David Hasselhoff still can’t believe his manager ruined his chances of playing Superman by turning the role down on her client’s behalf.
The Baywatch star discovered he and Christopher Reeve were being considered for Richard Donner’s 1978 film and he was excited to don the leotard and cape and play the Man of Steel, but his agent had other ideas.
“My manager said, ‘If you play Superman, you’ll be Superman for the rest of your life!’ Hasselhoff tells Access Hollywood Live, “so she turned it down, and to this day, I went, ‘Oh, wrong…’
“I was bulking up for the audition, eating and stuff and working out, because both Christopher and I were tall… (and) really thin.”
But he has no hard feelings towards his fellow former soap star Reeve, who eventually landed the role: “He’s such a magnificent story, that guy, so I’m glad he got it.”
Hasselhoff also missed out on the role of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
“I was down to the wire with Harrison Ford,” he explains. “I remember (director Steven) Spielberg saying, ‘I gotta go with the guy from Star Wars‘.”
Meanwhile, the Baywatch star also admits he once had a huge crush on Anne Hathaway after meeting her on the the set of Ella Enchanted – and thought he might have had a chance with the Oscar winner if he wasn’t married at the time.
Hasselhoff was shooting The Spongebob Squarepants Movie when he discovered the actress was filming nearby and decided to take his daughters to meet the young star.
“She was so loving and flirtatious at the time,” he recalls. “She was hot.”
