By Angelina Cappiello
Imagination is running wild in the film adaptation of the beloved children’s book, Harold and the Purple Crayon with Actress Camille Guaty. The star portrays the character, Junior Detective Silva, who helps navigate the misadventures that ensue when Harold, played by Zachary Levi, brings his drawings to life in the real world.
In an interview with Preferred Health Magazine, Camille shared her inspiring journey to motherhood, emphasizing the transformative power of turning dreams into reality. She candidly discussed the emotional challenges she faced, including the resilience demonstrated through enduring five unsuccessful IVF treatments, before ultimately choosing to pursue her dream of motherhood with the help of an egg donor.
PHM: Let's talk about "Harold and the Purple Crayon" because movie-goers are giving it amazing reviews. Tell me about your role and what interested you about your character in the movie.
CG: Well, this is like just coming out of having a baby. Having my little boy, it was at the point where I was, like, starting to work again. And this came across my lap. I loved this book as a kid, so I immediately thought, how cool would it be to get something like this where my son can actually go to the movie and see me be a part of something? He is such a bookworm, too.
I got the part, and she's really exciting. My character is a young detective. It's her first case, and there's havoc ensuing with this guy and a purple crayon, and he's making things come to life. And you know, from an average person's perspective, we're thinking this can't be real. This doesn't happen. But, of course, she puts two and two together. And she's like, oh, wait a minute. I know this is a book!
PHM: How was it working with director Carlos Saldana? He is just so great as a director and is known for other children's films, Rio, Ice Age, and Ferdinand the Bull.
CG: I loved him. I want him to put me in something else. My son loves every single one of his movies. What little 4-year-old doesn't love Ice Age or Ferdinand the Bull? So, I trusted him wholeheartedly.
PHM: What about the movie's message. What do you love about "Harold and the Purple Crayon" movie? Is there a lesson to be learned?
CG: For adults, it's important to remember. I know it's so cliche, but we're in such a fast-paced world where we have blinders on, and we're not really immersed in life and what's happening. The message for adults is like, let's put down technology. Let's be imaginative with our kids. And my son, I brought him and a neighbor to the movies, and they just came out of the movie, got a purple crayon, and like it came out of the movie, 'Hey Mom, I'm drawing.'
So I think the message is, let's take a second to be kids again. Let's use our imagination.
Let's spend time with each other and have some fun together.
PHM: Speaking of imagination and making dreams come true, motherhood for you. It was a challenging road for you. You have a career, and the clock is ticking. Tell us about your journey.
CG: It was two-fold. I definitely felt this way about this career, in particular, being an actor. I wouldn't say it was like, in your face, frowned upon to be pregnant, but you knew that it was just not that great of an idea. You knew that you were probably not going to get the roles. And when the ball is rolling, it's hard to make it stop. So, I had a hard time knowing when the right time was to start.
And I remember would always be like, oh, well, when this show goes to second season or when I get this job. Oh, I have this audition where my character's pregnant. Oh, that's a sign. I'll wait for that to happen. So I just kept on waiting and waiting and waiting, thinking, you know, being Latina, that I wasn't going to have a problem. I know that's cliche, but you know.
"I was devastated by it because I really did think I was pregnant, but I was not as devastated as I got."
-Camille Guaty
Finally, it was around 38, and I was on Daytime Divas, and my character was pregnant, and I was like, oh, this is so cool; let's do this now. You know she's pregnant, so why not? So we started, and six months went by. I thought I was pregnant. I'm like, 'Oh, my gosh, I'm 10 days late. My ***** are big.' I'm thinking, 'Oh, this is so easy. Wow, I'm pregnant.' And then, you know, I get my period. I was devastated by it because I really did think I was pregnant, but I was not as devastated as it got.
And then six months passed, and someone said, why don't you just go to my friend? He's a fertility doctor- get your levels checked. I had no idea what this meant. I'm like, what? I'm 38, and I didn't know what that meant. That's just goes to tell you that there was not any information given to me by my gynecologist or anything like, hey, you know, if you're planning on being a mom, let's figure out, you know, a little bit of a game plan here, which is why I now advocate for women when it comes to this. Long story short, I got my levels checked, and the doctor said well, your insides are not matching your outsides. He's like, 'Well, your ovaries are acting like that of a 50-year-old woman.'
So I said, 'Whoa. OK, so I can't get pregnant. And he said, 'Oh, no, you can get pregnant, but it's going to take you some tries. So we did IVF. I mean, we did 5 retrievals. I had 21 of my own embryos made. Zero took! Maybe it sounds like a lot of the five retrievals, but it wasn't just the five retrievals. Because I was working, one of the doctors was like, let's put you like on medication the whole time, and we'll fly your husband out to where you're working. And when your egg drops, we'll send him out there, and you guys do the deed. So we were. I was constantly on - for four years - on hormone medication. They shut down my system and put me into, you know, menopause. And then they reared me back up. To say that I was bananas for a period of time, not just because of the situation, but also because of all the medication that was being zapped into me, is an understatement.
