Actress Beau Garrett Is All About The New Normal

I was asked to call actress Beau Garrett, known to many for her most recent role as Cloud on Netflix’s Firefly Lane, right after she wrapped up a photo shoot for this story in partnership with European Wax Center. A few minutes before I pick up the phone, I’m also informed Garrett is pregnant. “I know you just had a long day of shooting, so I’ll be sure to make this quick,” I say hurriedly when she picks up. “No, I’m good, I’m great!” she answers. Her voice is welcoming and warm, soft and melodic, but confident and sure. I can tell right away that she is one of those people who is sunshine, personified. I feel immediately at ease.

Garrett begins by telling me about the photo shoot, which took place in Los Angeles. “The shoot was beautiful,” she says. “It was hot, which I’m not used to. I’ve been in British Columbia for too long.” She’s referring to her move to the Pacific Northwest, a big and seemingly unlikely relocation for an actress. “It wasn’t designed, and there were a lot of things that happened to push it,” she explains. One being that Garrett fell in love. The others: work and a pandemic. “I was shooting Firefly Lane there in early 2020. I came back home to LA and started to have a relationship with somebody who was back in B.C., long-distance. When the world started to shut down, I realized if I was ever going to see this guy, I’d have to make my way to Tofino in B.C., so I did.”

For Garrett, moving to a new country has marked a symbolic shift toward a more intentional pace of life. “There’s so much about LA that focuses on aesthetics in a way. This business can be quite hard on your sense of confidence,” she says thoughtfully. “I was raised really well. I have a good head on my shoulders. But it does get challenging when you focus so much of your attention on what you’re wearing, how you look, how other people look and compare yourself.” That’s not to say that feeling beautiful doesn’t matter — it’s more about finding meaning in feeling beautiful.

“I think that being happy has led me to feeling a lot more beautiful, and a lot of that has to do with being in a relationship and feeling loved and seen.”

Tofino, according to Garrett, is a wonderfully removed place, immersed in nature. “No one really dresses up,” she says. “On Friday night, if we go on a date, I wear my boots and a nicer pair of jeans.” Just like her home, her self-care routine looks different these days, too. Garrett doesn’t get as many luxe haircuts as she used to (they aren’t as readily available in Tofino). Instead, when she leaves the house, she applies a good sunscreen, some tinted moisturizer, and fills in her eyebrows with an eyebrow pencil and brow pomade — sometimes a brow lifting product. But when it comes to makeup, that’s the extent of it. That totally works for Garrett, since self-care has manifested into something that looks more like soul-care. “I love hiking and being outdoors,” she says. “I just love walking, the sun, the rain. I am so happy and at peace in nature. It’s therapeutic. I find when I’m lost or need to reconnect, I just walk and it helps me find my way.” When she does find herself in LA, she loves loading up on things she won’t have for a while — a nice haircut or treating herself with an eyebrow appointment.

When I bring up her pregnancy, she immediately responds with, “[It’s] crazy. It was really unexpected, since I was told I wouldn’t be able to have kids. There are so many mixed feelings. It’s definitely not a linear thing of happiness and joy — there’s a lot attached to it.” By that, Garrett means the uncertainty around work, how her physical appearance may change, the unknown of the emotions that being a parent brings. “I’m scared. I’ve been sick for almost 12 weeks straight. I am afraid of the changes that will come and what they will do to my friendships, my relationship, my relationship with myself.” I find her honesty around pregnancy refreshing, that she’s not afraid to normalize that the journey is not perfect; it looks different for everyone, that it’s OK to be afraid. “That said, I’m really excited and grateful to get to do this with the person I’m with,” she adds.

I begin to wrap up our conversation and observe that this place that she’s in — emotionally and physically — sounds like a comeback of sorts. “I don’t feel like I ever left,” she says.

“In my state of happiness and well-being, I feel more rediscovered.”

“It’s a better place to start from, and I think that’s a good place for me to be. I’m going to struggle in life, and things won’t always go my way. But I’m a better person when I’m happy. Happiness is easier said than done and hard to navigate, but I am kinder, more patient, and that has come from happiness, inner happiness. I’m feeling pretty good.”

Photographer: Kate Adams; Makeup And Hair: Vittorio Masecchia; Wardrobe Stylist: Mar Peidro; Prop Stylist: Victoria Foraker; Creative Director: Jill Sabato/BDG; Art Director: Angela Poccia; Senior Video Producer: Irena Zofchak/BDG; Director of Photography: Peter Mosiman c/o Innovative Artists; Executive Producer: Meagan Judkins; Production Lead: Kelsey Dimitruk/BDG; Branded Beauty Lead: Shyema Azam/BDG