20 Questions: David Hasselhoff

He is on a roll. It's not just the success of the internationally syndicated "Baywatch," David Hasselhoff's sun, fun, hardbodies and good-family-values TV series. After the show was dumped by NBC five years ago, Hasselhoff and his "Baywatch" co-investors rescued the series by cutting costs and going independent. A "Baywatch" spin-off, "Baywatch Nights," in which lifeguard Mitch Buchannon (Hasselhoff) moonlights as a private eye, is coming soon. "Baywatch" peripherals are about to hit the market--including "Baywatch" Barbie dolls and Baywatchers restaurants. Also, Hasselhoff is such a singing sensation in Germany that he is referred to as that country's Elvis. We had Contributing Editor David Rensin quiz Hasselhoff as he prepared to wrap principal photography on another season. Says Rensin, "I found Hasselhoff at the top of the world--OK, at the top of a Ferris wheel on Santa Monica pier."

1.

[Q] Playboy: Baywatch is broadcast worldwide to a potential audience of 1 billion people, many of whom think that the show accurately represents America. Care to give them a reality check?

[A] Hasselhoff: Baywatch is an MTV glitter, overexposed version of the best days at the beach, with the most action. There are a lot of times when no rescues are made and the sun doesn't shine. But nobody wants to see that on TV. What we're doing on Baywatch is carrying on the legacy of the Beach Boys. Their idea of California has been around for 30 years. We didn't create it; we're just following it and living the life of fast food, fast cars, hot women, sun, sand, surf, fun and action. Of course, there aren't so many pretty girls on Santa Monica Beach as on Baywatch, but if you go to Huntington Beach, believe me, there are just as many pretty girls. In fact, we don't even shoot at Huntington anymore because there are so many young, nubile, Newport princess babes. We can't get anything done. They all come out and stand around--and want to be on Baywatch.

2.

[Q] Playboy: Isn't it true that Paul McCartney wants to be on Baywatch?

[A] Hasselhoff: Very true. I met Paul at the British Music Industry awards ceremony. When I walked up he said, "Oh, hello! We watch you on the telly." Then his wife, Linda, said to my wife, "Hello, Pamela!" We were stunned. We told him we'd just come from the Beatles museum in Liverpool. He said, "Well, they must have a Hasselhoff museum in Germany." I couldn't believe he knew about my music career in Germany. Then he said, "You know, I wouldn't mind doing your show. I'd like to have Linda come riding down the beach on her horse. She tramples me and I get rescued." I said, "Great, I can make that happen. I can rescue you." "No, no," he said. "I'd like to have C.J. rescue me." So far he's been too busy, but he called to say he'll do it as soon as he finds the time.

3.

[Q] Playboy: What part of the body is it toughest to get sand out of?

[A] Hasselhoff: I hate sand. I have it everywhere. You'll have to ask the female cast members about the tough places, though. I just know the ears are impossible.

4.

[Q] Playboy: Would you rather not go near the water?

[A] Hasselhoff: It's pretty cold. Ever heard of a 22-short? It's the size of your male anatomy when you get out of the water. You go to the rest room, and there's nothing there. It's frightening. We've all had hypothermia at times on the show. David Charvet almost had to be hospitalized. But it's easier for me to endure the cold because I'm an owner of the show and I'm the highest-paid guy. When I let go of that Scarab, going 30 miles an hour, and jump in, I think of my back-end deal. Otherwise, there's no way I'd jump in.

5.

[Q] Playboy: Have you ever found yourself actually saving someone's life?

[A] Hasselhoff: Once, when I was in England. I was doing an interview and had just been asked the question, "How do you respond in emergencies?" I said, "Pretty well. In fact, I rescued a little old lady the other day." I told the story of how I was in the lifeguard truck, going to the set, and a lady was on the jetty, screaming. I pulled over. She had broken her hip. So I got on the radio and said, "This is David Hasselhoff. This is a real rescue. We need a backboard over here. We need a paramedic." All of a sudden she looked up. She didn't realize who I was, but before she knew it help had arrived. [Pauses] So here I am, in a car at Hyde Park Corner in London, telling an interviewer this story, when all of a sudden, a guy on a scooter goes boom! and flies over our car. I say, "Uh, I'll be right back." I run into traffic and yell, "Stop!" People are looking out of their cars, going, "Hey! It's the Knight Rider! It's the bum from Baywatch."

