During a recent interview with Still Here Hollywood, actor David Chokachi shared an unexpected reaction from Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee. Chokachi remembered filming a kissing scene with Pamela Anderson, who was married to Lee at the time, on ‘Baywatch.’
“There was an incident,” Chokachi explained. “Back in the day when we were shooting the show, they could only police tape off so much area when we shot at Santa Monica at Will Rogers State Beach. That was back in the day when there was an extra and inside edition. Those camera crews would roll up and they’d just stand behind the police line and they could zoom in and shoot if we were shooting. Pam and I were shooting a kissing scene at the ocean’s edge and the extra one of them had shot it. Tommy was sitting at home that night. Basically the tagline was like, ‘Meet Pamela’s new boyfriend.’ This is like my introduction to my character and here they are making out on the Shore Baywatch. He went ballistic.”
Chokachi continued, “The next day I’m walking down to the set and I’m walking past their trailer and I just hear [what sounded like] someone was in there with that construction crew demolished. He was in there renovating her trailer with his fists. He was not happy and he had threatened the producers. He basically said ‘If you write another kissing scene with David Chokachi, I’m gonna do this to you.’”
In another interview, Chokachi clarified that Lee wasn’t the ‘bad guy’ people assumed he was, describing him instead as ‘extremely jealous.’ He said, “He was insanely jealous, and he did not like to see his wife or girlfriend at the time on camera kissing another dude. He just was… extremely jealous, threatened the producers’ lives. I mean, I was like, ‘It’s just TV, man.’”
In February 1998, two months after Anderson and Lee welcomed their second child, Lee was arrested on felony spousal abuse charges and later pleaded no contest. Anderson filed for divorce shortly afterward, and Lee was sentenced to six months in jail and three years of probation.
Over the years, the former couple got back a few times but eventually focused on co-parenting their two sons.
Baywatch first aired in 1989 and ran until 1999, with two additional seasons as Baywatch: Hawaii. By 1996, it had become the world’s most-watched TV show, reaching over 1.1 billion viewers weekly in 142 countries, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
