David,

I am glad you think tall is beautiful, because I am 5’10”, which is often as tall as my male costars! I cannot recall working with any actresses taller than I. Although I like being tall, it can be problematic in Hollywood, like the time the male lead insisted I wear flat shoes instead of heels because he felt I was too tall. Being a man who was known for being on the short side, he often wore inserts in his shoes that made him taller, but for some reason this time he was refusing to wear them! I wanted to wear heels because I was wearing a miniskirt, but I ended up wearing the flats. Ah well.

I did just shoot Tru Loved with the wonderful Jane Lynch, who is over 6 feet tall, but unfortunately we only had one small scene together.

Thanks for your letter,

Alexandra

Dear Julia,

Yes, I shot one episode with a mechanical shark my first season on Baywatch. We never used real sharks on Baywatch! I remember it well though, because it was December 18 and David Hasselhoff and I were shooting in the water for hours! It was freezing and I wasn’t wearing a wetsuit, but I was kept warm by laughing so hard at the jokes David was making about the shark. The mechanical shark was supposed to be circling us closer and closer, but it didn’t work right all the time, so David was making fun of it and us and what the heck were he and I doing in the ocean the week before Christmas freezing in mucky ocean water?

I would be afraid of a shark if it was near me in the water, and sometimes when I am training for a long swim here in the Santa Monica Bay I can scare myself about them, but most of the time I don’t think about them. The Maui Channel is infamous for its sharks, and I swam the 10 miles across it last year without any fear of being attacked, so I guess they don’t worry me too much. Apparently they don’t like the taste of humans anyway and they spit us out after the first bite. So all I have to do is survive the first bite!

Best,

Alexandra

I loved shooting American Flyers, and it wasn’t until 13 years after filming that I became a triathlete, so American Flyers didn’t influence me. I did learn a lot about road racing, though, and that has helped me when I watch the Tour de France with my beloved, Ian, who loveloveloves cycling (and is a very accomplished cyclist himself). And it is cool to have met Eddy Merckx on the set, one of the best cyclists ever!

The cast of American Flyers was fantastic. Rae Dawn Chong and I became fast friends, and Kevin Costner, who was still an unknown then, was a real team player, always ready to go over lines if you needed it. I also forged amazing friendships with 3 people from the crew – Daniel, Kate and Jim – who remain among my closest friends today.

I am proud to be in American Flyers. It is a terrific sports movie with a great human story in it too.

Think about taking some swimming lessons sometime – swimming is so fun and if I can become a triathlete at 34, I know you can become a swimmer as an adult too!

Sincerely,

Alexandra