Tamala Jones Speaks On New Role And Near Death Experience

Actress Tamala Jones is making her return to the small screen in a new television series, “Castle”. She’s playing a serious role, a medical examiner, a far cry from her normal roles of “sista girl”.

Jones has decided to take a break from those roles and decided to experiment with roles and broaden her options. Besides I believe she is a very talented actress, why not try out for better roles.

Recently Tamala Jones sat down with Essence.com, to roles, romance and near death appearance.

NEW ROLE
ESSENCE.COM: Welcome back! We understand that you get your hands dirty as Lanie Parish, a medical examiner, on “Castle.” How’s it walking in those scrubs?
TAMALA JONES: Great. The thing is, I’m good at that sister-girl role but I had to stop taking that role. When it comes to White Hollywood, they think that’s all you can do as a Black actress, but I encourage my agent to send me out for roles that are written for Caucasian women. My role on this show was written for a White woman and only recurring, not a series-regular role. I was about to test for Jada Pinkett’s new show, “HawthoRNe,” when they asked me to be a series regular.

RELATIONSHIPS/DATING
ESSENCE.COM: Weren’t you dating southern rapper Big Gipp from the Goodie Mob? What happened with you two?
JONES: Gip and I dated for four years. He and I are still friends and talk occassionally. I still love him. After four years, I had to face the reality after having the difficult conversation that he was married to his career and told me as much. I have to respect that whether or not that’s what I wanted to hear. I want to be married so I had to keep it moving. Being honest was the most responsible thing he could have done instead of dragging me along. Again, I understood and couldn’t be mad at him for telling me the truth. I’m dating now, and I think I’ve passed my 20-something phase of dating rappers/artists and I simply date who I like. I’m trying to broaden my horizons and that’s always a good thing.

NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE/PLASTIC SURGERY
ESSENCE.COM: Let’s switch gears. There was a time that you disappeared from the scene. What were you up to?
JONES: Recovering. At 23, I almost died from a brain aneurysm. It popped from extreme stress. I was filming “The Wood” and the whole right side of my body went numb. Back then I was doing three shows and not taking care of myself. I later found out that it was hereditary on my mom’s side of the family. I tell people if you have a pain you need to go to the doctor and not ignore it. Young people think things like that only happen to old people.

ESSENCE.COM: That’s so true. Some speculated that your sudden lack of roles had to do with the breast augmentation you received. Do you agree?
JONES: It wasn’t the breast augmentation. I was depressed after my house was burned down and I lost everything. I picked up weight and the casting people called my manager to find out what was going on with me. As Black people, when you put on a little weight we don’t make a big deal about it, but for Hollywood it’s a problem. I hate that I got the breat augmentation. I was tired of constantly being told to tape my breast to make it appear I had more cleavage, so I said let me just take care of it all at once, and I did, but I think I hurt myself by thinking I had to do that.

You can catch Tamala Jones on Castle on ABC on Mondays at 10/9c.

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