Friday, May 22, 2009

Interview: David Charvet Shows Us What He's Made Of

David Charvet is perhaps best known for his roles on Baywatch and Melrose Place. On Melrose, David was the man (as character Craig Field) who was finally able to tame bad-girl Sidney Andrews. However, their happiness was very short-lived: She was hit by a car and killed on her wedding day.

David’s latest project retains all the excitement of his previous endeavors, without all the melodrama. In fact, his new show might even gain our new president’s seal of approval. That new show is called The Superstars, an athletic competition that pits teams of celebrities and professional athletes against one another in a series of strenuous and strategic competitions.

David explains: “The Superstars is a show that was first on back in the 1970s on ABC. When we met to shoot the show, they showed us a clip of a Barack Obama interview where he says The Superstars was his favorite show. It’s a show about athletes competing against one another; the twist on our version of the show is putting celebrities with athletes and pairing them up together. We compete in bicycle races, obstacle courses, swimming, triathlons, rock-climbing — all of these hard, physically demanding things — and see who’s the best at them.”

David and his partner, Jennifer Capriati, were quick to size up their competition. “I knew that (All-Pro NFL receiver) Terrell Owens would be a force to be reckoned with, with his tremendous speed and agility. There was another girl, Brandy Chastain, a gold medalist in soccer who won the cup against China. She’s so well rounded. I knew she’d be our competition.”

Among the other celebrities, David kept his eye on Julio Iglesias Jr. “He was unbelievable and super-fast. He was paired up with Brandy. He’s an outstanding athlete. I was really impressed with him.”

The Superstars was filmed on location at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. David says: “That was a lot of fun. The whole facility is really beautiful. The people are wonderful there. It was 15 days of bliss. And to be able to be competing with all the people I was working with was a dream come true.”

David didn’t get a lot of time to fully enjoy all the resort had to offer, explaining, “We had two days off out of the 15, and it was mostly just icing down and recuperating.” He was grateful that his fiancee, TV hostess/model Brooke Burke, and their children were able to join him at the island paradise.

Aside from The Superstars, David also has a new film in the works called Nephilim, a sci-fi action thriller created and directed by Danny Wilson. “It’s a comic-book series that’s being turned into a film. It’s a trilogy of films, and I play one of the lead superheroes, a priest named Father Markus Knight. I can’t say much about it yet, but it’s a very dark series about people dying and coming back to live and fighting evil and all that.”

With the announcement of the reincarnation of Melrose Place (following in the footsteps of the revamped 90210), there is also one question that has to be asked of a former Melrose Place actor: Can we expect to see David on the new Melrose? He reveals: “Right now I think they are really focusing on trying to get the show on the air and introducing the younger characters. As of now there hasn’t been talk of my going back there. However, it was a fun show, and if there is an opportunity to do something great, I’d love to be involved.”

In the meantime, don’t miss David on ABC’s The Superstars. The six-episode run begins Tuesday, June 23 at 8 p.m. EST.

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