Interview:

Tia: "Hi ! Bonjour ! "

JP: "Tia ! "

Tia: "Hello. "

JP: "Aloha. "

Tia: "Aloha. "

JP: "Hey you’re the best, man. You know what the baise main is ? (kisses her hand) Like this. "

Tia : "Ooooh. "

JP: "So you do your, uh, hiking ? "

Tia : "Yes ! yes ! You wanna join me ? "

JP : "With pleasure ! "

Tia : "I’ll take you to the easy route. "

JP : "Let’s go. I follow you, Tia. "

Tia : "Here we go. "

JP : "Tia, you look gorgeous, perfectly fit. "

Tia : "Thank you. "

JP : "Is it true that you just had a baby ? "

Tia : "Yeah, I have a one-year old baby, she’s a little over one year now. "

JP : "Oh, that’s perfect to have you on the show, because we mix sports and entertainment, and you’re raising the perfectly the both sides of that. "

Tia : "Well, thank you. "

JP : "Thank you ! Thanks to you to be there. "

Tia : "Yeah, so, welcome to the Hollywood Hills, yeah. "

JP : "Hollywood Hills. "

Tia : "There’s two different ways of, uh, being an actress in Hollywood. "

JP : "Uh-huh. "

Tia : "One is starving, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, and the other is to be sportif. "

JP : "And you choose the second one. "

Tia : "Je préfère comme ça. Are you okay ? "

JP : "Yeah, perfect. "

Tia : "Not too tired ? "

JP : "That’s alright. I need exercise anyway. It’s good for me. "

Tia : "Yeah, it’s good ! I suppose you’ve been going to all the finest restaurants and bars in Hollywood. "

JP : "Yeah. "

Tia : "You have to do a little, uh, sports. Now you have to go like this (punching motions), it works on your arms at the same time. "

JP : "Alright, I do. "

Tia : "And you can also do, if, if you wanna work on your butt…"

JP : "Uh-huh ? "

Tia : "Do your lunges, see ? Lunges ? "

JP : "Alright. "

Tia : "Pour la derrière. "

JP : "Okay. "

Tia : "So I’ve been doing this for, uh, a long, long time. "

JP : "We have private gym with Tia Carrere tonight. That’s great. "

Tia : "Ah, it’s crazy. "

Pause

JP : "Tia, let’s talk a little bit about you. You come from Hawaii, you born in Honolulu, right ? "

Tia : "Yeah, I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, and I was discovered in a grocery store by a producer’s mother and father. I was shopping, buying raw ground beef, and a producer’s mother and father came up to me and said that their son was doing a movie in Hawaii and…"

JP : "Uh-huh. ‘Aloha Summer’ ? "

Tia : "’Aloha Summer’, exactly ! "

JP : "Tia, being from Hawaii, do you practice the sports of the king, surf? "

Tia : "Well, actually, I am working on a movie about a Hawaiian hero that is very dear to my heart, Rel Sun, that I am sure you know because…"

JP : "I know that girl. "

Tia : "Because she used to take, um, the little children of Hawaii to Biarritz for, um, surfing, because they’ve never been anywhere but this little island, you know, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. So, that’s, uh, that’s, uh, funny stories, that I was in Makaha surfing when I was five weeks pregnant. It was a little crazy, but, but it was fun ! "

JP : "That’s good to know that. I mean, Rel Sun is a true, tue legend of Hawaii, a real character, and she made so many good things for the Hawaiian kids over there. "

Tia : "Yeah, she, what’s amazing about Rel is that she found out that she had breast cancer and she was dying and she was given months to live, and not only did she not feel sorry for herself, she expanded even more to help people learn about cancer, to help elderly people um, uh, do exercise, to help children that were troubled, and taught them that if they had a skill like surfing, it could take them all over the world. I mean, some of foremost surfers in the world now look to Rel Sun as their hero, you know. "

Pause

JP : "Let’s talk about your career a little bit, Tia. "

Tia : "Sure. "

JP : "Um…"

Tia : "Up, they’re looking for us ! " (indicating to helicopters in the sky)

JP : "We are in L.A. for sure. "

Tia : "Wow ! Watch out ! Yeah, I remember that. That’s why I moved. Because every Friday and Saturday night you’d have helicopters looking for bad guys. "

JP : "I remember ‘Wayne’s World’, like everybody. "

Excerpt from ‘Wayne’s World’ :

Wayne : "Cassandra, I’ve got something I wanna say to you…" (speaks in Chinese)

