Plymouth TV star says ‘yes' to studio

Part 3 in a series about Plymouth Rock Studios seeking West Coast support for its East Coast plans

They used to compare scripts every week to see who had more rescues, and they made fun of each other until the camera guy had to do multiple takes. David Chokachi was usually top dog for rescues, but then his Speedo-clad character, Cody Madison, got to date Pamela Anderson for two years before he made the moves on Carmen Electra.

It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it.

Chokachi suddenly appears in the doorway of room 1103 at the Tower Hotel in Beverly Hills. He is wearing jeans and a black leather jacket, and his presence fills the room as he smiles and jokes with the crew, laughs at the producer's dry wit and succumbs to makeup brushes.

The former "Baywatch" star strikes a balance somewhere between artist, athlete and somebody's brother. But he moves like the carpenter he is, shuffling slightly and tossing an arm over the back of the chair like he's about to watch a Pats game with his buds.

Likable is the word for this guy, and it's not the one that leapt to mind when you read his bio. How does a man touted as one of People magazine's 50 most beautiful manage to keep his head screwed on straight?

"As soon as you think you've made it, this town will pull the rug out and flip you on your head," he says, laughing. "Being from the East Coast, you don't take things for granted. You're not full of nutty ideas; it's important to stay who you are."

Chokachi is the real deal, no matter how much he got paid to run on Malibu Beach in a red Speedo - no matter how many times he proved life really is a beach for some of us.

The other two questions are inevitable, so he doesn't even flinch.

What was it like to star on "Baywatch," and did he call it "Babe Watch" like the rest of us?

"We knew what we were making," he says, laughing. "We knew we weren't making Shakespeare. We honestly took the piss out of each other and made fun of each other. It was pretty much 'Babe Watch' to all of us and about a thousand other names I can't mention."

His name is pronounced "choke-ah-chee" with the accent on the first syllable. Nobody gets it right.

"It's been brutalized since I was a child," he jokes. "I've been in hours and hours of therapy just to get over it. Some people think I'm from Japan."

Chokachi is not from Japan. He has Turkish and Finnish ancestry and grew up in Plymouth, where his dad is a renowned surgeon. David attended Tabor Academy, where he played lacrosse and football, then Bates College in Maine, where he earned a bachelor's in political science. But he still hadn't found his calling; he said he was like so many young people unsure of their path in life.

"Nothing made that much sense. I was one of those people that wanted to do a little bit of everything," he says. "I wanted to be the fireman; I wanted to be a pilot, a Navy Seal. I had a passion for making movies, but being from Plymouth it's about as far from actually happening as you could get. Also it's not realistic. The East Coast breeds a mentality that you go to college, you go out and you get a job."

But Chokachi wanted an alternative to that model. He attended acting classes in Cambridge, did a commercial or two and moved to Los Angeles.

His timing couldn't have been worse.