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Tavis: Tamera Mowry is a terrific young actress who starred opposite her twin sister Tia on the hit sitcom 'Sister, Sister.' She now stars in the critically acclaimed Lifetime drama 'Strong Medicine.' The show airs Sunday nights at 9 P.M., and here is a scene from 'Strong Medicine.'

Dr. Andy Campbell: Thorton, everything all right?

Kayla Thorton: 16-year-old female came in per seizure. I sent her home with a fistful of Dilantin. Only her labs came back today, and she's 4 weeks pregnant.

Dr. Campbell, sighing: Dilantin in the first trimester triples the chance of birth defects.

Kayla: I got her squared away on the meds and set her up for prenatal counseling, but I put that baby at risk.

Tamera Mowry: Oh, gosh.

Tavis: I'm scared of you. You all grown up and playing a doctor now. Give me some of that.

Mowry: Thank you. I love playing a doctor. It's so rewarding. I've always wanted to be a doctor in real life, but once I got to college, I was like, "Oh, no, I'm not doing--what? How many years of school?" So I was like, forget that. I'll just settle for psychology.

Tavis: Can I just tell you now--first of all, before any deeper than this--I'm sorry that Tia is not here, because I love seeing the two of you together, but I'm glad she's not here.

Mowry: Really?

Tavis: You know why? This is the first time ever I don't got to guess who's who.

Mowry: Well, she told me to tell you hi.

Tavis: Tell her I said hello. It's always, "Tamera, Tia?"

Mowry: You know it's me. 50-50.

Tavis: That's easy. I know you're Tamera. Yeah, OK. Glad to have you on the program, Tamera.

Mowry: Thank you.

Tavis: So tell me about the role you play on 'Strong Medicine.'

Mowry: OK. First of all, I think that she's probably one of my favorite characters to play, even probably better than Tamera Campbell on 'Sister, Sister.'

Tavis: What?

Mowry: Yeah. Mainly because, you know, like I said before, she's a doctor, but she's very, very warm, very, very caring, and she's not too--it's not far-fetched, you know, for me to play this character.

Tavis: Because you are warm and caring.

Mowry: I'm a woman. Please, yes. And also, that's one of my favorite reasons why I get to play Kayla, too, is because she's 26, you know. She's not a little girl, not a teenager. So this is my first role, like, to be an adult, or, you know, an adult role, so...it's just been a lot of fun. You know, I learned a lot of medical, I guess, information. CBC is your cell blood count. BP--if your BP is 170 over 100, that's not very good.

Tavis: This is stuff you would've learned had you stayed in school.

Mowry: Yeah.

Tavis: At least studying medicine.

Mowry: Exactly. I know psychology down now.

Tavis: You got that down.

Mowry: I'm analyzing you as we speak right now. You seem to be OK. I'm just playing.

Tavis: Well, thank you for saying that. I hope I'm OK. You mentioned that you were playing a character who was 26. You, in fact, in July--

Mowry: July 6.

Tavis: A woman should never tell her age, but you turn 26.

Mowry: Yeah.

Tavis: I can't believe you and Tia are 26.

Mowry: I know. We started 'Sister, Sister' at 14. So, I mean, it's just been an amazing journey, and I'm just so blessed and so happy to still be here and to graduate college and then be able to pursue acting again.

Tavis: Where'd you go to school?

Mowry: Oh, I went to school for, like, 7 years. I graduated. It took me forever.

Tavis: You had a good excuse.

Mowry: I could've gone to med school in all that time, huh?

Tavis: You could've gone to med school. Yeah, you were working. Where'd you go to school now?

Mowry: Pepperdine University.

Tavis: You went to Pepperdine. Did Tia go there as well?

Mowry: Yes. Side by side.

Tavis: Makes sense to me. It wouldn't happen any other way, I guess. I think part of what makes it difficult for me and maybe others to accept that you're 26 is that we see the reruns all the time of 'Sister, Sister.' So it's hard for me to, like, let--now I'll start watching 'Strong Medicine' now that I know you're on there on Sunday nights--but it's hard to let go of an image when you see that image all the time.

Mowry: Yeah, and that's been really, really difficult for my sister and I.

Tavis: Of course, you're all getting paid every time I see you. I ain't mad at you for that now.

Mowry: That hasn't been difficult. That's been a blessing. But we always say that 'Sister, Sister' has been a blessing but somewhat just a little curse. Because it was so successful, producers, directors, they always stereotype you. Even some fans. You know, they see me and they go, "Ooh, you've grown." I'm like, "that's because I am." You know what I mean? I'm--

Tavis: I'm a woman.

Mowry: Yeah. I'm gonna be 26. You know, it was really, really, really hard, because they constantly look at you as this 14-year-old. I've been blessed with the genes of my family. People on 'Strong Medicine' still joke around. They're like, "You look like you're 6. You're supposed to be a doctor, you know." So. But I'm still very, very happy, you know what I mean, that I can actually--I mean, I might have a love interest on the show, so that would be fun. You know, it would be my first real love interest. Not like a 'Sister, Sister' boyfriend, you know? You know what I mean? And also, it's a drama. It's a drama.

Tavis: How do you like doing a drama now as compared to the sitcom thing?