6.

[Q] Playboy: To whom are you dying to give mouth-to-mouth?

[A] Hasselhoff: Princess Di. Really. The press would be phenomenal.

7.

[Q] Playboy: Hasselhoff is a memorable name. What does it mean?

[A] Hasselhoff: I think it means "rabbits having sex." Actually, something to do with rabbits and a house. You know, rabbits make love a lot, so maybe it's "making love in your house like a rabbit." [Laughs] There is some place in Germany called Hasselhoff. Some fans took the sign down and brought it to me when I was onstage. If I ever move to Germany, my address will be David Hasselhoff, Germany.

8.

[Q] Playboy: You have a successful singing career in Germany and Europe--but not in America. What do you think keeps Stateside audiences, thus far, from buying in?

[A] Hasselhoff: The reason they're not buying in is that I've never had a proper release here. I did an album years ago called Night Rocker, which sold seven copies. It was shoved down my throat by a producer whom I ended up having to sue so he'd stop putting out the album. It was really bad. In Germany I have a seven-figure deal per album. I'm being paid big bucks and I'm produced big-time. Now, I'm finally coming out with something in America. I've changed to producers who are more in touch with our country's pulse. I probably could do a Time Warner ad tomorrow and sell half a million records, but I want a shot at a legitimate career and I want to try to break the hold of radio play. To promote my album I will go to the malls, to the halls, to the MGM Grand in Vegas. I've been holding back because my career in Germany has taken up so much time. So, if it happens here, it happens. If it doesn't, I can go to Germany tomorrow and play to 12,000 people. But now that I have two kids, I'm trying to travel a little less, so I really want to play in America.

9.

[Q] Playboy: The night of your first pay-perview cable special, you were on your way to making big bucks when Americans were suddenly riveted to their TVs by cops chasing a white Ford Bronco on the freeways of Los Angeles. If you had been home that evening, which event would you have watched?

[A] Hasselhoff: O.J. [Sighs] After the show Donald Trump walked into my dressing room and said, "You were fantastic, everybody looked great, you were terrific, didn't miss a note." Then we looked at the TV and saw the Bronco, and I said, "Tell me that's not live." But it was. So there was only one thing to do: sit around and watch. We got right into it. After the show we went to a big party where 400 people honored me. They also had a television running constantly in the corner. I couldn't compete.

10.

[Q] Playboy: On Knight Rider you shared billing with KITT, the talking car, and thus joined a fraternity of actors who have co-starred with animals and machines. If you could get together with the co-stars of Mr. Ed, My Mother the Car and Francis the Talking Mule, what would the humans talk about?

[A] Hasselhoff: The stupid questions we get asked. "Where's the horse?" "Where's the mule?" We'd complain about how many times we're asked the same question and how many people think it's the first time we've heard it. If I've heard this question once, I've heard it a hundred thousand times: "Where's the car?"

11.

[Q] Playboy: Where is the car?

[A] Hasselhoff: Stuffed, next to Trigger.

12.

[Q] Playboy: You often mention Michael Landon as an inspiration for the emotional, timeless stories you do on Baywatch. What do you imagine were Landon's three cardinal rules of compelling television?

[A] Hasselhoff: You must cry in every episode. You must send someone off to get the doctor, who must be at least two days away. And you must write, direct, produce and act in the episode yourself.

13.

[Q] Playboy: How much do you love merchandising? Let us count the ways.

