After an over 40 year career in Hollywood, Garcelle Beauvais continues to show us that she’s just getting started. While the starlet has built a loyal following over the years, many people, such as myself, became fans of Beauvais for her no-nonsense yet empathetic performance and delivery on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. If not long before this, Beauvais certainly entered many viewers’ ‘top Housewife rankings’ in 2020 after educating her fellow Housewives and audiences on the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement. That being one example of the many instances where the Hollywood legend insisted on using her platform for good. For fans of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills who are mourning the loss of the iconic Garcelle Beauvais on your screens, mourn no more! The actress and model will be gracing our screens in two new movies on Lifetime. Fans can catch Taken at a Truck Stop: A Black Girl Missing Movie, a powerful new installment in the Black Girl Missing franchise released this fall, and she just wrapped filming Terry McMillan Presents: Tempted 2 Love, the sequel to last year’s hit romance, both of which Beauvais is also executive producing.
Beauvais has worn (and continues to wear) many different hats across her time in Hollywood. From model, to actress, to Real Housewife, to mother (and now grandmother), and executive producer, Beauvais has learned that “staying in your lane” is not for her. “When I started in the industry, if you were an actor, that’s what you were, you stayed that way. What I’ve learned is that you can’t box us in anymore. We can do whatever it is that we want. So from those different roles and hats that I wear, I’ve been able to find the freedom to create something that I’m proud of, or even something that I just think is fun.” Beauvais also touched on how important it is for her to show her children she is continuing to follow her dreams. “It’s also nice for my boys to see that I still want to make my dreams come true. I think sometimes when we become moms, we are told that that should become your sole purpose. I think that as a mom, it’s equally important for them to see me living my dreams.” Pushing against the boundaries of Hollywood has been something Beauvais has been doing in her career since its inception, and it’s a tradition she carries on through her two new projects.
Taken at a Truck Stop: A Black Girl Missing Movie stars Beauvais in the role of Kai, a determined and fearless truck driver who co-owns her family’s business. Kai’s world is upended when her neurodivergent niece, Toy, is lured away by an online predator. After police investigations stall, Kai turns to her own community of truckers and uses her platform on social media to rally support and spearhead a grassroots effort to bring Toy home. At its core, the film shines a spotlight on the stark racial disparities in media coverage of missing persons cases, exposing how missing girls of color receive far less attention than their white counterparts. With this, the film was developed in partnership with the Black and Missing Foundation, a nonprofit focused on awareness, family support, and community education rights. For Beauvais, working on a project such as this mirrored her passion for using her platform for good. “I think what I love about what we’ve created is that it’s a conversation starter. When I would do press for the first Black Girl Missing film, I had some very well-known journalists say to me, ‘We take some kind of responsibility here too.’ Many people can’t tell you the name of a Black girl that’s been missing, but they can tell you about Jonbenet Ramsey, Natalie Holloway, and Gabby Petito. My thing is, those women and girls are absolutely important and we should know their names, but I also think we need to have the same kind of compassion and awareness brought on when it’s one of us.” Building on this point, Beauvais shared, “For me, using my platform to bring light to something like this is really, really important.”
The messaging was not the only piece of this film that drew in Beauvais, it was also the chance to play a character unlike any other she had portrayed before. “My Kai character is a badass and I love that about her,” said Beauvais, “I have to tell you, I’ve found a new respect for truckers, especially women that are on the road. We really take their work for granted. They’re alone a lot, they miss a lot of things, you know, in terms of family traditions, birthdays, and it’s also a dangerous job being on the road. Now when I’m driving on the highway and I see a truck, I look and I have this new found understanding and appreciation.”
Beauvais’ prep for becoming the tough and earnest trucker Kai, came down to embodying every aspect of her, from movement to clothing. “With Kai, I really paid close attention to the way that she dressed. It was important that she wore boots and that her jeans were right, I intentionally did curly hair for this film.” Beauvais also enlightened us to her deep research on the life of truckers, hoping to embody their nuanced lives in her performance, “Some of these women do therapy while they’re on the road, some women are doing makeup tutorials on the road, because they want to look good and they still want to be themselves. So for me with Kai, it was balancing that and also embodying these other aspects of her, like her walk is a little tougher. She’s more no-nonsense.” For Beauvais, part of the fun of taking on these two roles is how different the women are. Just as Beauvais pushes back against the barriers created by Hollywood in choosing to helm multiple roles, the characters she portrays are additionally pushing against these barriers in different yet equally important ways, creating space for representations of nuanced, joyful, heartbreaking, and complex Black women characters.
In Terry McMillan Presents: Tempted 2 Love, Garcelle reprises her role as Ava, a celebrated chef navigating unexpected emotions when her younger ex unexpectedly arrives with a new partner during a prestigious culinary event in Ireland. On embodying Ava, Beauvais discussed these specific challenges that older women often face that are also often not represented in the mainstream media or in traditional Hollywood cinema. “[Ava] is dealing with what women go through at a certain age, she’s dealing with menopause, she’s starting to develop some arthritis, and those are things we don’t shy away from in the film.”
The wild success of the films’ first installment, Tempted By Love, showed Hollywood that audiences are not only ready for films celebrating the stories of older women, but that we want them. “We want to celebrate that you can fall in love anytime,” stated Beauvais. “You know, we don’t want women to lose hope that they’ll find their person. I think you can still deal with real issues that come with aging, such as the ones we portray in this film, and still be lovable and deserving of intimacy. To me, that’s what Tempted By Love personified.”
