Vivica A. Fox Teases ‘Automatic Chemistry’ With Damon Wayans Sr. on ‘Poppa’s House’: ‘Just Flirting’ (Exclusive)

Vivica A. Fox‘s guest stint on Poppa’s House gave her a coveted opportunity — to flirt with Damon Wayans Sr.

“The beautiful thing is I know the entire [Wayans] family and I’ve worked with the entire family. So believe it or not, that chemistry was at the table read,” Fox, 60, recalled during an exclusive interview with Us Weekly. “Everybody was rolling because Damon was just flirting.”

Fox recalled having onscreen chemistry with Wayans, 64, immediately, adding, “It literally just grew the week of rehearsals and then finally taping. We had automatic chemistry. I just think this is because I know the family so well and they’re just awesome. It’s a well-oiled machine over there at Poppa’s House.”

The CBS series, which premiered in October 2024, follows legendary talk radio host Poppa (Damon Sr.), who has his point of view challenged at work when a new female cohost (Essence Atkins) is hired. At home, Poppa finds himself still parenting his adult son (Damon Wayans Jr.), who is trying to pursue his passion while balancing the responsibilities associated with being a father and husband.

During the Monday, March 31, episode of Poppa’s House, Fox steps in to help mediate a disagreement between Poppa and Junior — in court.

“I play Judge Say Wha?! [on the show] and believe it or not, I’m a huge fan of Judge Judy. I used to watch her shows all the time. I learned a lot of things about the law from watching Judge Judy,” Fox told Us. “So I did go back and do some refresher courses on Judge Judy’s mannerisms. A good friend of mine is Star Jones, who also has her own show.”

Fox wanted to introduce her own spin on a TV judge, adding, “It was [about] mannerisms more than anything else for Judge Judy. I watched the way that she rocks her glasses and how to use the glasses. I’ve got good vision so I don’t need glasses. So I was really happy actually when the prop master came up to me and she was like, ‘Hey, do you want to do glasses?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do glasses.’”

She continued: “Then the director Damien [Dante Wayans] really had me working that gavel. He’s like, ‘When they go to talk, just cut them off. Just have a good time with that gavel.’ So I love that they let me play. Then there were times that the writers were throwing just new fun lines at me that I thought were just a hoot. I’ve done situation comedies before so it wasn’t hard to exercise that muscle and the character was just written so well.”

Poppa’s House is a family affair for the prolific Wayans family with Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr. in front of the camera while Kim Wayans and Damien Dante Wayans directed several episodes, Shawn Wayans and Michael Wayans have been credited as writers and Marlon Wayans appeared as Damon Sr.’s onscreen brother.

“There’s no ego at all. Everyone literally checks their egos at the door,” Fox, who has worked with five members of the Wayans family on screen, shared. “What they are there for is to just make the funniest and most creative show possible. Sometimes when you do comedies, the director and the writers are very married to the words and sometimes it can hamper creativity when it’s that way. But you didn’t feel that at all [on Poppa’s House].”

Poppa’s House airs on CBS Mondays at 8:30 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Paramount+.