“It Took Me Seven Years to Break Into Acting,” Integrating Body, Mind, and Soul for a Fulfilling Life With Catherine Bell
Listen to the episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts | Watch on YouTube
Listen to the episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts | Watch on YouTube
“It took me seven or eight years [to get into acting], but I wasn’t going to let anything get in my way.”
Catherine Bell is a renowned actress, entrepreneur, and mother whose career in film and television has captivated audiences for over three decades. Best known for her iconic roles as Lt. Sarah ‘Mac’ MacKenzie on the action-drama series JAG and as Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Nightingale on the beloved Good Witch series, Catherine’s ability to connect with audiences has made her a household name.
Beyond the screen, Catherine embodies entrepreneurial creativity and purpose. She’s the founder of Everliving Beauty, a non-toxic skincare line inspiring confidence, and Catherine Bell Jewelry, a collection that channels her passion for vintage artistry, nature, and timeless design.
Born in London to an Iranian mother, Catherine’s journey brought her to California, where she began exploring her multifaceted talents. Initially studying biomedical engineering at UCLA, her path shifted when modeling and acting revealed her natural gifts.
Throughout her story, Catherine is guided by a deep mission: empowering others to live healthier and more vibrant lives.
This episode is for you if:
You’re an actor seeking to refine your craft and build a solid foundation.
You're committed to building a meaningful life by blending art, entrepreneurship, and wellness.
You’re looking for inspiration to tackle fear, overcome challenges, and commit to your craft.
You’re fascinated by how culture and heritage shape creativity and resilience.
Looking for a specific gem?
[2:08] Catherine discusses her multicultural upbringing, born in London to an Iranian mother and a British father, and moving to Los Angeles via Iran.
[3:03] Catherine was a tomboy and loved to skateboard, play football, and create art.
[4:36] Story: Catherine’s grandfather was an artist and taught her the value of practice in art.
[5:40] Spent two years at UCLA pursuing pre-med, biomedical engineering and hated it.
[7:11] Catherine’s discovery of acting as a way to overcome her shyness.
[9:24] Fully committed to acting, including training, voice lessons, and auditioning.
[9:50] Catherine was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at 21.
[10:33] Catherine shares the seven-year journey of breaking into acting.
[12:24] Insights into perseverance and the importance of being ready for opportunities.
[16:30] Catherine discusses her personal approach to engaging with fans via social media and newsletters.
[18:41] Catherine explains the inspiration behind her clean skincare brand, rooted in her health journey.
[20:58] The creation of her jewelry line, inspired by her vintage inspirations and Persian culture.
[24:08] Building her financial knowledge later in life, retirement, saving while in an industry that requires you to take care of the details.[28:25] The importance of weight training, carving out family time, and limiting distractions.
[29:45] Catherine’s efforts to preserve her cultural roots through language and traditions.
[36:22] The importance of balancing body, mind, and soul for a fulfilling life.
🎬 This interview was edited by Chara Ho, Co-Founder of Zesty Nobody
Conversation Transcript
Naomi Haile: I would love for you to start by telling us about your origin story. I know you were born in London and then moved to California when you were two or three.
Catherine Bell: Yeah, it’s a little hazy. No one quite has the same answer when I ask my family—no one remembers. It was a long time ago. But yeah, I was born in London. My mom and dad had this perfect storybook romance. She was Iranian, and she fled because she didn’t want to have an arranged marriage that had been set up for her. She got them to agree to let her go to London to pursue nursing.
There, she met my six-foot-two, gorgeous, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned British father. They fell in love—total polar opposites: dark skin and light skin, tall and short, all of it. Then we went via Iran. When I was maybe one, we went to Iran for about a year, I think, with my grandparents, and then everyone moved to Los Angeles. That’s kind of how the whole family ended up there—the whole Persian brood. Gotcha, yeah.
Naomi Haile: And I also read that you were a tomboy, and you liked to skateboard and play football. So, what were some of your favorite activities growing up?
Catherine Bell: Yes, I was very active growing up. I was an only child, so I learned to entertain myself. I was either in my room—reading, painting, or drawing—or I was outside skateboarding, roller skating, and building ramps to do jumps. I have all sorts of scars all over my body to prove it.