PHM: I can imagine you're feeling unsure, this was a precarious time, and it certainly took the romance out of the process.
CG: The hard part about it is that it's like two-fold, right? It's like, one, not only was I experiencing infertility, but also at the time, I felt so alone, and I know a lot of women say the same thing. I'm here at work. So, if you're on, whatever, in the office, wherever you are. I know women experience the same thing where it's like you are going through an emotional journey that breaks you, but you have to put on a brave face at work. You can't break down. You can't. You don't have time.
You know, like I did the first time that I did the IUI (Intrauterine insemination). I'm in my trailer and they're calling me, 'Can you come over ready for you on set.' And I just felt like I had to go the bathroom, and I went to the bathroom, and I found I just got my period. And so, obviously, I wasn't pregnant. And I'm just shattered. And they're like, 'Camille, they need you on set.' And I'm like, 'Oh, my God, how am I going to go out there? Because I couldn't tell anybody that I was trying to get pregnant, I couldn't tell anyone that I was doing IVF or any of this stuff because the producers were male, and if they're watching, I'm so sorry, but... You know, one of them said one time, 'Oh, your character's pregnant. It's not sexy. I think maybe we're going to just cut that storyline.'
PHM: That sounds like so much pressure on top of the pressure that you were already going through during your treatments. When did you decide having an egg donor was going to work for you?
CG: I decided after numerous times of trying and 21 embryos that didn't take. You know, every time I was doing a round of IVF, my doctor was like, 'Well, there's always donor conception.' I'm like, 'get out of here with donor conception. I don't want to hear another woman's eggs in my body. Get out. Please don't talk to me about that, especially not in front of my husband. Please, I'm not broken.'
It's funny how we think that way. We want our own, we do, we want to say we want our own. But, I mean, he'll be your own, at the time. I get that statement because I was so about my own DNA. It's because I looked like my mom. So I had this vision in my head whenever I imagined being pregnant that it was like a little mini-me.
You do have to grieve that because that's what we do. For how many years was I envisioning this little girl that looks like me? And that's an attachment to my DNA. And so you go through that grief period, but then when you come out of it, you're like, how egotistical of me to think that I'm going to have a little girl that looks like me, like, also, what does it matter if you think about it? Does my lineage of my looks matter?
At the end of the day, it's really about how you love, how you mother, how you nurture, you know, how you rear and raise this child in this world. And whether I was able to carry him or not, I know that if I had adopted him, I would have loved him just the same. Fortunately for me, I was able to carry, and it was a beautiful experience. I'm so grateful that I was able to shift the lens. At first, this donor was someone I was jealous of. You know, she was more of a woman than I was. These were my thoughts. I hate that sentence. I hate saying anything like that when it comes to anything womanly.
PHM: About the donor, were you able to choose? Like they do with IVF, where you can see the background, maybe they'll have blonde hair and blue eyes. Can you choose?
CG: I think it depends on where you're looking. In the United States, you can. If you're in Spain, you cannot. I looked everywhere. I chose a donor that looked similar to me, except like the 10.0 version of me. But the thing is, he doesn't look anything like her. He looks everything like my husband. So, in that way, I can kind of understand where Spain does it that way. Where it's like we can choose all these little bits and pieces of a person, but that doesn't mean that those bits and pieces are going to make you make up your child's looks. It does help a little bit, maybe not seeing it, but for me I need it. In some places, you can only see baby pictures, and you can't see adult pictures. But with mine, I was able to have a video, and I was able to see her personality. For me, personality is super important because my husband is very quiet.
PHM: Still, aside from personality traits, it's important that you have access to his medical history.
CG: That's absolutely huge, and it still needs to be worked on. It's an advocacy that we actually started doing with two other women. And they're now getting to this place where there's a couple of databases that are starting. The problem is that IVF donor conception sperm banks are a huge multi-million dollar industry. And there's a responsibility that these people, these companies, need to start taking on, which they're starting to. But that is important where health is concerned so that we can see their history.
You know, when you go to the doctors and they ask if your mom ever had cancer or this or that. But that expires after a certain time. But what if, God forbid, my donor got breast cancer and I had a daughter?
PHM: When you say there's an expiration date for them to fill out their history, do you mean donors are not required to update their information?
CG: They don't require, they say, if something comes up, it would be nice, but there's no environment. You can't force someone. So this is the problem with closed donation, right? If it was an open donation, then in the beginning we have the ability to say, hey, you know if anything happens later on down the line, do you think you can, you know, let us know because if we have the same DNA it's important we know what the medical history is.
We want to make these corporations these IVF clinics, anyone that's doing donor sperm egg. Have it be mandated that if you're going to donate your gamits, which is another term for DNA. If you're going to donate, you have to be able to sign this form and update it yearly, you know, and if it is yearly, and you're fine, then great, then we know it, and there doesn't even have to be a connection - we don't have to talk to each other. But to have a database for medical reasons is so important.
