In a bombshell revelation that exposes Hollywood's dark side, former Beverly Hills, 90210 star Gabrielle Carteris has come forward with a chilling account of an on-set assault that left her permanently scarred—both physically and emotionally.
Carteris, now a prominent labor leader, described filming a scene for the 2006 direct-to-video thriller Past Tense when a "huge, 6'6" co-star playing a burglar" repeatedly lifted her against her will. "I begged him to stop touching my neck after multiple takes," she told host Steve Kmetko. "He was extremely amped up, ignoring my pleas. Two days later, my life changed forever."
The actress was in her dressing room when she glanced in the mirror and realized half her face was paralyzed. "I thought it was stress, but then the pain became unbearable," she recalled. "On set, my face twisted into something monstrous—I looked exactly like the Joker. It was a disfiguring palsy, and my body started convulsing uncontrollably."
Gabrielle Carteris on 'Beverly Hills, 90210'. Mikel Roberts/Sygma via Getty
Doctors urgently flew her back to the U.S., where she faced public humiliation. "At the airport, I was visibly deformed, couldn't speak, and people stared not because they recognized me, but because I looked like a freak," Carteris said, her voice trembling. "It was the most humbling, terrifying experience of my life."
The incident fueled her advocacy: Carteris later became the first executive vice president of SAG-AFTRA and vice president of the California Labor Federation, fighting for safer sets. Her role in Past Tense was ultimately edited out—a haunting footnote to a trauma that reshaped her career and sparked a lifelong mission.