Naomi Haile: And so for you, like, early in your childhood and growing up and, like, obviously, you had a lot of, like, cultural influences, like you spent a lot of time with your grandmother. Like, you mentioned art and drawing and all that stuff, but what was, what was the sentiment around your creativity?
Catherine Bell: And, yeah, good question. So my mom was a single mom at that point and working a lot, so I was with my grandparents, who were amazing. I mean, they were married 50 years when he passed away. And, you know, if you know Persians or Italians, there’s a very close-knit family dynamic, right? They’re just really close. Persians are like that—we were really close.
Everyone always says I don’t seem like I was raised in LA because I was raised by my Persian family, and there was so much emphasis on respect and manners. My grandparents always knew where I was. If I went out, they knew exactly where I was going. I’d call. I remember calling my best friend Jan’s house in high school. I asked her mom, “Is Jan home?” You know, back when you called the old home phone line. Her mom said, “No, she’s not here. I haven’t seen her. I haven’t seen her all day—or maybe since yesterday.” And I thought, You haven’t seen your daughter since yesterday? You don’t know where she is? That would never happen in my Persian household.
So we had that aspect of closeness. But, you know, they really emphasized respectable professions—doctor, lawyer, architect, dentist, engineer, those things. And I definitely liked the math and science side, but I also had an artistic side. My grandfather was an artist, and I’ll never forget this story.
I wanted to draw, but I wasn’t very good at it. I was maybe in sixth grade or so, and I would put a picture up on the window, tape a piece of paper over it, and trace it. I thought it was fun when I was bored. One day, my grandfather comes over and asks, “What are you doing?” I said, “I’m just drawing.” He looked at me and said, “That’s not drawing. Come here.”
He made me take it down, sit at the table with him, and draw the picture I was trying to trace. Of course, it was terrible. He said, “That’s okay.” Then he took it, crumpled it up, threw it away, and said, “Try again.” I tried again, and I spent days and days and days doing that with him. I got better and better.
Art is partly about the practice of it, right? That’s how I became an artist. So while we definitely had the math and science side in my family, the artistic side was really admired and appreciated too. Yeah, yeah.
Naomi Haile: What was your decision to pursue the sciences or the maths? Was it a desire to, like, have a level of stability—like, so-called stability—while also pursuing your arts? Or what was your plan, like, what were you thinking at that age?
Catherine Bell: So I think there was just always, you know, an understanding that I would go to college and pursue one of these respectable things, right? But I was an artist. I loved painting and drawing, like pencil drawings and sketches, and really realistic art. I really wanted to go to Art Center College in Pasadena, which was an incredible art school.
I’ll never forget my mom. She couldn’t quite fathom that you could make a living at art. She was like, “What are you gonna do, set up an easel on Venice Beach and just paint and try to sell your paintings there?” And I was like, “No, Mom, there’s illustrators, there’s…” But anyway, that didn’t happen.
I went to UCLA. I spent two years there pursuing pre-med and engineering, and I hated it. I really didn’t like it. It wasn’t who I was. Then I got a chance to go model in Japan, which I thought would just be a fun few months.
The other part of this is that I was very shy at that age, 18 or 19—I was really painfully shy. When I came back from Japan, I remember UCLA offered an acting class, just a short seminar, maybe a few weeks. And I thought, Gosh, that could be a way for me to overcome my shyness.
I liked doing things that scared me. I always knew if you did something that terrified you, you’d be less scared of it at the end, stronger, and all of that, right? So I took the class just to try and help with that.
And I fell in love. I really, really loved it. It did terrify me. I was like, This is the scariest thing I’ve ever done, and it’s thrilling and amazing, and I want more. That’s kind of how it started.
I never went back to school after that second year.
Naomi Haile: Wow, yeah. What kind of acting class was it? Was it Meisner technique? Was it improv?
Catherine Bell: It was—gosh, I want to say it was scene study, and it wasn’t any particular technique. It was more like, try it out, get notes, and you know? From there, I ended up getting into a class with an amazing teacher, Milton Katselas, who I studied with for many years, and that was incredible.
