Actress Tasha Smith is back on the small screen starring in Tyler Perry’s For Better or Worse on OWN, playing the loud-talking and bossy Angela Williams. Here, the self-described prankster shares seven tidbits we didn’t know about her.
1. I’m a crazy prankster. One was so bad that I’m scared to even share it because my daughter thinks it was mean. But it was good. She’s a prankster too and she was just doing way too much in one weekend. Like, she would hide in the living room closet with the remote and change the channel. My son thought there was a ghost in the house. So I decided, ‘We’re gonna get her!’ She likes to go to the bathroom after a workout so one day when we got in from the gym I took some egg yolk and smeared it around the toilet seat. When she sat down there was slippery, slimy egg yolk. She sat down and all you heard was ‘Ewww! What is this?!” She jumped off that toilet so fast.
2. One day my twin sister Sidra and I pranked Tyler Perry on the set of For Better or Worse. I made her dress up as me and do a scene as if she were my character Angela. Tyler says, ‘Action!’ and my sister starts acting. It was horrible. He’s like, ‘Tasha, something is not right.’ So my sister starts chewing gum—Tyler hates anyone chewing gum on set— and she’s popping it. Finally, I jump out and say, ‘Something is wrong because that’s not me!’
3. I call Tisha Campbell-Martin when I want to vent. We’ve been friends since I was 16 and she was 19. We met through her ex-boyfriend who grew up in my neighborhood. We’ve been best friends ever since. She’s not even my friend anymore; she’s more like my sister. Whenever I want to vent about anything she is the first person I call besides my husband. And she always has the best advice. I know she’ll be in my life for the rest of my life.
4. My husband [Keith Douglas] makes gumbo better than me. But I make everything else better than him.
5. Angela on For Better or Worse is a hair guru. In real life I swear by Edge Control by Olive Oil. My hairstylist hates it, but it’s everything to me. And I mean everything! It’s like a perm in a little jar of gel.
6. I’m addicted to Scandal. Joe Morton is the devil, and I love him. I am addicted to Boardwalk Empire. Jeffrey Wright is the devil, and I love him. I actually think I need Homeland rehab. And that Ray Donovan. I think I’ve watched every episode more than once. Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Wright and Jon Voight have made me fall in love with acting again.
7. I was a substitute teacher in Lance Gross’ acting class. When it was time for me to leave and go to my own class he came to me and said, ‘Can I come and work with you?’ After working with him I told him, ‘you’re like a new version of Blair Underwood. Pull your pants up and take the hoodie off because you’re going to be a movie star.’
Tyler Perry’s For Better or Worse airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on OWN.