Are you willing to share some of your favorite juice recipes?
All veggies do something different for your body. Today I don’t feel the best immune-wise so I’ll probably go get an immunity drink which is grapefruit, lemon and ginger, plus a little orange and apple. The kale, apple celery one is amazing. And sometimes, I will do a liver one with beets carrots and garlic. It’s amazing. It’s like a spaghetti dinner to me. LOL
Do you use organic products on your skin?
Yes, the brand that saves my skin is, interestingly, from the town where I grew up: Evergreen, Colorado. When I started Single Ladies they sent me to facialist in Atlanta, and that’s how I found the company; it’s called, Osmosis. My favorite is their restorer for pigmentation--it’s everything to me. I don’t know how I’d live without it. It’s expensive, but it’s worth every dollar because it works.
How do you pamper yourself?
Denise and I go to a spa called JeJu. It’s all nude and Korean-inspired. They have rock rooms, charcoal rooms, rhinestone rooms—all with different themes. I get the best foot massages ever at that place--for an hour--since we are in heels for 16 hours a day. Our feet kill so over the weekend, we’ll go at two in the morning and leave 2 hrs later.
Read the rest of the COCOBelle of the Month interviews featuring the cast of VH1's Single Ladies:
LisaRaye McCoy
Denise Vasi
Lesley-Ann Brandt
Letoya Luckett
With the season 3 premier quickly approaching, we were excited to get the opportunity to sit down with Charity and find out about what makes her character, April, tick; how she manages to keep her body in such great shape with the long hours the cast works; and discovered that she is a certified nutritionist! Read on to learn more about the multi-talented Charity Shea.
Season 3, Episode 1 will air on January 6th! Let’s talk about April and her new boss, a storyline we’ll see in the first episode.
I feel like April has a solid story line that makes sense. I was so happy with this season: not only does she deal with relationship and love issues, there’s friendship and there’s career. I love love my story line this year. We are going to see April bring out her competitive edge, see her go through a lot of situations that are compromising and see how she handles them. My love interest is played by Damien Dante Wayans; he is a comedian and hysterical to work with and he’s one of my greatest friends now. I’m so happy I met him.
Tell us about how April has evolved, and where she stands with level of maturity.
April was thrown into a marriage. When you are 17-18 you think you are grown up and she found this guy and fell head over heels. We all watch Cinderella and Snow White and think that our Prince Charming is going to come. Later, it hit her that she didn’t really want married life, but instead to have fun and experience different people, guys etc. I think she was sheltered in the beginning and now she’s matured since she’s had life experiences and heart break. It has matured her because when you go through situations you learn lessons and you become smarter and make better decisions.
Tell us about your lifestyle routine—beauty, fitness, diet. What is your favorite way to fit them into your busy schedule?
With me it’s about diet and I will do what I can. I like to change it up: I will jog, run or hike, and I like Pilates occasionally, as well as Tracy Anderson workouts. When you change it up it confuses your muscles in your body and it changes the routine and it’s more exciting. But it’s hard (to fit in exercise) when we are working 15 hours a day every day, so it comes down to a flawless diet.
When I am on set, I eat all organic foods with no pesticides:
Breakfast - scrambled eggs, and sometimes, I’ll put veggies in it. I also have smoothies in the morning that are infused with all kinds of vitamins. I don’t have coffee so that smoothie and the eggs give me energy.
Lunch –fish and veggies
Dinner - lamb and veggies
My blood type is O, so I need my protein. I try to get 5 oz of protein. Every now and then I have a protein Chocolate bar--it’s healthy, though it has dates in it. Overall, if I stay on that (diet) my body looks great. It’s hard though!
Before acting and Single Ladies, did you eat this healthily? Were you into sports?
My mom raised me to be healthy from when I was a little girl, but when I was in high school, I wasn’t as strict. When I went away for my first show at college I put on weight. I went crazy! I gained the freshman 15, and after that I became a nutritionist. I learned about health. I wanted nice skin and a shapely body, so I wanted to learn all about it.
So you are a certified nutritionist?
Yep
Are you into juicing as well?
It’s the only way that I can do the hours on Single Ladies. We put garbage make-up on our faces, we’re under lights, they are curling our hair, and the mascara is breaking our lashes. Plus we are tired. By the time we get home, work out and memorize our lines, we get like 2 or 3 hours of sleep. I get through by supplementing and taking tons of vitamin drinks.
Do you replace a meal with juice or use them only as a supplement?
(Juicing) is a supplement but if I’m in a hurry it can act as a meal replacement too because I get so much nutrition. It’s hard to get nutrients from a lot of our food because it’s so depleted. As I said, I have an O blood type so I need protein--sometimes I’ll grab turkey with a juice and that’s my meat and veggie.
Are you willing to share some of your favorite juice recipes?
All veggies do something different for your body. Today I don’t feel the best immune-wise so I’ll probably go get an immunity drink which is grapefruit, lemon and ginger, plus a little orange and apple. The kale, apple celery one is amazing. And sometimes, I will do a liver one with beets carrots and garlic. It’s amazing. It’s like a spaghetti dinner to me. LOL
Do you use organic products on your skin?
Yes, the brand that saves my skin is, interestingly, from the town where I grew up: Evergreen, Colorado. When I started Single Ladies they sent me to facialist in Atlanta, and that’s how I found the company; it’s called, Osmosis. My favorite is their restorer for pigmentation--it’s everything to me. I don’t know how I’d live without it. It’s expensive, but it’s worth every dollar because it works.
How do you pamper yourself?
Denise and I go to a spa called JeJu. It’s all nude and Korean-inspired. They have rock rooms, charcoal rooms, rhinestone rooms—all with different themes. I get the best foot massages ever at that place--for an hour--since we are in heels for 16 hours a day. Our feet kill so over the weekend, we’ll go at two in the morning and leave 2 hrs later.
Read the rest of the COCOBelle of the Month interviews featuring the cast of VH1's Single Ladies:
LisaRaye McCoy
Denise Vasi
Lesley-Ann Brandt
Letoya Luckett