Again, not any particular technique, just certain tools to get you there—figuring out who your character is, where they’re from, what they’re doing, what they’re trying to get in a scene, and that kind of stuff.
Naomi Haile: Very cool. This summer, I took an acting class too.
Catherine Bell: Oh, really?
Naomi Haile: Yeah, not with any desire to be an actor or actress, but I remember bumping into a friend who was taking the class, and he was talking about it. In my mind, I thought, This would be great for speakers and business leaders. It was the Meisner technique, and it focused on deep listening, empathy, and being present. I was like, This is fantastic.
It was six weeks, so I can imagine in the experience you had, you were deeply immersed and thought, Oh, wow, this is a whole world of opportunity here.
Catherine Bell: Yeah, exactly. It was a whole new world I’d never really looked at, and I was instantly drawn to it. Meisner is great. I’ve done a little bit of that where you listen and say the same sentence back and forth. Yeah, the repetition, and it starts to evolve into something else, but you have to really be listening. It’s amazing, yeah.
Naomi Haile: For you, after you said you left that program—you left studying biomedical sciences or engineering after two years, yeah—was that your entrance into acting at that point? Were you auditioning soon after? What was that period like for you?
Catherine Bell: I was about, I guess, 19 at that time. When I left there, I ended up getting introduced to an agent, and she introduced me to an acting teacher. That’s how I got into a much more serious acting class. It was twice a week, focused on scene study. You’d put scenes up, rehearse with scene partners at home, get the costume—it was a real, proper scene study class.
And, yeah, you know, it’s interesting. I kind of dabbled in it. I was sort of into it but still not really, really committed to it. Then, when I was 21, I had thyroid cancer, which was crazy. It was one of those wake-you-up kind of moments in life. It was totally fine—it’s the slowest-growing cancer (knock on wood)—but I had a little lump, got it checked out, had it removed, and it’s been totally fine ever since.
But it was enough to make me go, What am I doing with my life? I was still kind of in college mode and party mode, dating and whatever. That’s when I got really serious about my acting class. I started doing voice lessons, dance classes, working out, eating well, and auditioning.
It was slow—little by little—but I was dedicated. It took me seven or eight years, really, but I wasn’t going to let anything get in my way. I was just committed to making it happen. I had goals, and I guess you’d call it a vision board, though I didn’t know that at the time. I just had a big wall with all the things I wanted to do and be.
I started doing more intense scenes in class, challenging myself. My teacher would push me and direct me. Eventually, I started getting roles. I think a guest-starring role on Friends was one of the first big things, then a couple of little movies, and then JAG.
Naomi Haile: Wow, yeah. I was wondering what maybe propelled you into this space because it seems, on the outside, like a drastic shift from what you were doing.
I can understand how experiencing a really devastating health concern could give you that perspective. People think about making a change like that for years and never do it, you know? They carry all this regret. So, yeah, you had something happen to you, and you were like, No, let me get focused—right at that young age, because it is.
Catherine Bell: It’s an age where you’re kind of like, whatever. I’m still whatever, no pressure. You don’t have kids, you don’t have marriage or whatever—you’re kind of just goofing off. And all of a sudden, I was like, No, wait a minute. This is—it’s time to live my life to the fullest.
Naomi Haile: I know California is a big, like, acting, Hollywood central place to be in. Yeah. Were you, like, constantly surrounded by mentors? Did you seek people out? It seemed like you had introductions to the people you needed to meet at the time.
But for those listening who are interested in doing something very different from what they’re doing right now, what advice would you have to help them get closer to the thing?
Catherine Bell:Yeah, you’re absolutely right. Being in Los Angeles helps because it’s all around you. Even when I was younger, I did a couple of little commercials and things like that because it was just always around. Someone sees you at a park and says, “Oh, hey, you should be in… call my agency,” or whatever. So there is that.
But it’s funny, because since COVID, you don’t have to be in LA or New York like you used to. It used to be that you had to go to one of those cities—or Atlanta, I guess now—if you wanted to work. But now, it can be done on Zoom; it can be done long distance. So there’s that aspect.
