For Tiffani Thiessen, the student has officially become the teacher.
The actress, known for her iconic roles in teen series like Saved by the Bell and Beverly Hills, 90210, is going back to school in Coven Academy. The new series, which premiered today on Freeform and arrives in full tomorrow, Oct. 2, on Disney+ and Hulu, focuses on a trio of teenage witches attending a magic school in New Orleans, tasked with both harnessing their powers and using them to defend their city. Thiessen plays Miss Graves, the head of the school, who attempts to maintain order while hiding her own set of secrets.
“It’s definitely something new for me,” the actress tells Parade in an exclusive interview. “I’ve actually never done really anything supernatural, spooky, eerie. So it’s a definite little check off the box of something new for me. But I do enjoy working with the younger generation, which I’ve done a couple of times.”
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Working with younger performers is a full-circle experience for the 52-year-old, considering she got catapulted into the national spotlight at only 15. And, like her on-screen counterpart, she takes it on herself to help guide others she sees just starting their careers.
“I feel like it’s part of my duty at this point,” she explains. “I’m older, I’ve been doing this for over 45 years, which is crazy to say sometimes. And so I feel like I enjoy actually mentoring other kids. But at the same time, it’s a two-way street. I actually learn a lot from them as well. So it’s kind of one of those things where I’m getting, I’ll probably just as much as, hopefully, they’re going to get from me.”
“I feel like a lot of kids are being able to be a lot more individually creative, which is great with social media and all those types of things which we didn’t have,” she continues. “Ours was a little more like, huge call of 400 kids, you’re trying to go in for the same role. But I think it’s it’s also hard in their aspect to where they have all eyes on them. The privacy aspect is really different than it was for us. We could shut it off, go home and close our doors and never have to listen to it. Where I feel like these kids, it’s in their face all the time.”
Related: This Saved by the Bell Star Made No Money on the Show
When asked the biggest piece of advice she typically gives younger actors, Thiessen gives an answer that’s simple in concept, yet complex in execution.
“Listen to your intuition,” she says. “Listen to yourself. I feel like we all have it. And I think these kids also have it as well. They really do have great, great heads on their shoulders.”
As mentioned before, Thiessen can sympathize with the actors getting their start on Coven Academy considering, back in 1989, she was in their shoes (albeit with matching leg warmers). Kelly Kapowski was a career-making role for her, as fans fell in love with the head cheerleader and her on-again, off-again relationship with Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar). And, despite Bayside High becoming such an iconic location in sitcom history, when asked about her favorite memory from Saved By the Bell, Thiessen actually looks outside the school.
“I think the ones that I probably enjoyed the most were when we were able to get out of the set and actually do something a little different,” she says. “We did a whole summer series where we were literally in Malibu the whole summer. I also remember the travel that we got to do when the show got really big, and it was in like 146 countries. They took us on a European tour. And that to me was like one of the biggest memories I’ve had. It was the first time I’d ever been to Europe. And I’m going, ‘This is something probably most 16-year-olds never got to do.’ Traveling and meeting people and seeing countries that I had never seen before.”
“When you go on a show or a movie, you never know how it’s going to translate or be received by an audience,” she says about Saved by the Bell‘s massive success. “You really never know. I had no clue. Plus, it was my first time. I had done some small things beforehand, but I had no idea the sort of widespread phenomenon that it was going to be.”
And now it’s Thiessen’s turn to mold the next generation on their own magical journey. The full season of Coven Academy arrives on Disney+ and Hulu Oct. 2.
Related: ‘Saved by the Bell’s’ Dennis Haskins Cause of Death: What We Know So Far
