Oct 03, 2007 - 09:39 AM

By Tim Kelly

Former Oshawa resident, Tonya Lee Williams, has had a long television and film career and is perhaps most famous for her long-running starring turn on the day-time drama, The Young and the Restless. She's currently producing and directing her first feature film, Making Room for Lily. She recently starred with Danny Glover in director Clement Virgo's Poor Boy's Game, which premiered at She is being inducted on to the Oshawa Walk of Fame on Oct. 4.

1. What has been the highlight of your film career?

It's always different for me than for the public. For the public, it would be my role on Y and R. For me, it was my first job. It was a Bank of Nova Scotia commercial, I think in the late 1970s.

2. What was it like acting in a long-running daytime drama?

It was fantastic because most actors don't have a sense of security. Also, the development of a character makes it interesting. The ability to shape a character was very rewarding but I left (The Young and the Restless) when I didn't know where to take the character.

3. Do you think Hollywood is colour-blind?

I think it's more colour-blind than Canada. Hollywood is ahead of where we are in Canada.

4. Did you find it difficult to break into show business?

Yes, though it was easier for me than others. It's a very competitive business. Today, it's all about media and people talk about getting into the (entertainment) business more now than they did 40 years ago. What's different is today, everyone can be on a screen. Fifty years ago you might have been on the stage -- but now television and screen-based media are so prevalent.

5. Do you think film is an effective way to portray the multicultural experience?

It's one of the ways, but music, painting, literature are good ways too. The Internet has become bigger than all of them. Everyone has access to it and everyone can get to it. Young kids now in America know more about Beijing than I do.

6. What is the biggest difference you've found between Canadians and Americans?

There are so many differences. Americans take the entertainment business much more seriously than do Canadians. Canadian audiences are showing, by their lack of support of Canadian programs, that they are watching far more American programming. Unless the audiences grow for Canadian programming, it will die. Audiences drive the ratings and they are becoming more demanding.

7. What is your favourite memory of living in Oshawa?

I lived there from 12-18, a great time and I remember having a real feeling of safety. It was great in the summer, to meet up with your other friends, play tennis, walk the streets. Your parents didn't worry. It was clean fun -- riding our bikes, playing tag, playing ball. It was completely ideal.

8. Do you manage to get back to Canada often?

I do get back often, sometimes every other week, sometimes every other month. Since I was 18, I've been coming back to Toronto, where my mother lives. I was back in Oshawa in July. It hasn't changed much downtown, really.

9. How does producing and directing compare with acting?

Producing and directing are great -- I enjoy doing them, but my heart is in acting. It's more creative for me. As I get older, I don't look for as much work as I did when I was younger. I enjoy the pace and working to create a character.

10. What can you tell us about Poor Boy's Game, your latest picture, directed by Clement Virgo and co-starring Danny Glover?

It was so fantastic. I didn't know if I wanted to act any more after I had been doing it for some 20-odd years. It was wonderful and I took a year off and didn't think about what I was going to do. I admired Clement Virgo -- he had a great script and I didn't have an attachment to anything. I read the script, thought it was a great role, went to shoot in Halifax, N.S., a place I wanted to visit and I wanted to learn about African-Canadians. At the Cannes Film Festival, I met Danny Glover; you can't believe, the whole experience was wonderful with an intense story. The black parts of Halifax were close to places I've visited in the Deep South -- blacks live in their own area. I play Danny Glover's wife and we have a son. One woman said Poor Boy's Game was, "An uncomfortable movie to watch but it was the real story. It was good that we should feel uncomfortable."