Still, I think it’s important to go where this thing you’re pursuing is, where you can meet like-minded people. My daughter is 21. She just moved to LA at the beginning of this year to pursue acting, and she’s phenomenal—she’s really talented. She just did her first commercial, which is really cool.
Her first apartment was with some friends and roommates, and 90% of the people in the apartment complex were actors or talk show hosts or something like that. They’re helping each other with auditions, talking about which acting classes are best, trying out each other’s acting classes. I think that’s so important—being somewhere where you can meet like-minded people and inspire each other.
I had that with my acting class. Back then, Milton’s class was full of so many people who were just on fire, alive, and doing it. It was like, “Let’s do this scene,” or, “Oh my God, that terrifies me—okay, yeah, let’s do it.” Watching movies together, inspiring each other to really hit it from every angle you could.
Naomi Haile: Yeah, with JAG, you mentioned that was your first big role. What was the process of landing something like that? And when you got it and stepped into the role, was that how many years into it for you? You mentioned it took about seven years—was JAG at the seven-year mark?
Catherine Bell: Yeah, actually, it was right around there. Maybe, yeah, it was seven years because I kind of started and dabbled at age 19 or 20. By 21, I was getting really serious, and I think I was 27 when I got JAG. So, yeah, about six years at least.
And it was slow going. I mean, that’s why I always tell people, when someone says they’re going to go to LA to “give it a year,” I’m like, don’t even bother. I actually just heard Bryan Cranston say this in an interview. He said if you’re going to give it a year, don’t even bother. Don’t come out. You’re wasting your time.
It wasn’t a year for him. It was into his 50s after a lifetime of doing little roles. He made an okay living, I think, as an actor and was able to keep it up, but he never gave up. He was in his late 40s or something when he did his first big show. I’m blanking on the name of it—it was a comedy, the Bryan Cranston show.
Anyway, what was the show? Okay, it’ll come to me. And then, yeah, in his 50s is when he really had his big break with Breaking Bad.
I think you just have to love it and know that this is your life. Whether it’s theater or something else, just continue to improve your craft and make yourself better and more ready so that when the opportunity comes along, you’re ready.
Naomi Haile: Yeah, absolutely. I think training, practice, and really refining your craft are so understated, especially now. I’m sure when you were first starting out, there was more of an emphasis on getting the quality of the work, you know.
Something I noticed, Catherine, while doing research on you—looking at your website and your social media comments—is how deeply connected you are with your fans and your community. Maybe that’s partially influenced by your family roots and how close-knit you are with people.
But, like, you have a mailing list, you have a personal website—I don’t often see that in the industry. You actively keep engaged with your community, share what you’re working on, and bring them along on the journey. What’s inspired that for you in your life?
Catherine Bell: Yeah, you know, I think you’re absolutely right that my family and upbringing had a lot to do with that. My grandmother probably instilled it in me. She always taught me that you treat everyone with the same respect.
That taught them, and by extension, me, this concept that you don’t treat anyone any differently, whether it’s an employee or anyone else. When I’m on set, whoever I’m talking to is a human being. We’re all there to do a job, and it’s a collaborative effort. My fans are also part of it—if they’re not watching my show, I don’t have a show to make, you know what I mean?
I’ve always had that mindset, and I enjoy engaging with them. They love it, and I love it. I’m always on Instagram, commenting or replying. Some of them are becoming friends now—we DM each other, and I see them at events and autograph signings. I love that. I wouldn’t have a career if it weren’t for them.
When social media first became a thing, I remember being kind of leery of it. A friend of mine said, “No, no, this is your way to communicate directly with your audience.” Because otherwise, it’s through an interview that might be taken out of context or altered in some way. But with social media, I get to tell them exactly what I want, and no one can change that.
That’s when I first got into it. I was like, Oh, this is fun. Here’s what I want to say to you today. Here’s my message. I quickly realized that, as a celebrity, you have the ability to influence people, and that can be good or bad. I chose to make it good.
If I’m having a bad day, you’re probably not going to hear about it on my social media, because nobody wants to hear about that. Unless it’s something I got through, and now I’m on the other side of it, and I can share it in a way that inspires someone. Otherwise, no.
