The Filming Incident That Left This Beverly Hills, 90210 Actress Hurt

Gabrielle Carteris, best known for playing Andrea Zuckerman on Beverly Hills, 90210, recently opened up about a terrifying moment in her career that changed her life. On the February 23 episode of the Still Here Hollywood podcast with Steve Kmetko, the 65-year-old actress recalled a severe on-set injury she suffered during a project in Canada in the early 2000s.

Carteris described a scene where she was the female lead and a much larger guest actor played a home intruder. “He was a really big guy, about 6’6”, and extremely hyped up for the sequence,” she said. Despite asking him not to touch her neck during rehearsals, he allegedly lifted her repeatedly, causing a serious injury that didn’t show its full effects right away.

Over the next few days, Carteris began noticing alarming symptoms, including a loss of feeling in her face and intense headaches. She remembered a chilling moment in front of the mirror. “My face had completely disfigured and totally transformed, and I looked like The Joker,” she said.

The injury, a type of facial palsy with bodily convulsions, forced her to fly back to Los Angeles for urgent medical care. Carteris described the journey as painful and humiliating, feeling self-conscious as strangers stared at her in the airport. She couldn’t speak and felt her body was completely out of control.

Recovering took years of intensive speech and movement therapy at the UCLA Movement Center. The process was grueling, but she eventually regained her ability to communicate and move normally.

Determined to hold those responsible accountable, Carteris pursued a legal battle that lasted nearly a decade. She won the case, which she credits with influencing some Canadian laws on performer safety. The experience also pushed her to focus on labor advocacy in Hollywood.

Carteris later served as president of SAG-AFTRA for five years, describing the role as her way of giving back. Today, she is president of the International Federation of Actors (FIA) and continues to advocate for performer rights and safety.

She still appears at industry events and fan conventions, recently attending the FACTS convention in Ghent with her former 90210 co-star Jason Priestley. She also keeps in touch with other cast members like Jennie Garth, often celebrating the joy of their shared legacy.

While her leadership work has taken priority, Carteris has remained active on screen. Fans recently saw her in the HBO miniseries We Own This City and in the action-drama 9-1-1. She is also expected to continue working on voice acting and documentary projects while staying involved in discussions around AI and performer protections in Hollywood.

Carteris’s story is a reminder of the dangers performers can face and the strength it takes to overcome such challenges. She turned a traumatic experience into advocacy, showing how personal struggles can create meaningful change in the industry.

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