'What a mess': Nicole Eggert reveals the toll Baywatch fame had on her life and career

Nicole Eggert had a starring role in the number one show in the world but what sounds like a dream come true for an actor actually brought with it a whole host of difficulties.

The actress, who starred in the globally popular Baywatch, reflected on her time on the TV show in a new episode of the Still Here Hollywood with Steve Kmetko podcast, revealing it wasn't what she signed up for.

Eggert joined the show in its third season as lifeguard Roberta "Summer" Quinn in 1992 but originally, she explained, she was meant to appear in a planned spin-off of Baywatch.

Watch the video above.

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Eggert said the spin off was intended to be "90210-esque at the beach" but after Baywatch, through syndication, became the most popular television series at the world at the time, the plans for the spin-off were scrapped.

"They were like, 'Spin-off nothing. This is what's working and we want it to stay like this," Eggert explained.

So she donned the famous red swimsuit and found global fame throughout two seasons of the show but soon decided to step away.

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"I, after two seasons, politely bowed out because it wasn't really what I had signed up for," she said.

But even just two seasons on the show had a lasting impact on the rest of her life. Eggert says a "stigma" surrounding Baywatch followed her for years and she is still recognised from her role in the show more than three decades later.

"I had some crazy idea in my head that if I left the show I'd be able to detach from the stigma that the show had given all of us as actors," she says. But that didn't happen.

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Eggert noted this a lot in her dating life revealing that her Baywatch character left people with "preconceived notions" about who she is as a person.

"People have an idea of who you are and that could be a number of things and I think it's harder for people to get to know you without this preconceived notion that they have going in," she said.

Eggert said she's "not like" any character she's played, which left people confused.

On top of the dating struggles, Eggert says the experience of global fame was "weird" and her association with Baywatch shut her off from a lot of opportunities.

"We were being ripped apart in the press, you know, let's face it casting doors were not opening anymore," she said.

"I had quite an accomplished career leading up to that, I'd worked with some amazing directors and actors an done some amazing projects and then all of a sudden it was like, we were called 'Baywatch bimbos' and 'these dumb bimbos on the beach and its T an A and all this'.

"And then on the other hand, you have this number-one hit on your hand, and its like what a kerfuffle. What a mess."

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