Playing an iconic matriarch is nothing new for Tamara Tunie.
The Law & Order: SVU alum, 65, currently stars as Anita Dupree in CBS’ new series Beyond the Gates, the first-ever, hour-long soap opera led by a Black cast. It follows the Dupree family in their gated community of Fairmont Crest, a leafy suburb of Washington, D.C., and one of the most affluent African-American communities in the nation. Still, with wealth comes juicy storylines and messy scandals that the Dupree family is forced to navigate without falling apart.
Tunie’s Anita is the matriarch of the Duprees: a tell-it-like-it-is, family-oriented, EGOT recipient. Anita shares two daughters — Dr. Nicole Dupree Richardson (Daphnée Duplaix) and Dani Dupree (Karla Mosley — with her husband Vernon Dupree (Clifton Davis), a retired U.S. senator who is all about keeping the close-knit family in one piece.
This isn’t the first time Tunie has taken on a dynamic lead. In 2022, she portrayed Cissy Houston, the mother of late icon Whitney Houston in the latter’s biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody. She tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview that the role served as a stepping stone to help her embrace all things Anita.
“I think they’re very much the same,” Tunie says of Anita and Cissy, who died in October at age 91. “I say that because I know from doing the movie and doing my research on Cissy and talking to people who know and love Cissy, I know how fiercely she loved her family.”
“I think that is the same thing for Anita, she loves her family fiercely. And she don’t take no stuff,” Tunie proudly quips. “She’ll call you out when she needs to. So playing that iconic mother has definitely teed me up for playing Anita Dupree.”
Tunie’s mother, Evelyn Tunie, was also a source of inspiration, she tells PEOPLE.
“My mother has been my role model and example my entire life. She is a woman who believes in family first. She is a woman who stands up for what’s right. She’s a woman who has always said if you see something that needs doing, then do it. That’s who I feel like Anita is,” Tunie says. “Also, my mother is beautiful, she’s glamorous, she was a singer, she was an actor, she was also a mortician businesswoman, so she was all of that. So I feel like I can draw a lot of Anita from her example and experience.”
While Anita isn’t Tunie’s first rodeo in the soap opera genre, it still marks a significant first for the actress.
“It’s a different rodeo,” says Tunie, who spent two decades on daytime television as Jessica Griffin Harris, one of the only Black characters on CBS’ As the World Turns. “I’ll say they’re both fruit, but it’s apples and oranges,” she adds.
“When I was on As the World Turns, I was more often than not the only Black contract player on the show. Over time, others were added. But when you’re the only Black person in the room and the only Black perspective at the table, it’s a heavy thing to carry. When they’re writing stories for you and you’re the only one, then people say that’s the story.”
She appreciates the concept of Beyond the Gates, which is centered around an African-American family, spotlighting the upscale Black lifestyle in a relevant way.
“We know the African-American community is diverse in its own community,” Tunie explains. “We’re not a monolith. There are so many stories to tell and so many experiences to share. With this show now, we have a whole family and community of African-American players, so multiple stories can be told, not just one. [Fairmont Crest] is a new perspective of a population of the Black community that exists.”
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Still, she adds, Beyond the Gates finds a fresh way to highlight other communities. “This is truly a multi-cultural show,” says the Tony Award winner. “There’s not just the one Asian or the one Black actor or the one Hispanic, we’re all up in there. We’re all a part of the Fairmont Crest community. It’s really delicious in that way.”
The show premiered on Monday, Feb. 24, amid the current charged political and racial climate. Tunie says it couldn’t have made its debut at a better time.
“I think this is the perfect time for this show to land,” she states. “We’re presenting this now because this is a part of Black life and culture that has been a part of the history of this country and the fabric of this country for hundreds and hundreds of years. No, we’re not going away, we’re actually going to be in your living room every day. And in the most fabulous way, and in the most welcoming way. Because this show, though it centers around the Black family, there are universal stories. That’s why people love soap operas.”
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Along with the theme of Black excellence, Tunie says it’s the drama that takes the series to new heights.
“It’s the human frailties that really drive the shows — the flaws, the secrets, the lies, the backstabbing. So it’s all of that on this show, but it just looks so much different because of the population of the stories,” she explains. “The writers are knocking this show out of the park, and the stories are going to be fantastic.”
Beyond the Gates airs weekdays (2 p.m. ET) on CBS.
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