Tia Carrere, 58, Shares Secrets to Ageless Beauty 33 Years After Wayne’s World

Speaking to Tia Carrere, it’s hard to believe it’s been over three decades since her breakout role Wayne’s World.

The actress, now 58, has barely aged a day 30 years after starring as bombshell bass player Cassandra Wong alongside Mike Myers (Wayne Campbell) and Dana Carvey (Garth Algar) in the cult 1982 comedy hit. 

Cassandra, frontwoman for the band Crucial Taunt, quickly stole the heart of public access TV show host Wayne, and the role launched Tia into a career that has seen her work with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. 

Earlier this year, Tia shocked fans with her ageless appearance during a promotional tour for Lilo & Stitch.  

The sex-pot star is headed to Australia later this month and chatting to Daily Mail Australia about her upcoming visit, she revealed the secret to her eternally youthful looks. 

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The Filipino beauty says it all comes down to ‘moderation’. 

‘My secret. Oh, my goodness! Everything in moderation! Live, love, laugh,’ she said.

‘Sleep well, drink lots of water, you know. Be joyful, I think being joyful is is underrated. 

‘You have to find your joy and your grounding and your, I don’t know, whatever it is  that keeps you straight in this world.’ 

Tia continued: ‘It’s it’s a very difficult world, particularly Hollywood. It tears people apart and sometimes you have to go: “You know, it’s really not that serious. Let’s just let it roll off my back” You know?’

The approach has obviously been successful for Tia who has sustained an almost 40 year career in Hollywood alongside the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1994’s True Lies and Sean Connery in the 1993 thriller Rising Sun.

Most recently, Tia starred as Mrs Kekoa in the live-action remake of the 2002 Disney animated hit Lilo & Stitch, in which she also voiced the character Nani.

‘It’s like, “wow, I’m still standing all these years later”,’ she said.

‘Coming from Hawaii, having no connections in Hollywood and doing these incredible films like Wayne’s World, True Lies, Lilo & Stitch and being part of this legacy, it’s quite stunning.

‘I’ve been really fortunate, that’s all I can say.’

Tia added that she was especially proud of Lilo & Stitch because she was able to imprint her own Hawaiian upbringing onto the film.

Including, of course, the iconic moment in the original where her character Nani sings the Hawaiian folk song Aloha ʻOe to Lilo.

‘I love that I got to represent Hawaii because that’s where I was born and raised and to say, “Oh, I think we need to have to have the pidjin English accent, we have to include Aloha ʻOe”,’ she said.

‘These are things, the fingerprints that I was able to tell the filmmakers [Dean DeBlois and and Chris Sanders] about. 

‘I love being invited into the creative process and I’m honoured that they let me infuse it with the things that I know having been born and raised in Hawaii.’

One role that Tia admitted she was glad to leave behind was her 2011 stint on the Celebrity Apprentice alongside the likes of Arsenio Hall, George Takei and, of course, US President Donald Trump.

Tia said that she was happy to have been ‘fired’ in the show’s fifth episode.

‘I sort of threw myself on my sword – I wanted to get out of there,’ she explained.

‘It was just difficult dealing with these people on there that were not very nice. So I was like, “you know what? I was a project manager on this. I will stand by it, and I am the one that should go home.”

‘So, I guess I could have taken somebody else down, but I was ready to go home.’

She added that her interactions with the future US President were kept to a minimum on the show. 

‘I did not have much interaction with him. I think by design they kept the contestants separate from the inner sanctum to make it fair,’ she said.

Back to her breakout turn in Wayne’s World, Tia famously turned down a role in Baywatch to star in the pop culture comedy based on a Saturday Night Live skit.

She said while she knew there was some magic in the script, there was no inkling it would become the phenomena it did.

‘Well that was sort of like Lilo & Stitch, you know?’ she said.

‘People feel great about the movie. But you never know how it’s going to go and it was a monster hit. 

‘It was the lowest budgeted film at Paramount that year, and it was the biggest hit.  I think the most profitable film of the year. Probably what Lilo & Stitch is looking to be this year.’

While a lot of the comedy on Wayne’s World hinges on of-their-time pop culture references, Tia said the reason it continues to resonate with audiences is that, at it’s core, Wayne’s World is a comedy with heart. 

‘I think it’s about two buddies, two knuckleheads doing the best they can,’ she said.

‘By everybody else’s metric they would be two losers in a basement, but it’s their friendship and their sheer joy of living.

‘They find their funny little ways of existing in the world and it’s it’s delightful to see them bumble their way through these situations and find love and find fulfilment and find their jobs and success.’

Surprisingly for Tia, it wasn’t too hard to keep a straight face around comedy legends Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as they spent a lot of time fine tuning the script while shooting.    

‘I think because we had gotten so many revisions on it and I’m pretty good at keeping a straight face,’ she said.

‘Strangely enough because I’ve worked with some of the funniest guys around and never cracked a smile or laughed in the middle of it.

‘I think maybe that’s my superpower.’      

Tia Carrere will be hosting Q & A Screenings on Wayne’s World in Melbourne on June 19, and Sydney on June 20. She will also be appearing at Supernova Sydney  on June 21 and 22.