Tia and Tamera Mowry have joined forces to executive-produce and star in Lifetime's original romantic comedy "Double Wedding." Nobody does both twin rivalry and sisterly love like Tia and Tamera. For over 15 years the Mowry sisters have been featured on popular TV shows, including the beloved series that paved their path to fame, “Sister, Sister.” Since then, the twins have launched successful acting careers separately, but have always been by each other’s side off-screen. The identical duo revealed what it was like to part professionally, how a famous twin finds love and what it takes to avoid temptations as a child star. Just like the sisters, each interview is equally unique and entertaining. Read what Tia had to say, and then get the scoop from Tamera!

In “Double Wedding,” you play Deanna, who is a buttoned-up, no-nonsense lawyer. Is that similar to your real personality?


A little bit, yeah. I am the more structured, organized — I am an extremely focused individual. Tamera always tells me that I am the more business-savvy between the two of us. So, yes, that’s true.

Deanna and Danielle stop speaking because of their feud over Tate. Has there ever been a situation where you and Tamera gave each other the silent treatment?


Yeah, there has been a situation where my sister and I stopped speaking [to each other]. Unfortunately, it was because of a guy, but not because we liked the same guy. When girls are fighting, c’mon, it’s usually about a guy! It was either because my sister was dating a guy that I didn’t think she should be dating, or that guy was disrespectful to me. We love each other so much that we tend to think we know what’s best for each other.

Deanna is extremely ambitious, motivated and career-oriented, but it leaves her love life lacking. Is that a challenge that successful women face today? How should women strike a balance between work and love?


That’s one of the reasons I really enjoyed doing this movie, because that’s where I feel like I am right now. I want to start a family, and it’s not stopping me, but what has me on hold is my career. I think for women who are extremely successful, it is difficult to find a balance with their love life — mainly because when you are in a relationship it takes a lot of work. I think it all boils down to making time. Open up a little time and space to develop a relationship. True love is a man who will allow either a woman or man to flourish in whatever career they choose. It is difficult. I am living that right now. I am in a relationship, married, I’ve been with my husband for 10 years now, we’ve been married for two. He is constantly leaving to shoot films — he’s an actor — and then I am leaving to shoot films, but we have to take time to come together to make our relationship work.

You and your sister are role models to so many young girls and you were awarded the Image award twice. How were you able to grow up in the spotlight and not succumb to temptation like other teen actors?


I really have to give credit to my family and God. I have to give credit to my family because my mom, she wanted to make sure that we had a foundation. That foundation was that we were still kids and that we had a loving family who could really care less about how much money we were making, and could care less about the business. She always told us this was a job. This was a job, not a lifestyle. What you see with young actors today is it becomes their lifestyle. Unfortunately, Hollywood is very fickle. One minute you could be hot and the next minute, no one really knows your name. So my mom, she made sure that we didn’t think of the business like that. She said “See these limousines that are coming to pick you up? That’s going to stop.” She prepared us for it before it happened. Plus, we went to college and college was a very humbling experience for me because if there was a paper that needed to be done, it didn’t matter if you had to work or had to do a photo shoot. My sister and I were in Paris on the train, going from Paris to London, studying for exams that we needed to be at the next day. So I think it really put into perspective what’s important.

Did you go to college together?


Yeah, we went to college together at Pepperdine University.

Was going to college your idea or something your parents encouraged you to do?


It was both. I think definitely it was encouragement from our parents, because my mom and dad knew the business was fickle — one minute you would have a job and the next minute you wouldn’t — so they wanted us to have a foundation. Education is very important. I decided to go to college just to develop skills, friendships, to discover who I was as a person. That’s what college is all about.

More "Double Wedding"

You got married two years ago. Do you have advice for brides on how to make the most of their wedding day? Would you change anything about your wedding day?


The advice that people gave me that I wish I would have taken heed of is to really take your time to soak everything in, because it does go really fast. You plan it for months, and the wedding ceremony is really only 20 minutes and the wedding itself is altogether two hours, so really take in everything. Also, I didn’t do videography, which I am hitting myself about right now. I would love to go back and look at a tape of my husband and I getting married. I have pictures, plenty of pictures, but I wish that I would have had a video. But the main thing I would tell brides is, first of all, don’t stress. If you stress, you are taking away from the actual moment of getting married, which should be an amazing, peaceful, wonderful moment. You don’t have to invite everybody. Just invite people that are really, really important to you and that are special. You don’t need to have a big, big, crazy wedding. As long as it’s intimate and the people who you love and speak to on a regular basis and family and friends [are there], then that’s fine.

Are you and Cory discussing the possibility of kids, and are you hoping for twins?


No! No! No way! No! Oh my gosh. I don’t see how people do it. I don’t see how my mother did it. Raising two newborns at the same time! I think I would love to have twins … but the work that comes with twins!

In “Double Wedding” you had the chance to wear a wedding gown again. Did you and Tamera get to choose your gowns for the wedding scene?


Yeah, we did. They asked us what designers we would like to use for our wedding, and Kevan Hall, the same designer that designed my gown at my wedding, designed Tamera’s gown in the movie. She got to wear a dress of his, and my dress I think was an antique, but we were very vocal in what wedding dress we wanted to wear.

What went on behind the scenes during filming? What did you love most about making the movie?


Tamera and I really got along very well with the guys on the movie, and I think we connected with them because this was our first time being part of the casting process and we were extremely vocal. So it’s almost like they became our babies. We’re always worried, asking, “How are things going with your careers?” We’re very vocal and helpful with them getting more work because we hired them. We had a blast behind the scenes. Everyone got along very, very, very well.

I remember there was this one time when I was in the scene and Tamera was executive-producing me, and she’s basically telling me what to do and telling me I can do better, and I was like, “What? Excuse me!” It’s like How dare my sister tell me what I need to do! It was just kind of interesting, that kind of dynamic. We really had to kind of learn to communicate with one another, because she doesn’t handle criticism very well if I’m extremely harsh about it. She handles it well if I’m kind of soft and gentle. Whereas with me, if you’re soft and gentle with me, I’m not going to listen to you. So it was funny seeing how the actors would respond [to us critiquing each other].

Also what was really cool was the boys really knew us apart. You would think they would get us confused, but they really could tell us apart.

How would you describe Tamera in one word?


One word? That’s so hard! There are so many amazing words that I could use to describe [her]. I have to say “patience.” She is just really patient with a lot of things in life. She’s an optimist. She is an extremely patient individual, and I know she will make a great mom one day because of that.

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