I probably learned that from my acting teacher, who used to say, “When you come into the theater, leave your troubles at the door. There’s a coat hook over there—hang them up right there. Come and do your thing, and when you leave, you can pick them up on the way out if you want—or not.”
I think that’s great advice. I’ve always carried that with me on set. I’ve gone through things, like my divorce at one point, or other personal stuff, but nobody ever knew on set. That’s just not the place for it. Everyone has their own stuff. We’re here to make a movie, to do a job—so let’s do it.
Naomi Haile: Thank you for sharing that. You’re also an entrepreneur, and you have two businesses that really reflect your passions for health, art, beauty, and nature. I’m curious to know what inspired you to launch your clean skincare brand, if you want to start there. And then we’ll talk about the jewelry line as well.
Catherine Bell: Sure, yeah. Oh my gosh, I can talk about clean skincare all day long. I think maybe it started with the thyroid cancer way back, and I started really caring about what I was putting in my body and paying attention to ingredients.
Along the way, I learned that in the U.S., it’s been since the early 1900s that the laws on what’s allowed and not allowed in skincare have really been updated. Some of the ingredients in over-the-counter products are awful—cancer-causing, endocrine-disrupting, hormone-disrupting kinds of stuff. If you think about it, you’re slathering these products all over your body or face, and if they have those harmful ingredients, you’re messing up your hormones and endocrine system.
So I started using cleaner products. Now, not always—I mean, when you’re on a movie set, the best foundation isn’t always clean—but when I’m home and doing my own skincare, I wanted to have the cleanest stuff possible.
That’s kind of how it started. People would ask me how I keep my skin looking good or how I deal with all the movie makeup. I started looking into it, found some products I liked, began tweaking them, making them my own, and kept improving them. That’s how I got into offering clean skincare.
Naomi Haile: Yeah, and folks who would ask you about that—would these be peers in the industry who were also, you know, experiencing large amounts of makeup to be on set? Or is it also fans in your community?
Catherine Bell: And, yeah, I guess it would be both. Fans were always like, you know, wanting to know how I’m, whatever, battling the aging thing. You look amazing. It’s a lot of work.
But yeah, so it’s either fans or, for sure, peers wanting to know what I use. I actually started making some of my own products at home—just face oils with organic oils, different ingredients, and essential oils. I thought, Why don’t I help get this out into the world? So that’s kind of where that started.
Naomi Haile: Yeah, that’s so cool. And then your jewelry line as well—it’s beautiful. I’ll link to everywhere that people can find your websites.
Catherine Bell: Thank you so much. Yeah, so in the beginning of Good Witch, I used to wear really fancy jewelry, and people would always ask about the pieces—what I was wearing. That got me thinking about jewelry, like, What do I wear? What do I like? Fans would always want to know where to buy some of the stuff I was wearing.
I realized I was really drawn to vintage pieces. I love to draw and sketch, so I got into sketching some designs, taking a vintage piece, playing around with it, and making it my own. Being on Good Witch also inspired me because there were a lot of good luck charms—crescent moons, horseshoes, evil eyes—which tied into my Persian roots. My grandmother always gave me an evil eye to ward off bad intentions.
And, yeah, that’s kind of where it started. I’ve also always loved hearts. My daughter had a heart condition—not life-threatening, but just a little thing—which drew even more attention to hearts for me. I loved wearing them. So I started designing some heart pieces, some luck pieces, and it grew from there.
Naomi Haile: Wow, yeah. On the business side, I think because you pursued such an artistic career from the start, it kind of primes you—you’re already an entrepreneur when you’re selling yourself for auditions, trying to be on television, and pursuing all these opportunities.
So I feel like, innately, you build the skill of sales and think more expansively about how to use your gifts and skills. When it came to developing these items for yourself and experimenting with things, what was your process for actually bringing them to life and building a business around them?
Did you have individuals on the operations side to support you? Were you doing it all on your own? What did the early days look like?
Catherine Bell: Yeah, I’ve never had, like, a big investor or anything. It’s kind of just been bootstrapping and learning as I go. My partner and I design together, and it’s often like, I don’t know, what do you think we should do? A lot of it is the blind leading the blind—a lot of Googling and YouTube videos.