PHM: You know, maybe these donors just want to, you know, donate and be done. But that's where the problem lies.
CG: Yeah, because of the way it's being sold, right? It's being sold as, 'Hey, you want money to vacation? Hey, you want this, donate your eggs.' We need to shift it to, 'Would you like to help out this family?'
There are agencies; there's one called Co-Fertility, which means that when you sign on to donate your eggs, you're signing on to donate your eggs and be connected with the families. There's something so beautiful about that because it takes away so much stigma. It takes away the donor thinking, oh, I'm the mom. No, you actually see firsthand this family, the mother, and father. How badly they want to be parents. And then you're doing something for them that is like a gift that you can never put compensation on. You know what I mean? And then you're getting paid for that on top of the fact that you see what you're doing.
So it becomes something different.
PHM: Do you have contact with your donor?
And how important it is to you for your son to know his connection to her?
CG: I talk about her to my son, Morrison. I have pictures, and I'm in the process of creating a book. I was so scared about all of this, and to talk about it makes it less scary. If I'm going to hide this from him, I guarantee later on in life, he's going to be like, 'Well, that was weird, Mom. Why did you hide this from me?' Where if I make this, this is his norm. This is the person who gave Mommy an egg. He knows that, and he knows that Mommy could carry, but momma's eggs didn't work. Rather than making it like this, this taboo in the corner, you know, that is constantly being like shoved away. No, I invite it in as an extension of our family, but not our immediate family.
PHM: I commend you. It's brave of you to do that. I really believe in nurture vs nature. Although, you did give birth to him. He did come from you and your and your husband. And you're raising him.
So, absolutely, you're his parents. What is it like being a mom?
CG: It is a whole different ball of wax. It has been so challenging, so hard in my heart. Cause a lot of my jobs are away, and I got really lucky doing this last series, Duster, which is the HBO one that's coming out, the new year. But I got really lucky doing this because. They knew that I was a mom, and they did this thing called "block shoot." So I could shoot everything I had in a two-week period and then go home. But I mean, it's still challenging. Before I leave, I'm writing out his lunch schedule, his breakfast, and his bedtime. And The thing is, my husband is 100% capable. What I've learned is they will figure it out.
PHM: What advice would you give to women considering an egg donor or being an egg donor?
CG: You'll know when you know that it will be time to enter into egg donation. For some, it's really simple; for others, it's not. Giving yourself that space to be, to grieve, and to be upset is OK. There's validation in that, and your fears are also valid. But at the end of the day, my fears didn't come true. You are the mom. That you will 100% love that child. You will also get frustrated with that child like your own.
It's just battling the demons inside of us. And then, for donors, I would love to say thank you. I would love for them to know the amount of gratitude that is in this world for them, and I wish they really could see and understand what they were doing; it is more than just a blessing for me; it was life-changing.
PHM: So, please tell me more about this upcoming JJAbrams TV thriller series, Duster. What is it about? What's your role?
CG: It takes place in the 70s, which is awesome. I just feel like half of my wardrobe is 70s. Long story short, it's about the getaway driver for the mob and how he makes his connection with the first female black FBI agent. It has some true elements, like the first female black FBI agent. That was a real thing. And so they molded that character out of the real woman. And then my character, Izzy, is a female truck driver in the 1970s. She's a single mom, and she realizes there is - I'm not going to tell you what's happening with her internally, but she needs to change some rules and laws. So, she fights for equality in this male-driven industry. I gravitated to her so much because she is fighting for women's rights, and I am also advocating for women and fertility. It just goes hand in hand with realizing that we've come a long, long way, but we are still not there.
Beyond her acting career, Camille is a passionate advocate for foster youth and several other causes. After struggling with infertility, she became acutely aware of speaking to women about her personal journey. In 2018, Guaty founded "Foster a Dream," a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of foster youth in Los Angeles County. Her commitment to this cause is unwavering, and she continues to leverage her platform to raise awareness and support for these children.
Additionally, Camille is intimately involved with several organizations, including Poderistas, Rise and Shine Tennessee, Resolve Org, Kids in the Spotlight, and Chrysalis, among others. She is also planning a significant event, "D3Day," aimed at providing children a day in the arts, demonstrating her dedication to using her influence for positive change.
Camille Guaty is currently starring in 'Harold and the Purple Crayon,' one of this summer's biggest films for families nationwide, and the adaptation of the 1950s book about an imaginative boy named Harold who draws from his imagination and causes some trouble in town. Directed by Carlos Saldana, Harold has a star-studded cast including Zooey Deschanel and Zachary Levi. Camille Guaty (The Rookie, The Good Doctor and Prison Break) plays Junior Detective Silva.
Camille will also be appearing in the upcoming JJ Abrams thriller, 'Duster.'
The HBO Max series is set to air January 2025.
