Garcelle Beauvais has become the queen of Lifetime. Earlier this year, it was announced that her partnership with the network had been extended she was now set to star in and executive produce two new television films. She’s continuing on with bringing necessary subject matters to life through films.
In her latest role in Taken at a Truck Stop: A Black Girl Missing Movie, Beauvais stars as Kai, “a tough, tenacious trucker and co-owner of her family’s business is thrown into a harrowing manhunt after her sister Madison’s (Marci T. House) neurodivergent daughter, Toy (Sierra Sidwell), is abducted by an online predator. When law enforcement hits a dead end, Kai leverages her loyal trucking network and social media influence to launch a grassroots rescue mission to find her niece. The gripping story underscores the realities of online exploitation, the strength of community, and the inequities in media coverage of missing girls of color. This installment of the Black Girl Missing franchise continues to shine a spotlight on stories too often overlooked. for its unflinching portrayal of the disparities in missing persons cases involving Black women and girls.”
Nowadays, the actress is also giving no apologies for walking away from the Real Housewives franchise. Blavity’s Shadow and Act spoke with Beauvais about her work with Lifetime, and why she knew it was time to choose herself.
Your deal with Lifetime has expanded and you’re not only acting in films, but also producing. What makes this partnership so fruitful?
Garcelle Beauvais: They got the message of what we wanted to do with the Black Girl Missing movie in the first place. They get the message, they have the fan base, they have the demographics that we want to reach, and it was just a no-brainer. The collaboration is easy. It’s really great and we’ve expanded and it’s great working with Lifetime. Honestly, I have nothing bad to say.
Now, the Black Girls Missing series has been critically acclaimed. Ironically, I’m on the East Coast, and we dealt with our own unfortunate Black and missing case with Kada Scott that had a devastating ending. Do you think that through programming like Lifetime’s, more eyes have been centered on stories of color, because historically we know that that has not been the case?
Yes, absolutely. I think Lifetime being the champion for our franchise has helped tremendously. And I also think that the awareness — I think people didn’t realize the disparity of when Black and brown people go missing, that we don’t get the same coverage, the same urgency, the same compassion. And I think it started getting people to talk about it, to see it, and I hope that we can continue doing so until we can hopefully no longer have to do it.
Now let’s talk about preparing for this specific role. I’m sure as a mom, it wasn’t difficult to understand the character, but what did you do to prepare for this role? It’s a little bit more down and dirty too, and I am considering that’s what I loved about it.
Yeah, that’s what I loved about it. I loved playing Kai. I love who she is. I love that she’s a badass, no-nonsense type of girl, but I also love the family aspect of this movie, her relationship with her sister. Sister relationships [and] family relationships are complicated and complex, and I love the relationship with her niece, and I have great relationships with my nieces. And I think it’s important to show family, but also to see that these two sisters inherited their dad’s trucking company, which normally you don’t picture women as truckers, but let me tell you, there’s a huge community of women truckers and I have a newfound respect for them, what they do, the danger of the job, the loneliness of the job, the missing out on family things and important dates because they’re on the road. So I loved a lot of things about it, including the storytelling of it. And then also Toy being neurodivergent, showing a little bit of that and showing that you can still function, it’s not a taboo thing.
Now, how did you go about balancing the multiple roles in this film, because you’re obviously a star in it, and also an EP.
Yeah, I try to compartmentalize. When I’m on set, I’m an actor. We made all the decisions prior to getting on set. Obviously, the director, the budget, locations, the actors, all those things were already set in place. And listen, I don’t do it by myself. There’s other producers. So when I’m on set, I’m an actor unless something crazy happens and they need my input on something, but it’s been really, really great. It stretched me in so many ways, even though I’ve been in the industry for a long time. Being a producer has taught me so much that I didn’t know that went into productions, because as an actor you show up, you do your lines, you do your character work, but it’s been really, really cool to learn so much more.
One of the things that has been—every time I speak with you that’s been fascinating and like just very exciting to watch is that obviously after some time, because for some time you were focused on motherhood and you were acting here and there, but you really had an amazing resurgence in terms of acting, producing and hosting. Your career is really on fire, and you know we know that you are a bomb auntie of a certain age that you do not look,
If there is a word I hate, it’s the word auntie unless I’m really your auntie, and unless I’m related to you.
We use it as a term of endearment
No, I know.
We’ll just say that you’re an icon, OK?
I like that.
We know that you’re just everything and your career is on fire. So are you taking everything in? And how do you feel that you’ve been able to combat the ageism that we know is in Hollywood?
Thank you for all the things that you just said. It’s interesting because I have a friend of mine, every now and then she’ll call me and she goes, ‘Have you sat in your accomplishment? Take a moment and sit and just take them in.’ And that’s the only time I do when she reminds me to, because, I am a hustler. So I’m always like, what’s next? And I love what I do. I didn’t know this world existed when I was a little girl, when I was growing up, I had no idea. So I really love what I do. And obviously, motherhood is the most important, and my boys now need me less and less and less, which I don’t like, but it’s giving me the opportunity to sort of branch out and do more because they’re growing up.
Before I let you go, obviously, we have to get into some Housewives stuff. Now there are some hot topics with everything going on with Wendy Osefo on The Real Housewives of Potomac and her recent arrest and fraud charges. What do you think about this Housewives to prison pipeline we see going on?
I think it’s really sad. I think it’s really sad, and the job of a reality show is we’re in a fish bowl. Everybody thinks they know everything. They wanna know everything. They want to digest everything about you, that if you’re not doing anything on the up and up, it’s gonna be found out because it’s a fish bowl. It’s really difficult. And, I hate to see it. I hate to see it.
You left The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I was sad to see you go because of course you’re one of my favorites, but I feel like collectively we were all so proud that you left and that you took a stand for something that you believed in, which we don’t necessarily see all the time in reality television. Looking back, did you feel supported by the Network and by the cast? Did you feel as if that was a safe space for you, especially with you making the groundbreaking history that you made as the first Black full-time housewife on that franchise?
I can’t speak to a lot of that because I’m working on something, but definitely supported by the network for sure. It was just time. I had to choose me. And sometimes we have to choose us, and so it was time for me to choose me.
And what are you looking forward to doing next? Because we obviously spoke about, you know, your resurgence and you doing all this acting and hosting. What are you looking to really dig your teeth into?
I am having a ball with producing, so I’m hoping to produce more. I know I will. I just sold a couple of shows, so I really just want to continue on this ride and have fun, enjoy my family and work and play a little bit in between.
And would you do reality television again? Maybe have your own. I mean, you do have such an interesting family dynamic.
No. I would host a reality show, but I won’t be in one.