From Seventh Heaven to Cloud Nine
By Elisabeth Deffner
Beverley Mitchell—perhaps best known for portraying middle daughter Lucy Camden on the CW’s 7th Heaven—may have gotten her start because of a temper tantrum; but she owes her success to her positive attitude toward work and the positive choices she has made in her personal life.
“You don’t need drugs and alcohol to have fun,” says the Southern California resident. “Going bowling is a great time; going to the movies is a great time; going home and playing video games is a great time. There are so many other things to do.”
Keeping Busy
That may be especially true for Beverley, 26. The series finale of 7th Heaven aired earlier this year, but Beverley herself is as busy as ever.
A lifetime movie she starred in, Post Mortem, recently aired. She’s busy auditioning for more new projects. She’s planning her wedding to her longtime boyfriend. Her first album, Beverley Mitchell, was released in January, and she’s at work on the songs for her second. And when she has time, she loves to do volunteer work, especially for organizations such as the Make-a-Wish Founda-tion, Children’s Hospital of Orange County (California), and Habitat for Humanity. Things are hectic—and that’s the way she likes it.
Does she ever sleep? “No!” Beverley exclaims with a chuckle.
But a full schedule is a good schedule for this only child, who’s been in show business since she was about four years old and someone in the biz spotted her having a tantrum in the mall.
“I was four and I was hungry,” Beverley says. “You just don’t mess around with me when I’m hungry!”
She doesn’t remember much about the incident, actually—just that her “spunk” caught someone’s attention, and that someone suggested she use her energy (and her powerful vocals) to get a start in show business. She did just that, landing an AT&T commercial. She loved the experience—except for the cut she got on her leg in a minor accident that happened during taping.
“My mom didn’t let me look at my leg till after the commercial,” she recalls. She also remembers that, although the cut wasn’t too deep, she cried anyway—but “not until after I finished,” she says.
A Total Professional
Once she was in show business, Beverley knew she wanted to stay there. “In my mind, there was no other thing to do,” she says. “When kids started talking about what they wanted to do when they grew up, I knew I was already doing what I wanted to do.”
Beverley started out as an actress, but singing was always important to her; she sang when she competed in beauty pageants and talent competitions. Now she is surprised when people compliment her powerful voice, which bears little resemblance to the speaking voice fans have come to expect from the actress who portrayed Lucy Camden for 11 years.
Even while she was on 7th Heaven, Beverley attended a traditional school—an experience that she says helped keep her grounded. Her friends never cut her slack because of her TV-star status.
Those same friends respected her decisions when she turned down opportunities to try drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. “I never had anyone push me into anything, or make me feel stupid for not doing it,” Beverley says. “I just said, ‘I’m not here to judge you, but I’m not really into that.’ That was it, and that was fine with them.”
In fact, she describes herself as a mother hen who always looks after her friends—the kind of pal that other people call when they’re in trouble. “Other parents felt secure if their kids were with me; they knew I never got in trouble,” she says.
Her own mother must have felt pretty secure about her too. Beverley prides herself on her honest relationship with her mom, and admits that sometimes she went places her mother would prefer she didn’t go—but she never lied about her destination.
She had a good reason for making sure her mom knew exactly where she was. When she was about 15 years old, Beverley lost one of her best friends in a car accident. It’s an event that helped shape her into the sensitive, caring young woman she is—and it’s impacted her work, too.
The second season of 7th Heaven, the episode “Nothing Endures but Change” basically retold the story of Beverley’s experience—with Lucy losing a friend in a car accident.
“That was probably the scariest thing ever. We brought my real life right into the show,” says Beverley. “That was one of the biggest things that has ever happened to me in my life. We turned it into a storyline, and I had to experience it all over again.
“I think it was obvious in the episode that it wasn’t acting. That was real emotion.”
And the fans responded, writing Beverley letters to tell her they had believed they were all alone in their pain at losing a loved one, and that watching her character experience that kind of loss had helped them deal with their pain.
The car accident also inspired the first song Beverley wrote, “Angel,” which is featured on her debut album.
“When you deal with death at a young age, it can’t help making a tremendous impact on your life,” she says.
Looking Ahead
What’s next for the former Lucy Camden? That’s anybody’s guess—and that’s totally exciting, she says.
Beverley is looking forward to further acting challenges, perhaps including stage-work. She plans to continue with her music, and will be initiating a fashion-related project in the near future as well.
What she wants to do is entertain people—to make them laugh or make them cry, to distract them from their troubles or make them think about things in a different way. How she will do that next remains to be seen.
“I’m really excited about my future,” she says, “because the possibilities are endless. I’m super happy I chose this path in life.” |
