Actress and executive producer Garcelle Beauvais is open to new possibilities after her “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” departure.
In March, Beauvais – who became the first full-time black Housewife on the franchise — announced on Instagram she was exiting the hit reality show to pursue different career options and focus on her family. Following the reunion filming, she said she wanted to be present for her twin sons, Jax and Jaid, during their last year of high school.
At the Oct. 16 premiere of her latest Lifetime project, “Taken at a Truck Stop: A Black Girl Missing Movie,” Beauvais shared what prompted her decision to leave the show.
“When did you know it was time to leave the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills franchise?” entertainment reporter Courtney Tezeno asked.
“At the reunion,” Beauvais replied.
During her time on the show, she faced friendship fallouts with co-stars Kyle Richards and Sutton Stracke, among others. After the three-part reunion, Beauvais and Stracke unfollowed each other on social media.
As for which Housewives franchise she might join next, the 58-year-old said she’d be open to heading to the East Coast.
“I would stop in Miami. One, I love the girls. There were a couple of Haitian girls on [The Real Housewives of] Miami, but also my family is there. So, I can stop there, then go see my family,” she said.
Beauvais stars in the third installment of Lifetime’s “A Black Girl Missing Movie” franchise. The powerful film follows her character Kai, who launches a search to rescue her niece Toy (Sierra Sidwell) after she’s been abducted by an online predator. Beauvais and her cast explain why it was important to shed light on the disparities in media coverage of missing girls of color.
“The disparity of what I’ve been seeing for decades, of when black and brown people go missing, we don’t get the same urgency, we don’t get the same compassion,” Beauvais said. “We need to shout; we need to talk about it. We need to bring awareness and also teach kids and grown-ups.”
She continued, “We share so much on social media. Where we’re going, when we’re going on vacation, who we’re with, all the business.”
Actress Marci T. House, who portrays Madison — the mother of Toy, her autistic daughter who goes missing–– told us what motivated her to sign on to the film, “When you see Amber alerts and stuff like that, they never look like us, but we know they’re missing.”
She added, “I also live in Canada, where we have a similar issue with indigenous women. So, this is not only a black girl missing, it’s a women of color missing. I love the opportunity to be a part of this.”
Sidwell talked about doing her character justice as a high-functioning girl on the spectrum. She also dished on the tight-knit bond with the cast, including her and Garcelle getting a psychic reading together.
“The last week of filming, she brought a mother and daughter psychic duo, and then we got a reading together,” Sidwall said. “I feel like we were cracking jokes, and we connected right away. And same with Marci, I was just so lucky to work alongside such powerhouses in film.”
“Taken at a Truck Stop” premieres Saturday, October 25, at 8 pm ET/PT on Lifetime.