Beverly Hills, 90210 star Gabrielle Carteris is soaking up the sun while hitting her steps out in nature. Carteris, 63, shared a selfie of herself wearing a white shirt and matching sun visor, out on a walk around her neighborhood. “To the beauty of the day!” she captioned the upbeat post. Carteris has been in the public eye since her TV days and is a former president of SAG-AFTRA—here’s how she handles age discrimination and the changing industry, and lives her best life.
Carteris loves taking walks, which is a great low-impact workout. “The faster, farther and more frequently you walk, the greater the benefits,” says the Mayo Clinic. “For example, you may start out as an average walker, and then work your way up to walking faster and walking a mile in a shorter amount of time than an average walker, similar to power walkers. This can be a great way to get aerobic activity, improve your heart health and increase your endurance while burning calories.”
Carteris fought against age discrimination when she was the head of SAG-AFTRA—specifically having IMDb and other entertainment sites remove the age of performers if requested. “As a union, we’ve been fighting this for over eight years,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “But speaking for myself, I’m a woman of a certain age. For me, really, the fight started when I was younger. I was on a show called Beverly Hills, 90210. I was 29 auditioning for the character of Andrea, who was 16. At that time, I didn’t tell them my age upfront. And it allowed me to go in and audition, which was so important — to have the opportunity to walk in the room.”
Carteris says despite appearances, she is very light-hearted. “[The biggest misconception is] that I’m always serious,” she told Backstage. “People usually know me in one of two ways: as Andrea Zuckerman or the president of SAG-AFTRA. I have loved both of these roles dearly, but neither of them defines me. I love to have fun and laugh. “
Carteris says her role on 90210 changed her life, which is why she fights against age discrimination. “I was able to go and really create the role for them and fulfill the fantasy or the illusion of who the character was and to make it about that instead of having them looking at me and saying, ‘Oh, I don’t know. She’s too old.’ It was a couple of years later — after the show had started becoming recognizable — that my age actually did become public. And they told me at that time, “Boy, are you lucky we didn’t know your age when we first hired you,” she told the Los Angeles Times.
Carteris has great advice for anyone who wants to make it in the entertainment industry. “Work hard, show up on time, fight for what you believe, nurture your creative spirit—while recognizing this is a business—and bring others with you; success isn’t a limited resource, there is plenty to go around,” she told Backstage.