Tamala Jones Talks Doing Her Own Stunts On ABC’s ‘Rebel’

Tamala Jones has built an extensive resume as a film and television actor. After making her feature film debut in How to Make an American Quilt at the age of 20, Jones went on to star in several hit television series and films.

Joining the cast of ABC’s Rebel, Jones says, felt like “being back at home.” The California native is best known for playing Lanie Parish in Castle, a series that ran on the same network for eight seasons.

Set to premiere on April 8, Rebel is loosely based on the life of Erin Brockovich. Annie “Rebel” Bello (played by Katey Sagal) is a blue-collar legal advocate without a law degree who cares desperately about the causes she fights for and the people she loves. One of them being Jones’ character Lana who is an investigator and Rebel’s former sister-in-law.

As Jones describes her, Lana is a “… very real character because she has, like every other human, her personal issues that she struggles with,” she continued, “But she doesn’t take any bs either. There are no gray areas for her; it’s either hot or cold, black or white.”

In addition to returning to the network that has “always taken care of [her],” Jones says, performing her own stunts on the show was one of the highlights, as she never got to do action scenes in her previous work. “I get to fight, I get to be tough, and I love that! I’m always someone’s girlfriend or wife, and this time, there’s so much more to this character.”

Watch Rebel on ABC Thursday, April 8 at 10 p.m. ET.