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Triple duty: is Tamara Tunie today's busiest actress?
Ebony, August, 2005 by Kevin Chappell
SHE'S on a daytime soap opera. She's on a primetime television drama. And last but not least, she's no stranger to Broadway. Indeed, Tamara Tunie is not only one of stage and screen's busiest actresses, but one of the most versatile as well.
Currently appearing both on Law and Order: SVU, where she plays forensic specialist Melinda Warner, and on As the World Turns, where she has played attorney Jessica Griffin since 1987, Tunie has used the small screen to display her range of acting talents. Having established a foothold in television, she now has returned to her stage roots, starring opposite Denzel Washington in the critically acclaimed Julius Caesar, the first Broadway production of the Shakespeare classic in more than 50 years.
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In her dressing room at the historic Belasco Theatre after a sold-out show, Tunie, who plays Calpurnia, was full of energy. While the 46-year old admits that bouncing between two television shows and a big-budget Broadway production is tough, she says that she would have it no other way. "It's a full day. Most times I am running on adrenaline," says Tunie, whose previous Broadway appearances included Oh, Kay!, Dreamgirls 20th Anniversary Benefit Concert, and Lena Home: The Lady and Her Music, where she shared the stage with Home. "I missed being on Broadway. So it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up."
In fact, when she was offered a chance to star on Broadway with Washington (who plays Marcus Brutus), the producers of both television shows juggled shooting schedules so that she could accept the role. In Julius Caesar Tunie's role is small but powerful. As she unpins her hair and removes the heavy stage makeup, she says that she has always opted for versatility in the roles that she decides to take.
In addition, Tunie has been able to parlay her success on television and Broadway into memorable film roles. She has worked with respected directors like Oliver Stone, and even had the unique opportunity to work onscreen with legendary actor Al Pacino in the films The Devil's Advocate and City Hall. She also worked with Samuel L. Jackson on both Eve's Bayou and Caveman's Valentine.
Tunie is the fourth of five children born to two morticians in Homestead, Pa., a small town outside of Pittsburgh. The family lived above the basement mortuary and first-floor funeral parlor. Despite the unusual circumstances, she says that she had a normal childhood. In fact, outside of having to be quiet during wakes, she never gave her family's business much thought, although her friends did often have fearful reactions to the whole notion of living above dead people. "Sometimes it was tough getting my friends to come over to my house," she says.
It was during a high school concert that she was bitten by the entertainment bug. "Singing and acting is something that I knew I wanted to do since I was a teenager," she says. The straight-A student received a scholarship to Carnegie-Mellon University, where she graduated with a degree in fine arts. After college, she moved to New York, and immediately fell in love with the city. She knew that she had made the right career choice "when people started paying me money to work," she says. "To be able to be gainfully employed in an area of work you love is truly a blessing."
It was the lesson of hard work and dedication that she learned from her parents that has helped her in a career that is particularly tough for African-American women. "Both my parents had two jobs," says Tunie, who has garnered nominations from the NAACP Image Awards and the Soap Opera Digest Awards. "I've always been a hard worker," she says, "because I come from a family of hard workers."
When deciding what roles to take, Tunie says the character has to strike "some kind of truth in me ... The character can be many different kinds of people, but I need to be able to connect with that truth."
Tunie says it helps to be trained to do theater and musicals, and to be able to dance and sing. That's why she has been able to step into a role that was originally written for a White person, or even a man, and she has been able to make it her own.
The triple-duty actress lives in a Harlem townhouse with her husband, jazz singer Gregory Generet. She has said that the centerpiece of her home is a 500-square-foot kitchen, complete with Brazilian countertops, designer cabinets and fixtures. She describes her husband as a "fantastic chef." The couple have no children, and have no plans to become parents. "That's a choice that we made some time ago," she says.
Even with all of Tunie's acting responsibilities, she finds time to serve as vice-chair of Figure Skating in Harlem, a nonprofit organization founded in 1997 that teaches--through the art of figure skating--life skills to girls. "I have always been a fan of figure skating," she says. "The girls are great, and I just love being able to help."