Catherine Bell Jewelry was first, and I had an amazing friend, stylist, and designer Kate Parish, who helped us with that. She helped with the clothing, the photo shoot, and all of that. We had designed the jewelry, but she helped us organize a whole photo shoot for the website and the launch. That was amazing. We draw on talented friends like that—people who step in and say, Yeah, I’ll help with a photo shoot. She brought in a videographer and everything. It was incredible.
And you’re totally right. As an actor, you are selling yourself. You’re like, Hey, you need to cast me, and here’s why. Even if you don’t look exactly like the character they’re imagining, you sell it. For example, I played a female mercenary, this really tough, badass woman, and I was so shy! But I convinced them I could do the part. I ended up doing it with Dolph Lundgren in an action movie in Thailand.
Again, so many great lessons came from Milton, my teacher. He used to say, It’s show business. The show part is the acting—that’s what we’ve got down. But the business part is something a lot of actors don’t have, even though, to some degree, they do; they just don’t realize it. Like you said, they’re selling themselves, but we don’t always have the financial awareness or understanding.
I’ve had to learn that along the way—learning what to do with my money, not to spend every penny I make, how to invest it, how to save for retirement, and all that. That came later. Same with this business—it’s been about learning marketing, figuring out Facebook ads, and understanding how to promote.
It’s all part of the game, especially now. So, I’m constantly learning.
Naomi Haile: Absolutely, speaking to that, I think the learning and also building your confidence. I watched interviews that you did in, like, the early 2000s, and I found them so refreshing. Your stage presence, the way you were so polished, and really, yeah, your communication skills—so good. The way that you told stories, yeah, I need to send you these interviews.
Catherine Bell: I need to see these again because I don’t feel that way—I still don’t. But there’s—yeah, yeah, no, no, I think I don’t. Like, did you watch, what, like Letterman or some of those talk shows that I did? Yeah, the talk shows, yeah.
I was terrified doing those. I was still shy. I’m not shy anymore, but I don’t consider myself a public speaker. I’m much more comfortable if you give me a script and I can, you know, act it. But, yeah, it’s so funny.
I did just make a decision. I think so much of it is a mental game. It’s like, You know what, I’m gonna go out there and just connect with this other human being. You talk about the stuff ahead of time, what you’re going to do, so you kind of prepare. Then you just make a decision that it’s going to go great, and you’re going to have fun and present this side of yourself.
And, yeah, it works out somehow, in a different way. That’s also a performance, being hunted, yes, for those interviews.
Naomi Haile: Oh, totally. So were you going up there as Catherine? Like, eventually, how would you prepare?
Catherine Bell: Yeah, oh, for sure. I mean, it’s definitely me. You’re on those shows, and they have the pre-interview where they want to find some funny stories and different things like that. But then you’re like, Okay, how do I make this natural? Like, we’ve already talked about the story, so now I have to make it seem like it just came up when Letterman asked me about this thing.
So it is a little bit of acting still, but it’s you, and you’re talking about yourself. I don’t know—it’s a funny thing. Usually, I leave those kinds of interviews and go, What did I say? What just happened? It’s almost like the five or ten minutes just zoomed by.
Naomi Haile: But, yeah, I can understand the nerves. Especially, yeah
Catherine Bell: Letterman was crazy. I did that, oh my gosh. He was very flirty. I watched that interview now, and I’m like, That would not happen today.
My legs—he’s like, “Wow, let me take a look.” And he’s, like, looking up. No. It was…
Naomi Haile: It must have been that interview or a different one, but I just found that you were very confident in who you were. I like the way that you held yourself.
And you’ve always, I think, from the research I’ve done and the other interviews you’ve conducted, seemed very grounded in family, wellness, your health, and, like, learning today that you started on that journey—taking care of yourself and getting active—early, in your late teens and early 20s.
You really emphasize the simple things people can do every day to take care of themselves. So, how do you prioritize your own well-being today? And what does that look like for you in 2024, going into 2025?
