Garcelle Beauvais has had an impressive acting career with regular roles on “The Jamie Foxx Show” and “NYPD Blue” as well as opportunities in movie blockbusters such as “White House Down” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” She’s been a host on a major talk show (”The Talk”) and jumped on the reality show train as well in 2020 courtesy of ”Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
But Beauvais also wanted to create her own content so she started a production company that is now in partnership with Lifetime. Earlier this year, she produced “Abducted at an HBCU” for the network, shot in Atlanta, and followed that up with “Terry McMillan Presents: Tempted by Love,” which comes out Aug. 17 and stars Beauvais.
The premise is a May-December romance. Beauvais plays Ava, a world-class chef living in Europe who rushes home to take care of her elderly aunt (Donna Biscoe) in South Carolina after she suffers a fall. Luke (Vaughn W. Hebron), a driver who is 20 years younger than she, picks her up and they fall in love. But the age difference makes Ava doubt their future.
“The fact I have this opportunity to create content that I want to see, that I feel serves my community or people... pinch me!” said Beauvais in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I can’t believe I get to do what I do.” .
Beauvais said being both the star and executive producer of “Tempted by Love” was a challenge she embraced. “It was a little hectic,” she said. “But I like being busy. I thrive on being busy. I can be an actor and still make meetings and see if we’re on budget and figure out our next locations. It’s a dream come true. I didn’t even know I had that dream.”
She also got to take part in casting, which she said really made her appreciate the intricacies of finding the right chemistry among actors: “It opened my eyes to a lot of things” being on the other side of an audition process.
The most important casting decision she had to make for this film was her love interest. “I wanted a guy who looked young enough that there was an obvious age gap,” she said. “But I also wanted him to be strong enough so you would believe he could get a woman like that. She’s well travelled and smart.”
Beauvais ultimately chose Hebron 33, a regular on Tyler Perry’s “The Oval” and BET’s reboot of “The Game.” “He came prepared and we got a great vibe,” she said. “We didn’t have to work too hard to make that happen.”
Beauvais, 57, wanted the film to be grounded, not melodramatic or mawkish. “She’s dealing with arthritis. She’s dealing with menopause. She’s dealing with life,” she said. “He knows what she’s going through but he can still love her anyway. At the end, we wanted to give the movie a twist and make it believable. If we tie it up in a bow, that doesn’t always happen in life. It was interesting to switch it up a little bit.”
She said also left an opening for a sequel.
As a bonus, Beauvais was able to partner with esteemed best-selling author McMillan (”Waiting to Exhale,” “Stella Got Her Groove Back”), whose name appears in the title. McMillan provided feedback on the script.
“I remember watching ‘Waiting to Exhale’ like everybody else and feeling all the feels,” she said, “so when we decided to do this and she came aboard, that was a very good stamp of approval. She created a genre given from a woman’s point of view. We are seeing this movie from Ava’s eyes.”
Beauvais lives in Los Angeles but has had acting roles in Atlanta over the years including the 2012 drama “Flight” with Denzel Washington and the 2017 Marvel blockbuster “Spider-Man: Homecoming.”
Her recent Lifetime film “Abducted at an HBCU” gave her a chance to spend more time in Atlanta. “I was so astonished how green and lush it is compared to L.A.,” she said. “And the people were cool. I really enjoyed it.”
She also got to showcase Morehouse College, which is also home to the movie’s screenwriter Avery O. Williams, an assistant professor in the cinema, television and emerging studies department..
“I felt it was a cautionary tale,” Beauvais said. “We wanted to make sure Morehouse was almost a character in the movie. Being on campus was really cool. Maybe I can convince my kids to go there!”
IF YOU WATCH
“Terry McMillan Presents: Tempted by Love”
8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17, Lifetime, available www.mylifetime.com the next day
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