On today’s “Tamron Hall,” actress Tamala Jones joined the show to discuss executive producing and leading the star-studded cast of the upcoming Lifetime movie, “Every Breath She Takes.” The actress also opened up about suffering a brain aneurysm while filming her hit WB series, “For Your Love.” Tamala revealed to the Tam Fam that she used to babysit a young Blake Lively during her start in the entertainment industry.
Tamala Jones on the brain aneurysm that stalled her career:
“I was born with it. I wasn’t expecting that and no one else was. It was a headache that happened for two weeks straight. I was taking all of the sinus medicine and Tylenol. I probably should have taken aspirin. And it kept going. And one morning I woke up, I didn’t have any balance. I felt like I had to urinate really bad and I stumbled to the toilet, nothing came out. My head started hurting really bad and then I hit the floor and when I got up, the right side of my body was numb. I was scheduled to shoot the very last day of the fourth season of ‘For Your Love.’ I called my boss and said, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I can’t come in.’ She was like ‘You gotta come in. We’ll have a set doctor look at you.’ And so I got in the car, not realizing that this was done [her right side. And my right side was so heavy, I had to put my left foot on the brake and manually move this [her right leg] off of the gas pedal and I drove to work, left foot and left hand. Worked all day. My arm was stuck like this [bent] and they kept throwing purses and jackets and no one knew! I was so young. Got to the hospital and the doctor was like ‘I am in awe that you’re alive, let alone worked a whole day.’” Tamala updated Tamron on how she feels today, saying, “Listen to your body! I feel great! I’m alive. I’m still able to do what I love to do. I love this business. I love what we do. I love acting.”
Tamala Jones on babysitting Blake Lively as a young actress:
“So long story short, I went to a ton of acting classes and that was the advice of Tisha Campbell’s mom so I did. I met a representative who wanted to try me out for a little bit. ‘I’m going to send you out on auditions’ and then that person brought me to Blake Lively’s parents. They took headshots, they gave me lessons. They had an acting school. Then they became managers. So when they became managers, I was already going to their acting school and I would babysit Blake in order to attend school because I couldn’t afford to do it so I would get Blake and babysit her. Sometimes when my mom would bake for them and make them baked goods for parties or whatever, also I could go to this school. If it weren’t for Blake Lively’s parents, I probably wouldn’t be here today. They were highly instrumental in getting me started.” On what Blake was like as a child, “Blake would be like, ‘Come and play with me!’” You always had to play with her so I was always playing with her. I had to bathe her, read her a story and put her to bed and that was when the acting classes would start around 6 or 7pm.”
Tamala Jones on the reboot of “The Wood”:
“Well ‘The Wood’ is underway. We’re just waiting to hear back from the network on what we’re doing but we did shoot the pilot for that.”