Catherine Bell: Yeah, that’s crazy—2025 is right around the corner. You know, it’s funny, I’m always trying to find a balance. This is probably one of the top questions I get asked by fans: How do you juggle it all? How do you balance it all? People have kids, they have jobs, and they’re trying, you know, or if you’re starting a new business too, like, how do you juggle it all?
And yes, I am always busy, and there are days where I wish maybe I wasn’t as busy, but I carve out those moments to not be busy. Like, if it’s just putting my phone down and watching a movie with my son—because we love to do that—or going on a little bike ride to the beach, you carve out those moments. Then, when it’s time to work, I work.
A couple of years ago, I got really serious about working out. I realized that as you get older, you really need to be building muscle and doing weight training and keeping your body strong. You don’t want to be 70 years old and have never lifted anything in your life, and then you can’t—you’re hobbled over or whatever. I was like, No, no, that’s not happening.
So working out became important, and now it’s another thing I have to carve out in my day. But you just do it—it’s a decision. Like, Okay, I’m just going to make time for it. There are enough hours in the day that, if I’m smart about it—put down the phone, stop scrolling on social media—I can make it work.
I have to remind myself all the time, just like all of us. Okay, it’s been 20 minutes. Put it down. Get to the gym. Do some work. Read a script. Do a little jewelry work. Spend some time with the kid. It’s a constant work in progress, I would say.
Naomi Haile: Yeah, I mentioned your kids, and we talked about your grandmother briefly at the beginning—and your grandfather, who only spoke Farsi, which I learned. And she played a significant role in raising you.
So what lessons from her or your early life, like being in a bilingual home, have stayed with you the most and influenced how you also raise your children?
Catherine Bell: Yeah, I was so fortunate. My grandmother actually didn’t speak English, so we only spoke Farsi in the home, and I’m so glad because I’m bilingual. I will always remember and be able to speak Farsi, even if it’s rusty and I have a bit of an American accent, but I can speak it. You know, people start talking, and I know exactly what they’re saying. I don’t always have the vocabulary, but I’m so glad I had that.
My daughter is trying really hard to learn Farsi, and it’s much harder now that she’s in her 20s. But I love that. I love that I had that background. It’s definitely so special to me—the whole Persian culture, the history, the bonds that we have.
Actually, my daughter’s coming here for the month of December, and we should just speak Farsi because it’s, like, actually really cool to have that connection.
Naomi Haile:As we wrap up the episode, I’m really curious to know—this is something I ask everyone because a very important pattern on the show is that everyone loves to learn. There’s, like, a level of deep curiosity and refining your craft, which we talked about at the beginning.
I’m curious to know, over the course of your career, what’s been, like, the best investment you’ve made in yourself and your skills, and what led you to make that investment as well?
Catherine Bell: Good question. I don’t know if there’s one thing that I would say was the thing. I think it’s all those little things we were talking about. It’s taking care of yourself, taking time to be with family, finding a great acting class—or whatever craft you’re wanting to learn—and taking the time to practice and do that.
It’s about taking care of your body, mind, and soul. It’s kind of all of it and keeping it all balanced to whatever degree we can. You know, certainly, when I was filming, it was 18-hour days, five days a week. Then I’d sleep all morning Saturday and go be with the family.
It’s about finding that balance and making sure you take care of yourself when you’re feeling exhausted. You find a night to get a little extra sleep. It’s all those things, I think, that add up to a good life.
Naomi Haile: Yeah, thank you. And what’s the best place for people to stay informed about your upcoming projects? Is your newsletter still active? What’s the best place for people to stay connected?
Catherine Bell: It is, yeah. You can go to my website, www.catherinebell.com, and sign up for my newsletter. I try to send it out about once a month—trying to do more—but at least every month or two with updates. Instagram is probably the most up-to-date because I try to post there several times a week.
Naomi Haile: Thank you, Catherine and thank you to everyone for listening to this episode of The Power of Why Podcast. We will catch you in the next one.
Listen to the episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts | Watch on YouTube
Connect with Catherine
Instagram: @therealcatherinebell
Clean skincare brand: Everliving Beauty
Jewelry brand: Catherine Bell Jewelry
Connect with Naomi
Website: naomihaile.com
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