After starring as love interests in Baywatch, David Chokachi and Pamela Anderson had a “good friendship” — up until she left Los Angeles.
“We were in touch, she was living in Malibu for a while and I would see her,” Chokachi, 56, exclusively told Us Weekly at the After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun premiere on Monday, August 26. “And then she kind of uprooted and went back to Vancouver Island, and she kind of disengaged from the whole thing. She wanted to get a fresh start.”
Chokachi, who played Cody Madison on the popular series from 1995 to 1999, noted that “it’s a bummer” that Anderson, 57, moved away because they had such a “good friendship.”
“[She] and I worked so well because we were really self-deprecating, like, we never took it that seriously,” he explained to Us. “A lot of people thought, ‘I’m turning into a movie star. I’m leaving the show.’ We weren’t those kinds of actors. We were just like, ‘This is so fun. Why would you leave the show? We get to do all these great things together, be on the beach and be with a bunch of really cool people.’”
Chokachi has tons of fond memories from his years on the show, but he noted that “shooting second unit” was always “really fun” for him.
“It always meant we were going to be doing action and water rescues, driving the boats, jet skis, beating up bad guys or making out with Pam,” he gushed. “Second unit was a lot of montage stuff. You knew it’d be a really fun day.”
Chokachi added that he’s “done a lot of jobs” since Baywatch, but there was something special to him about having the beach be his “office.”
“That’s where you go to work, and you get to do all these cool things in the water,” he explained.
More than two decades after the show, several members of the cast, including Chokachi, reflected on their time on the show in the new Hulu docuseries After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun, which was released on Wednesday, August 28.
“I think after people watch this, they’ll have a lot more respect for all the actors that were on the show,” Chokachi told Us. “And actually, when you mention the word Baywatch, it’s not really that superficial visual thing that we all kind of prematurely tagged everybody as initially.”
Chokachi explained that when Baywatch initially aired, viewers thought the actors “were visuals” and “had no soul and couldn’t act.”
“It was just like we had to all fight against that, every one of us,” he noted. “I think the documentary — because it really tells our life, before, during and after the show — it really humanizes all of us. I think audience members who are fans of the show will be like, ‘Wow, holy s–t. These are real people. All who have had struggles in life … and they’re just like you and I.’ I think that’s really important. I think the legacy of Baywatch will shine brighter than ever after the people see this.”
After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun is now streaming on Hulu.
With reporting by Mariel Turner
