‘Beyond the Gates’ Star Tamara Tunie Reacts to Anita Dupree’s Big Reveal: ‘I Cried’

Anita Dupree’s secret on Beyond the Gates, which has been hinted at since the show’s February premiere, has finally been revealed, and no one is happier than her portrayer, Tamara Tunie. “Oh, I was thrilled,” Tunie says. “I was excited. We’ve been talking about this from the beginning.”

The actress, who spent nearly 15 years playing legal eagle Jessica Griffin on As The World Turns, is no stranger to soap twists but Tunie admits she was shocked to learn the secret, that a woman named Barbara founded The Articulettes — the singing group that made Anita famous before she embarked on a solo career — but was later kicked out and died by suicide.

“I did not know,” Tunie shares. “It was a surprise to me. I was at the same time really excited and found it incredibly daunting, the path we were going to go down. I think it’s something never seen in daytime television.”

For Anita, coming to terms with the decisions she made in her past hasn’t been an easy task. “She kind of put that secret away in a place in her soul and spirit that she just would not go to,” Tunie explains. “She was not at her best at that time, and she was selfish, and she was ambitious, and she wanted her dreams to come true at whatever cost. If there was collateral damage, so be it. And she really regrets that.

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“Of course, with age comes wisdom,” she continues, “and looking back, she would have done things differently, knowing how she pretty much abandoned [fellow Articulettes] Tracy [Tyler, Maria Howell] and Sharon [Winger, Bonita Brisker]. She’s trying to reconnect and reunite and heal their friendship in order to not be haunted, if you will, by what she did, and what her choices led to, as far as Barbara was concerned.”

Tunie says she had a powerful reaction to seeing how Anita’s reveal would unfold. “That was really emotional,” she recalls. “When I read the script, I cried, and then I didn’t look at it until the night before we were shooting it, so that any emotion that might bubble up would be saved for the filming. The writers are just writing really incredible stories. It’s not just typical soap opera, who’s sleeping with who. They’re really getting into some complexities that I think are fantastic.”

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Her directorial experience came in handy for a key scene on the June 3 episode, where Anita read the suicide note Barbara left behind. “I love the idea of reading that letter,” shares Tunie. “And at one point in the script, I think it said that my voice joined her, and [Anita] started reciting the letter from memory because [she] memorized this letter. I suggested to Steve Williford, our director, ‘What if it’s like that moment in Hamilton when Hamilton is writing the resignation letter to George Washington, and then he starts saying it too, and then Hamilton’s voice fades away, and then it’s all George. What if we do something like that?’ And he was like, ‘Oh, my God! I just got chills. Let’s do it!’ So, we did it.” I understood that it worked really well, so I’m really happy about that.”

Now that the truth is out, expect so see a slightly different Anita. “It’s definitely unburdening herself, and I think that she feels a weight lifted,” explains Tunie. “She’s been carrying it all alone, and now she shared it with someone, her husband, to carry it with her, so she feels a little lighter. And then, if this opens up the opportunity for Sharon and Tracy, and for them to be reunited, then that’s a very exciting prospect, but at the same time, she knows it’s not going to be easy.”

Tunie says she has been deeply moved and encouraged by the positive response to the new CBS soap since its debut over three months ago. “It’s meant so much to me,” she says. “Coming full circle and back to daytime with this show, and it being received the way that it’s being received is icing on my career cake. It really is an outpouring of love. You can just feel it. I know there are some naysayers that may be out there. Whatever. I pay no attention to them, because I know what we have and what we’re doing is something incredible and special, and entertaining. And it really is inviting people in. It’s just the best possible job that I could have right now, at this point in my life as well as in my career.”

Beyond the Gates, Weekdays, CBS. Check Local Listings