Wired.co.uk had a fantastic article interviewing David Hasselhoff recently. David talks about upcoming and current projects, and of course, happiness.
Why? "I love zombies -- who doesn't?" [Cue much laughter] He explains the premise, and the highlights: "It's a funny game, we made a zombie out of Pamela Anderson and different people we know and they keep coming at you. I drive up in the Knight Rider car and say 'surf's up brain dead' and shoot them with a nerf gun. I have a secret weapon where I can actually sing, and the people explode because they hate my voice."The whole thing is a representation of what the Hoff does best -- he gives the people what they want, without taking himself too seriously. He admits, when I ask, he's not really much of a gamer… "My girl is the ultimate gamer of all time and she's trying to sit me down to play a game -- I haven't figured out how to sit down in the last 30 years."In the last few years the Hoff has embraced the career-flourishing cliche of what it means to be David Hasselhoff -- loved by the Germans, full of "Hoffisms" and living life in the kind of loud and gregarious and wholehearted way only the Hoff can. And in doing so, he has also embraced the proliferation of new technology and trends, of social media, memes and hashtags, to reach out to his fans. And somehow, that doesn't make him fame-hungry -- it just makes him even more affable.Case in point, he touches on a project he has going with Things3D called Smartselfies -- essentially a 3D printed celebrity doll business, with interactive elements thrown in. He tells me why he revealed the details earlier this month at a conference, ahead of schedule. "I said I really don't want to talk about the 3D dolls, it's not done yet, we haven't even begun to launch it. But then I thought, why not? The internet is about entertaining, and the internet is the wackiest and craziest fun things that draw attention... You can do just about whatever you want on the internet." The Hoff is all about connecting with his fans -- he has 513,000 Twitter followers, and he's not in this business to disappoint and cling to embargos. While the rest of the entertainment industry sticks with regional restrictions that frustrate and annoy, alienating fans and fanning the flames of copyright infringement everywhere, the Hoff is happy to divulge whatever his fans ask of him. For him, the point of the internet is to have fun, spread the fun and connect with people -- namely his fans. And why the heck not?With Smartselfies, he and Things3D are planning on using 3D scanning and printing tech to bring fans closer to their desired celebrity. "We went in and got scanned and it takes one second. They use 64 cameras. It comes out an exact replica of whomever you want, whether it's David Hasselhoff, whether it's you. It's incredible."
So if you're a fan of One Direction or a Belieber, he posits, you can head to a location to be scanned with your favourite star -- with or without the star actually being present."We have a way of doing it so you can stand there and take a picture -- you could be like [chuckles] holding hands, kissing [more chuckling], doing whatever you want.""You can take the David Hasselhoff doll home or go to a specific spot and take a picture with me and you have a little doll of yourself with me."Stealing a bit from concepts like Skylanders, every doll will have a chip embedded into its foot. "It carries information, and that scans onto an app on your phone and it can be updated. So what I want to do with Hoff the Record [an upcoming mockumentary series] is put a 15-minute teaser on a little Hoff doll and send it all over the world."As with all his projects of late, the point is to capitalise on new technology to harness and reach out to his existing fanbase. Which brings us back to Hoff Zombie Beach. The app will have a photo booth function where players can have their photo "taken" with the Hoff, which they will then be encouraged to share with friends, or the Hoff, on Twitter. "Hoffisms" (his pearls of wisdom) are unlocked with each level. But more than all this, Hasselhoff wants to bring the connection back into the real world. "It's one of those games you can just play on the tube -- it's easy and it's fun. And in the end what we're trying to do now is make it worth everyone's while -- someone with the highest points can come and hang out with the Hoff and family and have dinner; or we're talking about whoever has the highest score, next year putting them in the game as a zombie."The whole project came about after he did Dance-Hoff with Playstation a few years back -- developers told him he was too expensive, Hasselhoff retorted: "I don't want your money -- I don't care about the money. Money comes, I want to make something that's entertaining and fun for everyone and that is easy to use -- because I'm a bit of a novice at the games because I don't have the time. But I like them."The Hoff is truly, ridiculously busy. He's just landed into our "stinking cold" London weather having finished filming Ted 2with Seth MacFarlane ("we're doing a really funny bit I'm really excited about"), and he hops across Europe doing conferences and concerts. Then there's Killing Hasselhoff, a comedy he had the idea for two years ago which stars "Ken Jeong, Hulk Hogan, David Hasselhoff and Jon Lovitz" -- Justin Bieber also makes an appearance as the voice of K.I.T.T. And Hasselhoff Vs The Berlin Wall, a National Geographic documentary, will air 4 November to celebrate 25 years since the wall came down -- and, of course, 25 years since that infamous performance of his hit "Looking for Freedom", which became something of an anthem for East Berliners in some quarters.Reminiscing about that time, he tells me: "Years ago, when I went behind the wall, I met a couple of girls and I said how do you know me. Do you know me as a guy who talks to a car. They said 'no, we know you as the man who sings for freedom'. And that really kind of touched me."My 15 minutes with the Hoff is up, and I didn't get to ask about the real David Hasselhoff, how Oculus Rift would revolutionise the future Hoff Zombie Beach series, or the modern nihilism of celebrity culture in an internet age.But none of that really matters.Particularly, because the gentleman delivers a Hoffism for our consumption, before signing out."Download the app, have a little fun, don't take life seriously. I have a saying, it's on my bracelet, which is 'if you see it, you believe it, you will live it' -- you have to create your own environment and you draw what you want to. We've all drawn bad stuff [laughter] and we've all drawn good stuff [more laughter, obviously -- he's making a point about happiness]. So just make sure you're on the right page. Thank you to my fans for being so loyal -- they really have made my career so enjoyable and fun, and that's the key. I was doing a movie yesterday with Seth MacFarlane, and I said 'WHAT ARE WE HAVING? FUN!"And in the least Hoff-voice he can muster, David softly says: "Because you forget, you know, life is supposed to be fun."