Tia Mowry opened up about the pressures of being a child star.
The Sister, Sister actress, 46, opened up about the anxiety she felt as a working teenager.
“I think it was during Sister, Sister days that I first started having anxiety attacks when it came to being in front of an audience,” she recalls.
‘Being on set when there is an audience, for example right in front of you. Talk about shaking in your bones. What if the line written for you isn’t funny?,” she shared People in a recent interview.
The sitcom ran for six seasons from 1994 to 1999 and starred Tia’s twin sister Tamera Mowry-Housley, Jackee Harry and Tim Reid.
Tia Mowry opened up about the pressures of being a child star. The Sister, Sister actress, 46, opened up about the fear she felt when she was a young artist. Seen here October 11, 2024
“You’re performing live in front of an audience and you know you’re a kid… when you get a good grade on this test, you worry about boys,” she continued.
‘You’re afraid to stand on your goal. You worry about how you look. You know, there’s just a lot going on.”
She went on to say that she eventually got used to it and over it.
“You kind of get used to it, to performing, you feel nervous,” she said, but what really helped her was “learning why.”
“Like, why do I feel this way? Sometimes you won’t always have that answer, but being intentional and aware of why this fear arises in you has helped me too,” she shared.
‘What also helps me is visualization. So I’ll visualize myself doing what I’m doing now, and it will help my brain connect with my behavior, and I’ll feel better about the situation.”
Another unpleasant part of being an actor, especially a child actor, is the rejection that comes with it.
“I don’t think it ever gets easy or easier,” she admitted. ‘But I was really young. And I remember checking out The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. I think the character was Ashley, but I didn’t understand it and I just felt dejected.”
But time also taught her a valuable lesson there.
“I realized that if I hadn’t been rejected, I wouldn’t have been able to do Sister, Sister. You just have to trust the process and the journey and trust that what is for you is for you, and what is for you will never miss you.”
Sister Sister ran for six seasons from 1994 to 1999 and starred Tia’s sister Tamera Mowry-Housley, Jackée Harry and Tim Reid.
Tia’s new reality TV show My Next Act meets her where her life is now: moving on from her divorce from Cory Hardict and no longer being close to her twin sister Tamera.
In a promo for the show, an emotional Tia drops her children Cree, 13, and Cairo, six, off at their dad’s house and then breaks down.
“Being alone has been the most challenging part of my divorce. It’s times like this that I feel and wish that my sister and I were still close and that I could pick up the phone and call her,” she shared in a confessional, adding, “But that’s just not where we are now.’
The star, who rose to fame alongside Tamera in their sitcom Sister Sister in the late 1990s, did not explain what has driven a wedge between her and her identical sibling.
Her new show premiered on We TV on October 4, and follows the mother of two as she finds herself back in the dating pool after divorce.
“I think it was during Sister, Sister days that I first started having anxiety attacks when it came to being in front of an audience,” she recalls. Seen here October 11, 2024
‘Being on set when there is an audience, for example right in front of you. Talk about shaking in your bones.”
“What if the line written for you isn’t funny?” she told People in a recent interview
In the show’s first episode, cameras follow Tia as she goes on her first date.
“The date went really well,” she said in a confessional. “I mean, listen, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, didn’t they go on a blind date? Who knows? Maybe I’ll find my Prince Harry!’
Whether or not she gets such a fairytale ending, Tia is glad she took the first step.
“I will say, if he doesn’t call me for a second date, which I’m open to, then so be it. “I’m proud of myself for at least being open enough to go on a blind date,” she said.