Vanessa Williams spent her first moments on the set of her new series, "Daytime Divas," rocking the hell out of a bikini. But it wasn't a day at the beach!
The 54-year-old actress stars as daytime TV host Maxine Robinson on the VH1 show, based on Star Jones' "View"-inspired piece of literary fiction, "Satan's Sisters." The first episode finds the show's panel of women -- including Williams, Tichina Arnold, Chloe Bridges, Fiona Gubelmann and Camille Guaty -- "bravely taking back the beach" by slipping into swimwear.
While her character doesn't appear to have any problem flaunting her physique in an orange two-piece, Williams didn't sound as enthusiastic while speaking to TooFab.
"It's awful," she said with a laugh. "The only person who probably didn't have a problem was Chloe, who's like 22 and crazy body and was eating waffles in-between takes from craft services."
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View Story"That was the first scene that we shot, so we had network and Sony there and the writers and producers and stuff," she continued. "It was definitely not a comfortable day to start off the show, but it shows what it's like to do daytime. Everybody's gotta do it and shows the attitudes of getting the show done, who's complaining, who's whining, who goes for it."
Though the bikini shoot wasn't her favorite day on set, Williams did tease an upcoming moment from the series she can't wait to air.
"There is an episode that we do with Janet Mock, who is transgender and just a brilliant writer, an amazing human being. She did a great job on the show playing herself as a guest co-host," explained Williams.
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View Story"Just the content that we're talking about and the sensitivity and the timeliness of it ... that's what I'm most excited for people to see," she added.
And while she's thrilled about the timeliness of Mock's storyline, don't expect to see much talk of President Donald Trump on the show.
"We started in August, in the middle of the election," explained Williams. "We didn't know when this was actually going to get shown. I think I have one line about Trump but besides that, there's nothing that's actually happened recently in terms of Russia or Comey or anything like that."
"Daytime Divas" premieres Monday, June 5 at 10pm PT on VH1.
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