Auditioning for The View is no easy feat—just ask Garcelle Beauvais. In her new book, Love Me As I Am, the actor and reality TV star talks about her experience trying out for The View in 2015, explaining why the test week didn't go as she had expected. Beauvais writes that she was surprised in particular about behavior she says she saw from longtime View host Whoopi Goldberg, calling it "cringeworthy."
In addition, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star writes about what happened when she shared her opinion with the show's panel and why it left her confused about how to proceed. Read on to see what "shocked" Beauvais so much and to find out how she feels about Goldberg now.
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Beauvais auditioned for The View seven years ago.
Beauvais co-hosted The View for a week in 2015 as her audition to be a full-time panelist. But, she was disappointed with how the audition went.
"Here I was the eager new kid in class and I ran smack dab into the reality of an uninviting workplace," she shares in her book (via Page Six). "There was a brief nonchalant recognition that I was the co-host up to bat that week. No greetings or welcoming niceties, just a hey and they continued on with the [top-of-the-morning] meeting [with producers]. Okay."
At the time, the permanent hosts were Goldberg, Rosie Perez, and Nicolle Wallace. Rosie O'Donnell had recently left the show.
Beauvais continues, "The energy was cold, unfriendly and standoffish. The atmosphere was so opposite to my friendly nature and definitely not what I had expected or hoped for."
She calls Goldberg's supposed behavior "cringeworthy."
Beauvais writes about Goldberg in particular and says she was "disappointed" with the actor and TV personality.
"I was shocked and appalled to see how testy Whoopi was with the show's producers," Beauvais says in the book. "I was embarrassed and disappointed, to say the least. It was cringeworthy!"
Best Life reached out to a rep for Goldberg for comment but has not received a response.
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She also says Perez tried to help in a surprising way.
Beauvais writes that it was hard to find a balance between sharing her opinion and having the other hosts contradict her or just "piggybacking" off what they said, because "that didn't work either." At one point, the Jamie Foxx Show star writes that Perez kicked her leg under the table. "It was a shut-the-[expletive]-up-[expletive], you're-talking-too-much signal kick!"
Beauvais says that after the show, Perez told her, "'Girl, you know, I just wanted you to know that you needed to be quiet. I thought you were gonna go on too long. You know, we have a system here and we know when the other one is about to talk. So I just wanted to stop you from talking too much.'" Beauvais thought, "What kind of system is that where grown women kick each other like [expletive] mules?"
A rep for Perez had no comment.
Beauvais didn't go on to become a permanent host.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given what she experienced during the audition, Beauvais didn't end up becoming a permanent fixture on The View. Not long after her tryout, Raven-Symoné joined the panel. In her book, Beauvais writes that the job was "not for [her]."
More recently, she did join a similar show, however. Beauvais was a permanent co-host of The Real from September 2020 until its cancelation in April 2022.
She and Goldberg worked together a few years later.
Beauvais and Goldberg's relationship has changed since the actor's The View audition. The two worked together on a Lifetime movie that came out earlier this year, called Caught in His Web. Beauvais starred, while Goldberg executive produced.
"I got reintroduced to Whoopi, and I think sometimes you don't get a second chance like that. Sometimes you have to be open for a reintroduction," Beauvais told Page Six on Tuesday, May 3. She also shared that she let Goldberg know about the story in the book before it was published.
"Of course I addressed it with Whoopi," she said. "She didn't remember. But I told her because I didn't want to go into the film like I was bamboozling her. That's not my thing. So it was important that she knew that was in my book. We're all good now."
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Lia Beck Lia Beck is a writer living in Richmond, Virginia. In addition to Best Life, she has written for Refinery29, Bustle, Hello Giggles, InStyle, and more.Read moreFiled UnderCelebrities • Entertainment • NewsRead This NextJoy Told "View" Host She "Talked Too Much"
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