As women, Hollywood often wants to put an expiration date on us, which is why films such as the Tempted By Love series and characters like Ava have had such a profound impact on women audiences. “Nobody thinks twice about films that have a romance between someone like Harrison Ford and a younger girl, it’s accepted. When a woman does it, we get the reaction of ‘Oh she’s a cougar’ and we’re labeled. We’re in the year 2025 now, and I think those ideas are outdated.” Beauvais rightly added, “Listen, it’s so hard to find someone of the opposite sex that you’re compatible with. There are so many different lists and boxes that we need for them to check. Why do we have to add another box? If they’re younger than you, who cares? I think age is nothing but a number, it’s about the person’s spirit.” The actress added playfully, “I mean, obviously I wouldn’t date an 18 year old, but I think if a relationship consists of two consenting adults, then let people be. Life is short and chaotic and crazy, if you find someone, awesome.”
Another perk of starring in and executive producing Tempted 2 Love? Getting to again work with the iconic novelist Terry McMillan. “She’s a legend” stated Beauvais. The author is well known for her complex and thoughtful portrayal of the lives of Black women and their relationships. With this, the two feel like a natural pairing to broaden the scope of the stories that can and should be told about Black women’s lives.
Artists like Beauvais are not only redefining the possibilities for actresses and the roles they can take on, but through her work, she has also allowed for these powerful, deeply important stories to come to light. That being said, Beauvais wants to see even more representation and diversity in the form of roles for women. “For starters, it’s great to see women leads and specifically women of an older age. I also think it’s important to show different body types, I want to see women who reflect every day life,” Said Beauvais, “Listen, I don’t have a problem with somebody being a size zero or a size two, God bless. But I think we need to show all kinds of bodies on television. I think if we’re really committed to being actors and trying to embrace stories that reflect people in real life, I think the characters should also look like they’re in real life.” Beauvais brought up an example I’m sure many of us are familiar with, the Netflix reality dating series Love is Blind. “I’m obsessed with that show just like everyone else, but also, I’d like to really see all types of people on that show. I feel like they’re still kind of picking people based on this sort of conventional type of beauty. They’re all young, they’re all good looking, good bodies. And to me, I would like to see more bodies, different bodies, different races. And also less of a focus on color when it’s an interracial couple, but just telling their story as you would with any couple.”
In a world where representation can often be taken for granted, Beauvais reminds us how powerful it can be to see yourself represented on the big screen. In particular, seeing yourself represented as desirable is becoming more and more important for younger women who are growing up with seemingly endless beauty trends, standards, and new and increasingly ridiculous ways to induce insecurity.
Beauvais’ growing collaboration with Lifetime marks just the beginning of a bold new creative journey—one that promises even more inspiring work from the Hollywood star. “I always say I want to remake Basic Instinct” stated the actress, and watching her helm the iconic character of Catherine Tramell would certainly be a must-see for fans of the star. As for dream collaborations, Beauvais has a long list (that we need to see come to fruition). “There’s so many people that I would love to work with. I mean, I don’t like horror movies, but I would definitely love to work with Jordan Peele. I’d be so scared, but I would love it. Obviously I’d love to work with Spielberg. There’s also so many women directors that I would love to work with, Greta Gerwig is one. I really love seeing women helm movies.”
While Beauvais continues to be one of the great entertainers of this generation, an additional one of those aforementioned ‘hats’ that Garcelle Beauvais wears is her work as a humanitarian. Over the years Beauvais has been a vocal advocate for causes ranging from HIV and AIDS awareness to immigrant and migrant justice. “You know, going back to having a platform, I feel like I’ve always, always, always been charitable whether it’s my time, or something else. I taught my kids at an early age that you have to give back, we’re so lucky.” The actress continued, stating, “I didn’t grow up how my children are raised, in terms of having nice things, going on vacations, all that kind of stuff, so it’s important to always give back. What I’ve also found is that I’ve been given this platform where if I say something, people pay attention. So why wouldn’t I use it for good? Why wouldn’t I use it outside of like shading a Housewife and all that stuff?” Beauvais’ passion for doing good is core to who she is, to the projects she picks, and to the causes she brings awareness to. (Although, we have to admit, we do also love seeing her shade a Housewife). In regards to the causes and organizations that Beauvais is platforming at the moment, the starlet discussed her fondness towards the organization CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) particularly the work they’ve done to rebuild and assist communities in Haiti, Beauvais’ birth country, after the devastating 2011 earthquake. “CORE, founded by Sean Penn and Ann Lee, is really close to my heart, especially ever since Sean jumped in full force right after the Haiti earthquake, and I love what they do. They really show up when it’s needed. So that’s been a really great organization that I’ve been a part of and I love and will continue to work with them.”
Beauvais’s passion for honoring the everyday lives of human beings always comes back to her work as a creative. “For me, I would say the most empowering moment of my career so far has been being able to bring this Black Girl Missing franchise to light. I love that I’ve been able to do that because it’s just, it’s the right thing to do and because it makes sense and it helps my community and that I’m forever grateful for.”
Be sure to check out Garcelle Beauvais in Taken at a Truck Stop: A Black Girl Missing Movie on Lifetime.
Photos via Petros Kouiouris
