It’s obvious higher learning is important to the brilliant and distinguished television, stage and film actress Tonea Stewart whose day job by the way is Dean of The College of Visual and Performing Arts at Alabama State University in nearby Montgomery. As her resume illustrates she teaches outside the classroom too, with roles in biopics; like The Rosa Parks Story, and Don’t Look Back: The Story of Leroy “Satchel” Paige as well as films like Mississippi Burning that recount painful events in American History. Stellar Careers like Ms. Stewart’s don’t come around too often. She has a work ethic that can put many to shame which is why over forty decades later the A Time To Kill star is on the short list of go-to character actors who when called upon step up to the plate and deliver a knock out every time. Her enduring career has seen her share the screen with some of Hollywood’s legends like the late Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Della Reese, Cicely Tyson, Louis Gossett Jr. and Diahann Carroll and as well as present-day stars such as Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett. The Mississippi native is showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. We spoke with her just days before the NAACP Image Awards in which her 2010 television movie The Wronged Man is nominated for Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special.
Star of Lifetime television’s The Wronged Man shocked by Image Award nomination
BME: Congratulations on the nomination. The Wronged Man is in good company with Sins of The Mother, Luther, Filling the Gap and America: The Story of Us (Part 4).
TS: Good company to be in on that level…extremely good company. I saw all of these shows and was moved by them just as much as our show The Wronged Man.
BME: In addition to The Wronged Man and Sins of The Mother and Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story and so many others, the Lifetime Movie Network is really producing some quality works.
TS: I’m guilty of watching the network more than any other. We get a chance to be a part of the struggle of so many people and their crisis and to have some vindication for how they resolve it.
BME: You’ve done television movies and theatrical films. Do you have a preference?
TS: It’s satisfying for me to do film, stage and television. It’s a privilege. I don’t have a secret place for either, all of them are equally important to me. Any opportunity that I can achieve in the performing arts, I’m excited about.
BME: You’ve built a solid career… starred opposite Samuel L. Jackson in A Time to Kill, played the late civil rights activist Johnnie Carr in The Rosa Parks Story with Angela Bassett, as Baseball legend Satchel Paige’s mother with Ossie Davis and Louis Gossett, Jr. in Don’t Look Back: The Story of Leroy “Satchel” Paige. You starred with Diahann Carroll, Paul Benjamin, Ruby Dee, Esther Rolle and Madge Sinclair in the television movie I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings based on Maya Angelou’s book of the same name, and worked with many others…reflect for a moment on your inspiring body of work?
TS: How did you get all of that? (We both laugh) It’s just by designed providence… and to have a chance to work with legends such as Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Della Reese…I’m extremely proud and I feel extremely blessed to have been given the opportunity to do the work that I’ve had a chance to do and I pray to do even more.
BME: Some of your standout roles have been in biopics and or movies based on historical events. How important would you say these genres of movies are especially for film fans who may not be aware of those who sacrificed their lives to make this world a better place?
TS: I think it’s one of the strongest mediums that we have for passing the stories, the history and the legacy on to our children and I think it’s so important for them to know the history and to feel the emotions and witness the impact that that history has on the foundation that we now stand. I know that we need to do more and that’s one of my dreams is to work on more historically significant projects. I believe that with them our children can become more educated and more grounded.
BME: Do you think some of your choices in movie projects which depict the past and give others a chance to learn something speaks to the educator side of you?
TS: I guess it does. It’s a bad feeling and bad experience to grow up and not know from whence you’ve come. The more we lead in a historical perspective for our young people, the better they should be about their future and their existence because they’ll have a sense of their history.
BME: You appeared in a project of one of your former students, actress Tangi Miller of Felicity and Madea’s Family Reunion fame whom we’ve interviewed here at Examiner. How does it make you feel when your students go off and realize their dreams and come back to share their success with you?
TS: You feel a sense of the full circle and it’s a sense of pride and I’m so proud of all my students and Tangi has been one who’s always been a go getter…so it's a feeling of thank you God for allowing me to see the success and experience it with them.
BME: The critically acclaimed indie film Mississippi Damned which you appeared in and which was directed by fellow Mississippian Tina Mabry. What was it like working with her?
TS: Oh my goodness…an eye-opener. She is a director with a special touch for what she’s doing and she’s so talented and so focused until I believe Tina Mabry is going to be a name, a household name that will never be forgotten. I enjoyed every minute on her set.
BME: You’re a professional actress, college professor, director of plays, as well as a wife and mother of three. How do you balance it all?
TS: With prayer (laughs)… with prayer. It’s really not easy because you’d be surprised at how on any given day there’s so much that comes into play but you do have to prioritize and you have to ask God for the strength to keep your mind clear, keep you grounded and keep you organized well enough that you can answer the call of what’s needed to be done at the time it’s needed to be done.
BME: Any advice for up and coming actors and actresses to survive the entertainment industry and have longevity?
TS: Be multi-faceted. Get their education. If you want to act, and love it, go for it. But I encourage them to find other parts of the field that they can do. I really do believe that we all have one strong talent and another one waiting in the wings.
BME: The future. How much longer do you think you can continue and want to act?
TS: As long as God sees fit for me to do it, I want do it. I’ll act and teach, I’ll act and be an administrator…and that means that as long as I have the faculties to recall and interpret projects, as long as I am requested and as long as I can enjoy it, and do it with the greatest of ease, then I feel like that’s God-inspired. I know that it is.
* 5 Fun Facts about Actress Tonea Stewart
- She started acting in 1969
- She had a recurring role on the hit television series In the Heat of the Night
- She oversees the summer camp program TAPS (Theater Artists Performance School) among several others at ASU
- She was the 2008 celebrity mentor for the Birmingham film camp program On the Set
- She is a graduate of Jackson State University
