The Hawaiian Beauty Who Turned Down Baywatch to Play Mike Myers' Girlfriend

Tia Carrere says that as a girl growing up in Honolulu, she never planned on pursuing a career in Hollywood—until one fateful day. "I was shopping in the food pantry in Waikiki, and a producer's mother and father approached me and said, 'Darling, you're gorgeous. My son's doing a movie here. You'd be perfect for the female lead,'" Tia says. "And I thought, 'I've never acted before. I don't know. What do I do?'"

Tia landed the role and says she got her Screen Actors Guild union card before she knew what it was. Years later, Tia was offered a role on the hit TV series Baywatch, but she turned it down for a comedic film role. "I had gone in for an audition for Baywatch. They were looking for, I think, a marine biologist love interest, and then I had read a script called Wayne's World. I opened it up, and I thought there's nobody that could play this but me."

Watch as Tia shares how playing Mike Myers' love interest changed her life.

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