{"id":14093,"date":"2012-05-22T10:53:03","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T15:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fitzness.com\/blog\/?p=14093"},"modified":"2014-10-29T10:26:07","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T15:26:07","slug":"david-hasselhoff-on-slow-motion-running-his-scrawny-legs-and-why-he-got-naked-with-puppies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fitzness.com\/blog\/david-hasselhoff-on-slow-motion-running-his-scrawny-legs-and-why-he-got-naked-with-puppies\/","title":{"rendered":"David Hasselhoff on “Slow Motion Running”, his Scrawny Legs and Why he Got Naked with Puppies"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The infamous David Hasselhoff sat down with the editors of MensHealth.com this month for a web-exclusive interview. \u00a0Among other things, Hasselhoff discussed how he kicked down the Berlin Wall (sort of), how he\u2019s bigger than Jesus, and yes, oh yes, how the Germans still love him.<\/span> You can read the full interview here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

On being in the<\/span> Guinness Book of World Records<\/span><\/em> as the most watched person on television:<\/span><\/strong> That was in 1993 and last year they called me and said,\u201d Would you come and do some more publicity?\u201d \u00a0Apparently no one\u2019s broken the record since. \u00a0I had people from Pakistan and Nepal tell me that \u201cBaywatch\u201d was like \u201cSlumdog Millionaire.\u201d \u00a0Entire villages would gather around one television and watch it together. \u00a0I was at the Caribou Club in Aspen once, and the Shah of Iran\u2019s wife was there. \u00a0People were telling me,\u201d the Shah of Iran\u2019s wife wants your autograph.\u201d \u00a0And I was like, \u201cYeah, right. \u00a0Send her over then.\u201d \u00a0And then she comes over to my table and says to me,\u201d They sell tickets to your show in my country.\u201d
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W<\/strong>hy he thinks people love<\/span> Baywatch<\/span><\/em> so much:<\/span><\/strong> I think it\u2019s about people wanting to be free and looking at America as the big lifeguard. That\u2019s why\u201d Baywatch\u201d was popular\u2026or it\u2019s the tits.
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\nHow<\/span> Baywatch\u2019s<\/span><\/em> slow-motion running came about:<\/span><\/strong> That came about organically because we had no money. \u00a0We didn\u2019t have enough financing to finish the show. \u00a0So we found a way to fill the hour by shooting people in slow motion. \u00a0We said,\u201d Well, girls in bathing suits look good running in slow motion, let\u2019s just shoot that.\u201d \u00a0And we found out that the audience kinda liked it. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Is there any part of his body Hasselhoff is self-conscious about:<\/span><\/strong> I\u2019ve never been happy about my legs. \u00a0They\u2019re too scrawny and boney. \u00a0When I got cast in\u201d Baywatch,\u201d the last thing I wanted to do was run around in a bathing suit. \u00a0I was pretty happy with wearing jeans and a leather jacket on\u201d Knight Rider.\u201d \u00a0But I got over that quick. \u00a0After the first paycheck, I said,\u201d Bring on the shorts! Who cares?\u201d
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\nAbout his nickname, \u201cThe Hoff\u201d:<\/span><\/strong> The whole Hoff thing wasn\u2019t even my idea. \u00a0It\u2019s something that started nine years ago by some secretaries in Australia\u2026I got an email from one of these women, asking me, “How does it feel to be a sex symbol at 50?” Apparently there was a viral epidemic of emails going back and forth between secretaries in Australia. They were sharing all of these Hoffisms. You know, stuff like “Desperate Hoffwives” and “Some Like it Hoff” and “The Hoffice” and “Take It Hoff.” Every play on words you could imagine. I thought, well that’s kind of funny. So I went on television in Australia and I was talking about the whole phenomenon and I said, like I was talking to the secretaries, “I have a saying for you. Don’t hassle the Hoff!” And that’s when it all blew up and went crazy.
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Hasselhoff on the famous photo of him naked and covered in strategically placed puppies:<\/span><\/strong> I\u2019ll tell you what that was. \u00a0Many of your readers probably don\u2019t remember, but\u201d Cosmopolitan,\u201d which was the number one fashion magazine during the\u201870s and\u201880s, did a male centerfold. \u00a0The first person who posed was Burt Reynolds in the early\u201870s. \u00a0He was lying naked on a bear rug, smoking a cigar. \u00a0And then they did nude portraits of Arnold Schwarzenegger and (football player) Jim Brown. \u00a0I did it in 1990. \u00a0Back in those days it was a big deal to be in that magazine. \u00a0Now that photo\u2019s on t-shirts and I see it everywhere I go.<\/span><\/em>
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\nOn Mel Brooks and working with him on \u201cThe Producers\u201d in Las Vegas<\/span><\/strong>: I have a great Mel Brooks story. \u00a0We were doing\u201d The Producers\u201d in Las Vegas. \u00a0He loved me in the role of Roger De Bris. \u00a0I was so scared of him, because I was like,\u201d This is Mel Brooks! He\u2019s a legend!\u201d \u00a0But we became friends. \u00a0We used to hang out in my dressing room. \u00a0I remember before the show opened in Vegas, we did a press conference and Mel went off on \u201cCirque du Soleil.\u201d \u00a0He was like,\u201d This town needs a show with a story! \u00a0\u2018Cirque du Soleil is great,\u2019 but there\u2019s no story. \u00a0There\u2019s a mime, and he comes out, and then there\u2019s some music, and then there\u2019s another mime!\u201d \u00a0I was dying laughing, because he\u2019s right, there is no story. \u00a0It\u2019s just mimes!
