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Garcelle Beauvais captured America’s heart long before she became one of the most loved housewives on the ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.’ The 54-year-old has a stacked resume where she’s done everything from modeling to acting in TV and film. In addition to being on the popular Bravo franchise, Beauvais is also a co-host on the talk variety show, ‘The Real’ alongside Adrienne Bailon and Jeannie Mai Jenkins.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, the 54-year-old has her own podcast, ‘Going to Bed with Garcelle,’ where she talks about all things sex, life, dating, and relationships. Clearly Beauvais is not slowing down anytime soon.
HOLA! USA chatted with Beauvais about reality TV, what she loves most about her career, and her love for relaxing baths.
When you joined the RHOBH cast in season 10, you were the first black woman in history to join the show. What does this history making moment mean to you?
Oh, wow it’s everything. I just think whenever you’re the first of anything it makes a lot of noise and it surely made a lot of noise. I said to a friend of mine, ‘You know I’ve been in this industry for a long time, I worked with some pretty impressive people throughout my career but I have never gotten more attention than the announcement that I was joining RHOBH,’ it was the craziest thing. My friend called me and said ‘You’re trending!’ And I was like ‘What do you mean, I’m at home making pork chops with the boys? I’m not doing anything trend worthy at the moment.’ [Laughs]
Is there anything you learned from filming the show that surprised you about reality TV?
I thought for sure there were aspects of it that was scripted so when I first started shooting and they were shooting in my house and I was waiting for them to say “Action!” and they were like ‘Um no, just do you!’ I really thought in some way, ‘There’s got to be something that they tell you to do.’ It’s really driven by each lady and you know you get eight women together who are confident and say how they feel, you’re definitely going to get drama and that’s what we’ve been able to do.
Aside from RHOBH, you have a stacked resume! Your accomplishments are incredible, including being a co-host on the popular talk show, ‘The Real.’ How has it been being on a talk show?
It’s been amazing! This has been always what I wanted to do, even before acting even before anything so I obviously have opinions and I obviously say them, sometimes to a fault. But it’s really my dream job. I say that and people are like ‘Really? But you’ve done some really cool stuff.’ But I just love that format and I think having four women of color, to have our voices out there. To have our opinions - we can talk about what our people go through and even though we’re all women of color, we don’t always agree. And it’s really nice to be able to have conversations about whether it’s BLM, fashion, relationships, and get different perspectives, I think it’s great.
Do you have a favorite part of being a co-host on the talk show?
Yes, I really love how different we all are yet it just works, because it’s still cohesive. So I love how I could disagree with Adrienne or Jeannie and we could laugh about it. They may turn me around and say something and I go ‘Oh, I like that!’ So I like how we’re all open. It’s almost like an improv class.
You’ve also been busy working on your new podcast, ‘Going to Bed with Garcelle.’ Tell me a bit about that and how did the concept of this podcast come about?
It’s been really fun to do. Once a month back when I didn’t have my kids on a Sunday, I would have friends over. Sometimes I would have just girls, sometimes I would have couples or an eclectic group, and we would sit around, gossip, vent, eat, drink, and the conversation always turned to sex. And at the end of all of these gatherings, some people would walk out the door and say ‘You should do this, this is a show.’ And so my producing partner, Lisa L. Wilson and I were like, let’s shoot a sizzle reel and see if we could sell the show. Well we ended up selling the show to MGM and they loved it and then of course COVID happened and everything shut down. MGM suggested to incubate it as a podcast and start getting buzz and see how it’s going. And it’s been great! We’ve had Jamie Foxx, Chelsea Handler, Tiffany Haddish, the Bella twins. It just became this thing and I think what people take away from it is purely fun. We’re not trying to shame anybody or make anyone feel bad, it’s just always a celebrity and a real friend and we just talk about what girls talk about when we’re together and just having a ball.
You’re also very involved with nonprofit work and giving back to the community. Why is it so important to you to be involved with that type of work?
I mean I live a life I couldn’t of possibly dreamt of coming from where I came from, so for me it would really be a disservice not to use my platform to give back, to help out because I didn’t have anything. So for me, anything I could lend my name to that I feel is a worthy cause is part of why I do what I do.
You’ve achieved so much already, what is next on Garcelle’s bucket list?
I would love to produce more, that’s on my bucket list. I have something coming up that I can’t talk about just yet. I just want to continue to grow as an artist and a human being and continue doing what I love because it’s not just a job, I really love what I do. And obviously seeing my kids grow up and my grandson grow up is a big part of the things that I want to do. I want to spend time with them as much as I can.
What is your favorite self-care ritual?
I take baths, I love baths. I’ll light candles, play some music, I’ll put my phone in another room, so I’m not tempted. I also sometimes take morning baths. If I wake up early enough and I get to do that, it just gets me in the right mind frame or if I wake up and I’m really achy, either from whatever I did that week, it’s just nice to take time and I really feel with COVID and 2020, we really learned how important self care is because otherwise we keep going and we never stop.