As Seventeen Again Turns 25, Tamera Mowry-Housley Reveals How She Found Grandma Cat
Before Zac Efron was getting a second shot at high school in 17 Again, the Mowry siblings explored the idea of returning to your teenage years in Seventeen Again. The 2000 film celebrates its 25th anniversary on November 12, and Tamera Mowry-Housley spilled behind-the-scenes tea with Pop Culture Planet about how she nailed the role of Grandma Cat.
When a science experiment goes wrong, divorced grandparents who don’t get along find themselves transformed into teenagers in Seventeen Again. We were all rooting for the love story between Mowry-Housley who played young Grandma Cat and Mark Taylor’s young Grandpa Gene. The duo starred alongside her real-life siblings Tia Mowry and Tahj Mowry, who played her grandchildren.
“Okay, I’m gonna give you the exclusive,” teased Mowry-Housley when we spoke for her new Hallmark Channel show Baked With Love: Holiday. “I had a challenging first day playing Grandma Cat that the producers didn't know if I could pull it off. It was one of those things where I knew it. I didn't know the producers knew it. I was like, ‘Can they see it? I'm struggling here.’ Because I wanted to find that character, but also bring me to it, right? I didn't want it to be too much of a caricature because I wanted it to be vulnerable and people to relate to Grandma Cat.”
“I'm telling you, the second day, something just clicked […] by the time I did that bathroom scene where I was talking to the girl in Goth,” she laughed. “But I basically channeled my grandmother and she was my favorite human being ever.”
Now is the perfect time to re-watch Seventeen Again on Prime Video — and don’t miss new episodes of Baked With Love: Holiday airing weekly on Hallmark Channel.
