LOVE ME AS I AM

GARCELLE BEAUVAIS

LOVE ME AS I AM

RESILIENT MAGAZINE

Garcelle Beauvais has carved out a dynamic career as a model, actress, author, producer, and humanitarian. She launched a decade-long modeling career at seventeen, which took her around the world and paved the way to her storied acting career, which includes successful television and major film roles on The Jamie Foxx Show, NYPD Blue, Tell Me a Story, Merry Happy Whatever, Coming to America, Wild Wild West, and Spider-Man: Homecoming.

In 2019 Beauvais became the first Black castmate in the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills franchise. She is currently the host of the Emmy Awardwinning daytime television talk show The Real and host of the podcast Going to Bed with Garcelle. Her new autobiography “Love Me As I Am” (Amistad, 240 pages, now out) is part of her journey of selfdiscovery to reach the G-place (as in Garcell) of the actress, model and TV personality. The curtain pulls to her life and decades of career.

Garcelle Beauvais, Model, Actress, and Author. For our first question, I’d like to ask:

Q: How do you deal with pushback as a celebrity, and what is your advice to women who are putting themselves out there; starting businesses, etc, and are facing scrutiny?

A: First of all, I want to say congratulations to all the women out there putting themselves out there. We're so brave to do that and to want to start a business, no matter how old you are. The thing is with branding, you really want to be authentic to who you are. So know your brand, know who you are, know what you want to put out there.

But once you're under that fishbowl, you have to be able to discern the good from the bad. Don't listen to every comment, because sometimes for me, there can be a thousand great comments that one negative will stay with me. But you have to push through. We have to push through. And I think it's important to have a social media presence, but don't rely solely on that. I think above all is, you know what you want to sell and go out there and do it. Don't be deterred by negatives that will happen but you just have to push through. Don't be afraid to ask for help. I feel like sometimes as women we tend to want to go, I got it, I got it, I got it. It's OK to say to a friend. ‘I saw you do that really well. How can I learn that?’”

Q: What is the background story around your Book?

A: My girlfriend, Nicole Smith, we ended up writing the book together, and she had never written a book before, but I knew she was capable because I've seen some writing pieces here and there. And I said to my lit agent, "will you check her out? I know you have a list of people that you want me to talk to, but will you check out my girlfriend?" She ended up being the writer for my book, and she is now writing her fourth book. I mean, it's unbelievable. And I think it's just believing and getting the opportunity and going for the opportunity.

Q: What was your aha that came out of writing this book?

A: I think resilience and strength. Sometimes I think we don't know how strong we are until we're really tested, and I've been tested a number of times. But my thing is, I'm not going out without a fight. So I'm going to push through because no one has a perfect life. I'm going to push through, and my resiliency is one of the keys to me being in this business so long.

Q: What was one time in your life where your resilience got you through a tough situation, and helped you get where you are today?

A: I would say, knowing that here I am in my late forties getting a divorce, that I have two 3 year olds that are looking up at me. I have to push through for them. I have to wake up and make them breakfast and get them to preschool and then figure out my life, you know? And that was a real struggle of rediscovering who I am outside of being married. So I had to be resilient.

Connect with Garcelle Instagram: @garcelle Facebook: @GarcelleB Twitter: @GarcelleB