[A] Hasselhoff: The merchandising is coming in like crazy. I always knew it was going to be big because of my Knight Rider experience. First there was a Knight Rider doll and a car. They sold 750,000 and generated $30 million. In the beginning we were so busy with Baywatch, trying to figure out how to make a $1.2 million show for $800,000 and stay one step ahead of the jokes and all the crap we got, that we never really addressed merchandising. Finally, now that the show is huge, we've got everything coming out. Baywatch suntan lotion, Baywatch bathing suits, Baywatch hair-care products, a Baywatchers restaurant. It's going to be waitresses and waiters in bathing suits, with sand on the floor; like going to the set of Baywatch in New York City. We're already trying to franchise it in four other states. Donald Trump is aboard as one of the investors. We're coming out with stuff that kind of epitomizes Baywatch and the Beach Boys and sand, surf and fun. In fact, Mattel is releasing a Baywatch Barbie doll line. It's a lifeguard tower and a lifeguard Barbie doll and a David Hasselhoff Ken doll. It's so cute, so incredible, kids flip out when they see it. It has a little boat, a rescue can, the sunglasses. The show that everyone made fun of is now part of American culture.

14.

[Q] Playboy: You appeared as Cosmopolitan's 25th anniversary centerfold. What does it feel like to be thought of as a beefcake kind of guy?

[A] Hasselhoff: I don't think of myself like that. Burt Reynolds did the centerfold. So did Arnold Schwarzenegger. They were considered charming men who were attractive to women; they weren't considered beefcake. I was flattered that they chose me. I did it tongue-in-cheek. It was funny. But it became the all-time best-selling issue of Cosmo, so it was an honor and the right choice to make.

15.

[Q] Playboy: You've faced adversity. You were out of work for three years following Knight Rider. You've taken a critical drubbing about Baywatch--even though those same critics now think the show is cool. What's the David Hasselhoff pep talk? How did you keep going?

[A] Hasselhoff: "Just go to sleep. It'll be better in the morning." [Laughs] There's a great song called "I'm Still Standing." Every time somebody says no to me, that song gives me the power to forge ahead. There have been many times when I've been incredibly sensitive--I'm a sensitive person--but I can't really show it. If you show it, then they win. My motto is: If I can just get to the next day, when morning comes, it's going to be great. Every single morning is a fresh beginning. No matter how tired I am or what country I'm in, when I wake up in the morning I've got energy.

16.

[Q] Playboy: In what don't you look good?

[A] Hasselhoff: Probably sideways in a bathing suit. I'm thin. I look good from the front and I know how to shoot me, but sideways I become bird-boy. I'm not really big on shorts in my personal life. If I have to wear them on the screen it's tough. I make sure that I see the dailies.

17.

[Q] Playboy: You sang your hit "Looking for Freedom" at the Berlin Wall. How much of the wall did you take home and what did you do with it?

[A] Hasselhoff: I took home about 140 pieces and I put them on a plaque that reads: "November 9th is a little piece of freedom. Love, David Hasselhoff." I chopped down a bunch of the wall, then my hands froze so I hired a couple of kids to do it. I said, "Here's a hundred bucks. I don't want small pieces, I need big pieces. And look for the ones with the colors." We tried to get the colors of the German flag.

18.

[Q] Playboy: Many people now admit that Baywatch is their guilty viewing pleasure. What's yours?

[A] Hasselhoff: I love those horrible reenactments of rescues, like Rescue 911. I get a kick out of watching families who can't act try to reenact their story.

19.

[Q] Playboy: You work in a world of breasts, buttocks and bathing suits. At what point do you stop noticing?

[A] Hasselhoff: We're doing a spin-off series called Baywatch Nights. In one scene I walk into a club and say to Lou Rawls, who plays the owner, "Wow, this is infinitely more exciting." He says, "What do you mean, Mitch? Don't you get enough of this flesh on the beach?" I say, "Yeah, but these girls have clothes on." I don't notice my girls in that way anymore because I now know them individually and personally, and who cares? But when they dress up, I really notice. Suddenly they become more attractive.

20.

[Q] Playboy: Baywatch lifeguards C.J. Parker, Lieutenant Stephanie Holden, Summer Quinn, Matt Brody, Caroline Holden and Logan Fowler are all drowning. Who does Mitch save first?

[A] Hasselhoff: Himself.

the sultan of tv sand and surf on the joys of syndication and merchandising and the person he'd most like to give mouth-to-mouth