Mowry: I will always love comedy because it's been my first love, and people always say I'm naturally funny. I try not to be funny, but then I'm even more funny.

Tavis: You're just silly is what it is.

Mowry: No!

Tavis: You can't help it. I know you. You're silly. I know you.

Mowry: OK. Um...but I love it. Tell you the truth, I mean, the hours can be a little bit, you know, stressful, but I love a challenge. And Kayla's character, she's always doing something challenging. You know, this past episode, she actually works on someone who doesn't want her to work on her because she's, you know, black, and this lady is a racist. And I'm like, "Look, lady, you're about to die. I need to check your heart." And she's like, "No, I don't want you touching me." You know what I mean? So, there's a lot of challenges within the role, and I love that. I love being dramatic, because I'm so not it in real life. So it's a lot of fun.

Tavis: You mentioned a moment ago the juxtaposition of being blessed and being cursed to have had 'Sister, Sister' as an opportunity. I suspect there's also a blessing, obviously, having a twin sister...and a small curse in having a twin sister.

Mowry: I wouldn't say curse.

Tavis: OK, but there's a down side to it.

Mowry: I would say challenge.

Tavis: We'll take that word.

Mowry: Or disadvantage.

Tavis: Which one do you want, challenge or disadvantage? Which one shall we use?

Mowry: OK, disadvantage.

Tavis: OK, we'll use disadvantage. For 500, please, disadvantage. All right. So a disadvantage of being a twin is what?

Mowry: Oh, there are a lot of disadvantages in Hollywood.

Tavis: You can't audition for the same roles?

Mowry: OK, this is the thing. You can audition for the same roles, but what my sister and I have realized--

Tavis: Didn't we just see her?

Mowry: Exactly. That's what we go through. And then also, I have actually had casting directors say, "Well, it was really, really hard picking between you two because we didn't want the other one to take it personally." And Tia and I used to get so upset because we're like, "Look, we are both going out on this audition, so it shows you that we really, you know, I mean, either one of us would love to have this part." What we found out was we were always canceling each other out because people would always think, you know, what they want to think. And when we were together it was always that 'Sister, Sister,' you know, when they see us? We were just like, "Oh, God." So we decided that only one person should go out on the audition. And we had to be, you know, we couldn't be selfish. You know, we wanted to work, but we had to look at a script and go, "OK, let's decide who you think can play this role better."

Tavis: So you're telling me then that Tia did not audition for 'Strong Medicine.'

Mowry: She did not audition for 'Strong Medicine.'

Tavis: Oh, I got it. OK.

Mowry: And she's actually doing an animated series right now. It's gonna be called 'The Brats.' These cute little dolls that are out right now. I didn't audition for 'The Brats.' So, for maybe about a year and a half we started auditioning separately. We would always get call-backs, so it worked better that way.

Tavis: You got a strategy now that works.

Mowry: Exactly.

Tavis: I saw a special--I was flipping channels the other night, and on one channel I saw a rerun of 'Sister, Sister,' so I watched that. Got to get that out first. Watched the rerun of 'Sister, Sister.' Then I started flipping channels and I saw one of these things...'E! True Hollywood Story' or something about these Olsen twins.

Mowry: Yeah.

Tavis: You guys have to be like the 2 sets of the most famous twins, certainly, in contemporary Hollywood. You know, the Mowry twins, the Olsen twins. Any comparisons to their life and your life?

Mowry: Well, I mean, the one thing--and I have to say this honestly--my sister and I don't like to be compared to the Olsen twins, mainly because they're doing their own thing, and we're doing our own thing. They're teenagers, we're women. And, I mean, it's sad what's going on in their life right now, but we want to be known not so much as you know, moguls or stuff like that. We want to be known for our talent. We want to be known as the best actresses in Hollywood. I don't care if you make the most money in Hollywood or you're the highest paid celebrity. We don't care about that. You know what I mean? I don't care about taking over the world. We--

Tavis: You want challenging roles.

Mowry: Exactly. No. We care more about acting more than the things that surround Hollywood. You get what I'm saying? You know what I mean? And more power to them. They're doing their thing, and we're doing ours. And we did what we--I mean, we were so successful being sisters. I mean, all around the world people know who we are as encouragers, as wonderful people. You know what I mean? That's what we think our calling is more than, you know, all that Hollywood stuff.

Tavis: I got about 30 seconds left or less than that. Tell me how the other acting sibling, Tahj, your brother--everybody knows him. How's Tahj doing?

Mowry: Tahj is doing great. He's going to college right now to be a college--football.

Tavis: What?

Mowry: He's big. He has the college neck and everything.

Tavis: He done buffed up now.

Mowry: He's very handsome.

Tavis: But he's grown into those ears now.

Mowry: He has a tattoo.

Tavis: What?! Not Tahj with a tattoo. Oh, my god! Tahj Mowry has--hunh! Tahj has a tattoo, and you're 26.

Mowry: Yeah.

Tavis: What's the world coming to? I got to get out of here. Tamera, nice to see you. I'm proud of you and Tia. And tell the other twin I said hello.

Mowry: I will. Thank you.

Tavis: That's our show for tonight. As always, you can catch me on the radio on NPR. I'll see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, thanks for watching. Good night from Los Angeles, and keep the faith.