End excerpt

JP : "Cassandra. I loved that woman. "

Tia : "I loved playing Cassandra, she was, um, she was a great character to play, and it really set me up for the rest of my career, I mean, I like to think of it as the, uh, ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ of the nineties, you know. It was a pop-culture icon that really sort of ushered in a strong, you know, sexy, rockin’, kick-ass broad, you know ? "

JP : "And you choose a little bit your role like that. You have a lot of physical roles, right ? I mean, ‘True Lies’…"

Tia : "I don’t know what it is, I don’t know what I’ve done to bring it on myself, but everytime I have a job, I have to fight, I have to run, kick, punch, or shoot somebody. I don’t know, maybe they see, you know, the sporty side, they think, okay, you know, she could take a man down. It’s okay, it’s a good thing. "

JP : "You have a lot of different stuff in you career, I mean, you know how to play for sure, you know how to dance. You danced a lot, right ? What kind of dance do you practice ? "

Tia : "Yeah, the, um, there was a, um, you know that BBC program, you don’t have it in France because it’s a crazy program, but, uh, it’s the dancing, dancing with the stars. Right after I had my baby, um, in addition to hiking up mountains with her, I was dancing on this dance program, and, uh, it was, it was unbelievable exercise, because you’re like this, and doing, you know, exercising, you know, everything is, you know, doing the tango, you’re exercising your inner thighs and your stomach. I mean, I can find a workout anywhere, if my baby’s grumpy and she doesn’t want to be put down, I hold her and I do my squats, and I do my walking lunges, you know, holding my baby, and, you know, she’s like this, and you twist, and you use your stomach. It’s, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do when you’re a mom, you know, you don’t have time for the, uh, going to the gym with the trainers anymore, that’s out the window. "

JP : "You really love sports, right ? I mean, it looks like it’s very important in your life. "

Tia : "Absolutely, I think sports, I, you know, getting your blood pumping, and feeling like you inhabit your body, this is to be truly alive. How can you just sit on a couch like a potato, you know, and watch TV ? You have to, you know, watch the show, yes, but, you know, you have to go out, and you have to feel, you know, sweat pouring, and you have to feel your heart pumping, and you know, this is what it is to be alive. "

Pause

JP : "I’m a bit tired. Can we have a seat ? "

Tia : "Oh, you wanna sit down? Okay, well, have a seat. That’s okay. Be careful, don’t fall down the mountain. "

JP : "I’m getting old, you know. "

Tia : "You’re so funny. Don’t fall, okay ! "

JP : "Don’t worry. Before to conclude, I would like to talk about the, the other stuff you do now. Uh, we don’t know a lot about that in Europe because it’s not so huge, but here in the U.S. it’s huge, the voice, I know you do the voice for ‘Lilo and Stitch’."

Tia : "Oh, yeah, yeah. "

JP : " What is your character on that movie ? "

Tia : "Um, I play, uh, Nani, the older sister to Lilo, and it’s funny, I’ve sort of become the ambassador from Hawaii in some way. It’s, uh, a story that’s not the usual affair. It’s, uh, an older sister that’s raising her younger sister, um, social services, Ving Rhames is trying to take her away, um, our parents died, let’s see, what else ? It’s like, a very tragic story, but it’s a Disney cartoon. For me, it was important to portray Hawaii as it really is. Ohana, which means family, um, the Aloha spirit, and, uh, just love, and openness. You know, to embrace different families, different types of families, and in this case, an alien. So, it’s nice. I wish I could live in Hawaii, and my ultimate dream is to own a piano bar where I could sing on Friday and Saturday nights, on the North Shore. "

JP : "Alright, that’s a good plan. And you know what, I will come to see you. "

Tia : "Okay, alright. You heard it here. He’s gonna come and visit me. "

JP : "Tia, how to you say ‘thank you’ in Hawaiian ? "

Tia : "Mahalo. "

JP : "Mahalo. "

Tia : "Mahalo plenty. That’s pidgin. Mahalo plenty. "

JP : "Shaka. "

Tia : "Shaka, broddah. "

JP : "Thank you very much, Tia. "

Tia : "Thank you. "

JP : "I’m gonna stay there because I’m a little bit tired now, and you’re gonna finish alone, right ? "

Tia : "I’m gonna finish alone. Come on ! "

JP : "Bye-bye, Tia. "

Tia : "Bye. "

Credit: Eurosport

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