Known for his roles in hit TV shows like Knight Rider and Baywatch, David Hasselhoff speaks about coming to Cardiff to play Captain Hook in the Peter Pan pantomime.
What is it about the character Hook that appealed to you?
This will be my seventh production of Peter Pan and I love playing Captain Hook. The very first show I ever did semi professional was Peter Pan and I played one of the Lost Boys, called Nibs. When I started in Wimbledon I saw a little boy with a tag with Nibs on it and I said that was me and now a 100 years later I’m still doing Peter Pan. I think it’s the best show ever and I think it is a positive reinforcement of hope, dreams and its fun. My Captain Hook isn’t scary, he’s funny. We play a lot with the audience. What intrigues me about pantos is the interaction with the audience. In my life I have an interaction every single moment with people. A guy who took my ticket today said ‘you’re my hero’, on the train and people just stop me because they’ve grown up watching me, like Baywatch and Knight Rider, and I answer them back and it’s fun. It’s a great interaction with the audience, a lot more fun than television and film because it’s live and you never know what’s going to happen.
What do you think of Cardiff?
I’ve been to Cardiff many times; I’d love to do a concert in the Cardiff castle. I hooked up with a beautiful Welsh girl, we’re engaged now and one of the first places we went to was Cardiff because her sister lives there. So I know a lot about Cardiff, I’ve been around Cardiff and I’ve been to the Millennium Stadium as well watching the rugby. But I spent alot of time in Swansea and she lives in Glynneath, but mainly in Cardiff, Cardiff’s cool. It’s lovely when it stops raining.
How were you introduced to panto for the first time?
A gentleman came to my house and told me all about panto. Most Americans shy away from it but I grew up doing melodrama. Melodrama is basically you have the villain, you have the hero and you throw tomatoes at the villain and you cheer for the hero. I grew up in the theatre and I always loved theatre. I walked into the Cardiff theatre (New Theatre) and just got chills because it’s something I wanted to do since I was a little boy. It was mainly theatre. I never thought I’d be on television talking to a car or running in slow-motion. My dream was to do Broadway. I did Billy Flynn in the West End and got to meet and work with Mel Brooks on The Producers.
How does it compare to movies and TV?
Different shows have been better and more successful than other shows in their relationships with the audience. It depends on the size of the theatre, I think this is a great size because it’s intimate even though it’s big, the audience is up and close. I was in Glasgow last year and there were 3000 seats, it was such a big theatre. I mean there were people way in the back and how do you reach them, luckily we had the Krankies. I think Mike Doyle was the one who interacted the most with the audience. Stephanie Webber is also in the cast, she was in a musical that I was producing called Last Night a DJ Saved My Life. We were on tour last year. She’s from Wales and she has a great voice so I asked if she could be in the show and they said ‘we know Stephanie we’ve hired her before’, so we have a great cast. The interaction with the audience, I get it right away because I have a gag at the beginning that I purposely ask for in the last show and it works perfectly and it immediately gets the audience’s attention that I’m here to play. I can’t tell you about it but you’ll see.
Can you describe the show and what can we expect for when we see it?
Peter Pan will be basically be like Peter Pan: The Musical; we tried to keep it very close to the musical and to the original play. A great movie it’s like would be Finding Neverland, and it holds up so well because it’s got Tinkerbell, who’s a fairy… which is like magic. It’s got a boy who always wanted a sword fight and wins and fights the Indians and they all work together against Captain Hook, who’s just a silly egotistical baddy and it’s the perfect show, it really is. We changed The Hoff to The Hook and we put in stuff like ‘Let’s go to the Hoff oh baby’, and we changed everything to Hoff and I get to sing some fun songs and there’s something in it for everyone. So when I did Knight Rider and Baywatch, the reasons those shows were successful was because the entire family could watch them together. That’s why this show will be successful because the whole family will come out.
What was your very first impression of Wales, the first time you ever came here?
The greenery was just… I really enjoyed Swansea, it was so different the beach, as I’m used to the California beaches. It was just really mysterious and kind of dangerous and sexy at the same time. When we first dated we went to Swansea and part of the Mumbles and then they drove up to Glynneath to drop Hayley (his fiancée) off and then it kind of reminded me of the movie Billy Elliot, so it was different impressions all rolled into one. Then we ended up in the beauty of Wales and that was really the countryside. I haven’t gone to north Wales yet, I want to go to Snowdonia, I might go to Snowdonia in the next couple of days I’m just thinking about it. (What’s the place we wanna go?) We ended up doing a lot of hiding out by country lakes and we’d sometimes go into the town and have some fun and I enjoyed the countryside and the Welsh people. I enjoy Welsh traditions, I enjoy the fact that you are so into be being Welsh. It’s so funny because it’s very different to America like am I into being a Californian? Ehh… you know. It’s in the same way in America where you’re from Texas ‘’I’m from Texas’’ (Texas accent) but I’ve kind of been a gypsy my whole life as I’ve been everywhere and I love it. I mean in a year I’ll stop in Singapore, but I love the countryside and I didn’t even know what rugby was. I mean I knew what is was but I’d never been to a game, and now I know a lot about rugby. I’ve been to alot of rugby games.
Peter Pan, New Theatre, Cardiff. Sat 10 Dec – Sun 8 Jan. Tickets: £14-£35. Info: 029 2087 8889 / www.newtheatrecardiff.co.uk