High School Hollywood

By Jennifer McKenzie (@ImJeej)

(photo: Startraks Photo/Rex Features) 

Last night saw the UK premiere of the famous Sister Sister twins’ new reality TV show, Tia & Tamera. As many fans of 90s Nickelodeon would have been glued to their screens, I spoke with Tamera Mowry about why she chose to do a reality show (‘My sister made me!’), her marriage to Adam (‘I literally can’t wait to see his face when he comes home!’), and whether Roger finally went home (he didn’t, they’re still as close as ever!).

When it aired on the Style network in the US this August, Tia & Tamera was the most watched premiere ever on the network, with almost 1.5 million views. The second episode enticed 2.2 million unique viewers, making it the second most watched telecast in the network’s history (beaten by the season two finale of Jerseylicious on January 30, 2011). 

 The Mowry twins are hoping it’ll be just as popular over here in the UK. In the words of Tamera herself, ‘I can’t wait for you guys to see it [the show], and I hope you like it as much as America does!’

What inspired you to come back into the spotlight now? Especially after you and Tia have both got so much going on in your personal lives – you getting married, and Tia having a baby?

 Tamera: To be honest with you, my sister made me. She forced me! No, my sister wanted to do a reality show so bad, she loves everything about reality shows and at first I was a little hesitant, because I’m really private and I’ve enjoyed being private throughout my life. However, when Tia came to me, it really, really, really just inspired me to show a side of myself that I could show fans; who I really am as a person. And I kinda just wanted to, you know, give back in that sort of way, cos for years people have always wanted to know Tia and I’s dynamic, they’ve always wanted to know who we really are as people. We’ve been very successful with our show and our movies, Twitches, Double Wedding and Sister, Sister. We thought you know, okay, now would be a good time to share that with our fans, we have very loyal fans. We’ve been asked to do a reality show for years, so the timing was perfect, Tia was pregnant and I was planning my wedding and we thought, wow here’s a show! This will be perfect!

The show sees you going through the trials and tribulations of getting married - what was your favourite part of your wedding?

Tamera: Just reaching my husband! Walking down the aisle and reaching him, you know? You don’t see him for an entire day, and that was kind of like the longest I haven’t seen him and we’ve been in the same place. So I was like, oh my gosh, I just want to get to him! And I just wanna call him my husband! And I just want to give him a kiss and hold him! So, that was my favourite part.

What is your favourite aspect of married life?

Tamera: I know this is so clique, I try not to say this in a corny way, but I think when he comes home from work. You know, when I come home, I’m gonna have my support, my system always there. He’s gonna come home and I’ll get to cook for him and we just get to talk about how his day went. I literally can’t wait to see his face when he comes home. He just walks home with his little briefcase and will say, ‘hey babe!’.

Have you figured out how to do his laundry yet?!

Tamera:  Oh my gosh, no! You’ll see that in the show. I think I have the laundry curse, I know it seems easy and it comes easy to some people. I just don’t like to do it! I don’t like to sort out things. I would just love to clump everything in one pile and wash!

Are you and Adam planning to start a family soon?

Tamera: I think Adam and I really wanna focus on our marriage right now. Maybe in two years, that’d be perfect.

And then little Cree (Tia’s son) can have a playmate!

Tamera: Yeah, he’s so adorable! Oh my gosh, so handsome!

You and Tia have several disagreements throughout the show. Was it all completely ‘real’ or did the producers ever encourage you to say certain things while the camera was rolling?

Tamera: Oh my gosh yes, it was all real! That’s what’s so great about our show; we really wanted to make sure it was genuine because that’s when we knew that people would be able to relate [to the show]. I know there are sisters out there who maybe have been in the same predicament. It was hard at times, when Tia was too tired to come to my Bachelorette because she was pregnant, or I was too busy planning my wedding up in Napa to come to her ultrasounds. Looking back, we can see that it’s kind of impossible for us to be there for each other 100% of the time, because we had two amazing milestones happen at the same time. There are some people who are going to say having a baby is more important, and there are going to be some women saying noooo, a wedding is once in a lifetime. Your wedding is your time to be the best! I think what happened was, Tia has already been married and has never been the girly girl who was really excited about weddings and all of that. She’s been there and done it. So she couldn’t really relate to my stress and happiness. I obviously have never been pregnant, so I couldn’t relate to her stress and difficulties. And Tia had to spread herself thin, she has a hit show in LA, she had to do photoshoots and often she had to take meetings. So what I thought was that she had energy to do meetings and photoshoots, so it’s not too big of a stretch to ask for her to come to my bridal shower. You’ll see us go through that on the show, and it’s quite real! 

Sometimes you used to sing on Sister, Sister and you had a lovely voice. With Tia currently acting in The Game, is a singing career something you would consider?

Tamera: Oh my gosh, that’s so funny, I have thought about that! I really have thought about that! I love singing. It’s just the lifestyle. I don’t know if I could handle that, you know the touring, the travelling. I love my family, not to say that these people don’t love their families, but I don’t know if I can balance that as well as they do. My home time with my husband, and my family time with my family means so much to me, it’s one of the most important parts of my life and I don’t know if I could always be on the road like that.

Have you got any other projects lined up?

Tamera: Yes I do!  I’m doing a film called Friendship Day with Kyle Massey, who did the Disney show That’s So Raven. I play his teacher, and it’s being released on pay-per-view on TV.

Lots of shows are being remade at the moment, for example Bewitched…If they ever remade Sister Sister, who would you like to see playing you and Tia? 

Tamera: Oh my gosh, that is so funny! Oh wow, I’d never thought about that. Oh no, I’m trying to think of other- I’d definitely want some other twins. I’d want real twins instead of that double screen kind of a thing. I don’t know any other twins right now!

Apart from the Olsen twins!

Tamera:  Oh my gosh, the Olsen twins, that’d be great! They’re so cute…

And finally, I can’t resist asking, are you still in touch with Marques Houston (Roger)?

Tamera: Yes I am! He came to my wedding.

So are you still quite close to him?

Tamera: Yes we are, it’s awesome! And you’ll see actually, Jackée Harry, who played Lisa on the show, will make a guest appearance on our new show. We’re all pretty close, it’s been amazing!