Brande Roderick calls her years on “Baywatch” “one of the best times” of her life.
Roderick, 50, specifically remembers shooting the last two seasons of the show in “magical” Hawaii and feeling like a “little family” with the rest of the cast.
“We’re on an island where we only know each other,” Roderick told Fox News Digital. “And it really was like this, you know, this gathering of friends of family every day. You’re just going out and frolicking in the water and swimming and, you know, swimming with Aquaman, Jason Momoa, you know. You can’t ask for better than that.”
But she revealed that shooting the series wasn’t always just fun in the sun, adding that the new Hulu documentary, “After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun,” will reveal some of the private struggles the cast went through while playing the beautiful lifeguards.
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“People that see celebrities and see this whole kind of beach ‘Baywatch’ babe lifestyle probably assume that, ‘Oh, you know, everyone’s life is perfect.’ And I think that what they’ll find out is that everyone’s life isn’t or wasn’t perfect and that there are, you know, struggles that people went through, that, you know, that the world might not have known about,” Roderick said.
“And I think that it’s going to, you know, definitely shed some light. People are going to be vulnerable and really, you know, talk about their experiences, not just experiences on the show. It’s really experiences in their life during that time frame of the ’90s, early 2000.”
She said she and other cast members always felt pressure to be the “perfect ‘Baywatch’ babe.”
“I think that what a lot of the cast members will talk about is, you know, the struggle to have that image of being the fit, perfect Baywatch babe, whether you’re a male or female,” she revealed. “The men went through it, you know, the women went through it, because all eyeballs are on you, right? And when you’re coming out of that, you know, 20s, 30s, whatever age, it gets harder and harder to be fit, right? But I think that’s something that people might not understand and realize is that pressure that some people have to go through.”
Roderick said her biggest misconception about “Baywatch” was it would set her up for the rest of her career.
“Even a misconception I had when I booked ‘Baywatch,’ you know, I booked the lead role, right? I’m like, this is it. I made it. And I was sorely mistaken when the show got canceled and, all of a sudden, I’m out of a job,” she told Fox News Digital. “And I had thought, because I booked ‘Baywatch,’ the No. 1-watched show in the world, that I was going to have it made the rest of my life, never have to audition again. Jobs would just be thrown at me. And that was a rude awakening. That’s not how this business works.
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“So, you still have to get out there and work and struggle and make it happen. And I think that people might think that, ‘Oh, once you do something like this, your life is easy.’ But it’s not. Absolutely not.”
Broderick recently made her directorial debut with the horror film “Wineville,” which she said was a challenge while also producing and starring in the film.
“I was wearing all the hats, and I was putting out fires left and right,” she said of the 1970s period piece. “Constantly. So, trying to run around and meet all the needs of everybody, the whole crew, all the actors, as well as trying to be prepared to do a scene as well as being, you know, behind the camera, it was a lot. It was definitely a lot. But I will say it was a huge dream of mine that I always wanted to do. And I made it happen, and it was very exciting.”
She said the crew made the film near the end of the pandemic, “so there were so many hoops we had to jump through and obstacles we had because of that, you know. Like, our second day of shooting, our wardrobe gal got COVID.
“She had to leave. We had to find someone last minute to come in who could, you know, understand what we’re doing. And it was a ‘70s piece, you know, so it’s not like we were just wearing normal clothes. And this was based in 1978, and then, of course, trying to find all the cars from the ‘70s. There was a lot of challenges, definitely. But being a producer and putting out all the fires out, that was the hardest part, while also trying to memorize my lines and directing at the same time.”
The actress said she’s stayed in touch with some of her “Baywatch” co-stars over the years, most notably, Carmen Electra, who she said she still sees “all the time.”
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“She’s one of the people that I’ve really stayed in contact with probably the most,” Broderick said.
She said she most recently saw Momoa, who she said was like a “little brother” to her, about a year and a half ago at an autograph signing.
“Jason’s like a little brother to me, and he’s a really sweet, wonderful person, and he’s got a huge heart,” she told Fox News Digital. “And he still is just like that big little kid still. Even though he’s a lot bigger now, he still has that sweet little boyish personality. Oh, it was really sweet to see him. And the cool thing was, my kid went with us, and so he got to hang out with and meet Aquaman, which was pretty cool.”
Broderick said she’s lost touch with former co-star Pamela Anderson, who she last saw when they did their movie “Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding” together in 2003.
The “Starsky & Hutch” star said she is also all in for the planned FOX reboot of the show.
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“I’ve already talked to [co-creator] Michael [Berk],” she said. “I said, ‘Michael, I’m on board. I’m ready to come to Australia and have some fun.’ So definitely, I mean, it’s something that I’m excited about and excited to be a part of.”