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\nOn singing on New Year\u2019s Eve on the Berlin Wall:<\/span><\/strong> It was amazing. \u00a0It was freezing, but I was so emotional I didn\u2019t even notice. \u00a0I think I took a few swigs of schnapps at one point. \u00a0I was singing\u201d Looking for Freedom\u201d to a million people. \u00a0And they were all singing along in English. \u00a0It was like Woodstock.<\/span><\/em>
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\nOn getting recognition for bringing the Berlin Wall down:<\/span><\/strong> I know I didn\u2019t have anything to do with the Wall coming down. \u00a0I just happened to be there at the right time. \u00a0But I honored those people. \u00a0Before the Wall came down, I went to East Berlin and met some children who said they would never get out. \u00a0Their grandparents would maybe get out, but they wouldn\u2019t. \u00a0So I took a picture with them and I said,\u201d Meet me here at 12 o\u2019clock tomorrow.\u201d \u00a0I put them on the cover of a newspaper in West Berlin. \u00a0I brought them the newspaper, and they started crying. \u00a0I said,\u201d Here\u2019s a little piece of freedom.\u201d \u00a0They were actually on the cover of the West Berlin newspaper.
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\nHow he\u2019d like to influence the world:<\/span><\/strong> In general I\u2019d like to have a more positive influence on the world. \u00a0I do a lot of work with the Wounded Warriors, and guys will come back from Iraq with lost legs and tell me,\u201d You don\u2019t have any idea how famous you are over there.\u201d \u00a0They tell me that if I just walked down the streets of Iraq and Iran and Afghanistan, everybody would know who I was. \u00a0I think about that sometimes. \u00a0I want to do whatever I can to help the situation over there.
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\nOn wanting to make more episodes of<\/span> Knight Rider<\/span><\/em>:<\/span><\/strong> I’m trying, I’m trying! I want to do a<\/span><\/em> Knight Rider<\/span> movie. It’d be Michael Knight and his son. It’d be like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and it would work perfectly. It would be hysterical. We’d bring back KITT and KITT would say, “Where’ve you been, Michael?” And I’d be like, “Well, all the cars talk now.” I’m always being asked when I’m going to do<\/span><\/em> Knight Rider<\/span> again. I went to Zimbabwe and they were like, “Michael Knight, why you look so old?” Because the show is from 1982! “Where is your curly hair?” It’s gone, I’m on vacation, leave me alone. All over the world it’s like that.
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\nHasselhoff on the updated<\/span> Knight Rider<\/span><\/em> series that NBC did in 2008:<\/span><\/strong> That was my idea! I pitched it to them! It was basically my treatment. I brought it to them, and they were like, “We want to develop it. That’s the good news.” And I said, “What’s the bad news?” “You’re not going to be in it.” I said, “Oh. That’s not what I had in mind.” But that’s show business. You just have to roll with the punches. I said, “Good luck.” And then it got cancelled a year later.
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\nWhy he thinks the updated<\/span> Knight Rider<\/span><\/em> series failed:<\/span><\/strong> It had no heart. And there was no humor. And there was no action. The action needed to be progressive and cool and hip. People loved<\/span><\/em> Knight Rider<\/span> \u2014 the original<\/span><\/em> Knight Rider<\/span>\u2014not because the car could fly but because Michael and KITT were great characters. KITT was the perfect authoritative parent with a sense of humor. And Michael was a cool guy who believed in saving lives and not taking lives. It was about how one man can make a difference. (Pause.) Also, the new<\/span><\/em> Knight Rider<\/span> didn’t have me in it. (Laughs.) That’s a joke. (Pause.) Kind of.
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\nHasselhoff on a crab being named after him this year:<\/span><\/strong> They called it the\u201cHoff Crab.\u201d \u00a0I think it\u2019s quite an honor to be named for a crab. \u00a0As you know, one crab dies and ten thousand crabs come to their funeral. \u00a0I\u2019m in very loyal company\u2026When I finally saw a picture of it, I laughed pretty hard. \u00a0It\u2019s white and it\u2019s got a hairy chest. \u00a0I remember thinking, this Hoff thing is getting out of control.
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About his crazy fans:<\/span><\/strong> One day you\u2019ll meet a girl with a David Hasselhoff tattoo on her arm. \u00a0And the next it\u2019s a guy wearing underwear with a picture of the Hoff right on the front of his you-know-what. \u00a0Yes, his crotch. \u00a0I\u2019ve seen babies at the grocery store with t-shirts that say\u201d The Man, The Myth, The Hoff.\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s just everywhere. \u00a0I love it, but right now I\u2019m trying to get back to work as David Hasselhoff, the actor, not the icon. \u00a0That\u2019s where the thrust of my intentions are right now.
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\nDoes he think people identify with him?<\/em><\/span><\/strong> I really do. \u00a0They can see themselves in me. \u00a0They see a guy who just doesn\u2019t give up, who\u2019s taken his knocks and keeps coming back for more. \u00a0It\u2019s not how hard you get knocked down, it\u2019s how fast you get back up. \u00a0And then you get up and it\u2019s like,\u201d Okay, I shouldn\u2019t have done that.\u201d \u00a0And then you move forward. \u00a0That\u2019s where I\u2019m at in life. \u00a0I can take what God delivers, the good and the bad, and I learn from it all. \u00a0I just keep moving forward.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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