Jackée Harry became a generation’s favorite mom on Sister, Sister. But in an interview with ET, she reveals why she almost didn’t take the role.
“I had to test for it. I didn’t want to do it, I didn’t want to be a mom, I didn’t,” she said while promoting her upcoming OWN Christmas movie, A Christmas for Mary. “I said, ‘That’s the end of my career,’ because in those days…it was like, your career is over, which is true back in the day. But I never thought people would like it.”
She talked about the difference between her parenting role on TV versus other similar roles was that she and Tim Reid were playing parents who adopted their children.
“[A]s we started doing it, I got very comfortable with it, and now I can be a grandmother, whatever, you have to transition,” she said. “You can’t just say, ‘I’ll do it because I’m an actor,’ and then go home and be like, ‘I don’t want to be a grandmother.’ But I’m a grandma now, and I’m loving that in real life.”
She also added that she and the Sister, Sister cast are up for doing a reboot “where they [Tia Mowry-Hardrict and Tamera Mowry-Housley] have their own kids.”
“They’re both so vibrant and I love them dearly, we’re very close. I don’t want to do something old,” she said.