Brooks Nader on Baywatch, Hollywood and her next chapter
ST YLING GEORGIA MEDLEY
TEXT RYAN WHITE
As Baywatch returns for a new generation, Brooks Nader steps into one of pop culture’s most iconic roles. Ryan White meets the model, reality star and actress leading its next chapter.
Brooks Nader epitomizes a very modern iteration of the American Dream. Born in Louisiana, the “deep, deep South”, to a conservative Christian household, her traditional upbringing along the bayou eventually gave way to a life at the center of a newly reshaped entertainment industry. “Growing up, it was really just the four of us girls, my sisters and I, and we pretty much just had each other to entertain one another,” she says over the phone from the backseat of a car, moving from one appointment to the next. “We didn’t have iPads or go out or travel. We were really just putting on plays and putting on shows for our extended family.”
VINTAGE T-SHIRT UNIFIED GOODS. SKIRT AND BELT BOTH N21 BY ALESSANDRO DELL’ACQUA
BROOKS WEARS VINTAGE T-SHIRT UNIFIED GOODS. SUNGLASSES TOM FORD
Nowadays, she and her three sisters are the subject of Love Thy Nader — a reality TV show that follows their exploits in New York. It naturally invites comparison with one particular reality show that centers on a group of sisters circling the entertainment industry and ricocheting between abject fury and deep, sororal affection. Particularly as Brooks, the de facto lead character, is constantly driving her sisters to work harder. “The fights are real and all the drama is real,” she says when asked if anything is scripted. “Hell will freeze over before the producers have to curate drama for us.”
Premiering last year, and renewed for another season, it’s reality TV of a different breed to the comparatively twee early days of the Kardashians, however. There’s less smoke and mirrors. Cosmetic work and diet drugs are discussed openly, for example. Still, however much of Brooks’ career reflects a new evolution of fame, one shaped by social media and brand partnerships, she also straddles two great institutions of classic Americana. First, Sports Illustrated, which gave her her big breakthrough, and soon, Baywatch, in which she plays a central role in the reboot of the 90s phenomenon.
BROOKS WEARS SHIRT, JEANS,AND BELT ALL FENDI
It all started when Brooks met a girl from New York while studying back in Louisiana. “I was 18 years old and going to Tulane University, majoring in finance, and I remember meeting this girl who said, ‘I’m from Manhattan.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean you’re from Manhattan?’ She invited me to spend the summer with her in New York while her parents were in the Hamptons. I met her and fell in love with New York.” Serendipitously, while walking down the street, she met a modeling manager. “He asked if I’d ever thought about modeling, and I was like, ‘Oh sure, I’ll be a model!’” She signed with Wilhelmina and took every job she could get her hands on. “I wanted any excuse to drop out of college and move to New York,” she recalls. “The second they told me they couldn’t really book me if I wasn’t a local, I was like, ‘OK, you want me to move?’ Looking back, it was such a crazy, bold move because I wasn’t making any money and I had no plans.
But I’m so happy I took that leap of faith.”
So, how did she make it work in a city that’s infamously hard to crack? “I found a man immediately, and I was like, ‘OK, here we go.’ I could eat, I could go on dates with this guy, who I ended up marrying. I was also harassing my agency. I was in there every day saying, ‘Guys, I have to prove people in Louisiana wrong, I need to stay here, so you need to book me on jobs. Even if they’re unrecognizable hand jobs’ — not like that — but you know what I mean,” she laughs. “‘I’ll be a hand model! I don’t give a shit. Just book me on something.’”
BROOKS WEARS TOP, SKIRT, SHOES, AND BAG ALL PRADA. BRACELET SWAROVSKI
Brooks took the kind of gigging modeling jobs that don’t always make it to Instagram. “A lot of people don’t know this but I was doing lingerie e-commerce for Walmart in New Jersey,” she says. “I was taking New Jersey Transit at six in the morning, shooting about 60 looks in a basement, then taking the train back. That’s why I sound like such a broken record to my sisters when I’m like, ‘You really don’t know how lucky you are.’”
Then came the breakthrough — the magazine cover that turns e-comm models into huge stars. “The Sports Illustrated cover was a crazy story! I told my agency, who had a lot of girls in the magazine, ‘I really want to be in Sports Illustrated. It inspires me, and I love all the models they work with.’ They said, ‘We don’t think they’re going to like you very much, and we’re not going to send you to the casting in New York.’ I thought that was weird. Then I saw they had an open call in Miami, so I flew there and just waited in line to meet them. It ended up working out, and that was my introduction into a different league of modeling.”
A turn on Dancing with the Stars, the reality show, and a string of high-profile dating rumors followed. But next year is the launch of Brooks’ biggest moment yet: Baywatch. “I am so excited for this,” she says. “I play Selene Archer. She’s the captain of Zuma Beach. She’s a total whippersnapper and such a badass. She’s basically a badass lifeguard who doesn’t take no for an answer, and she’s actually kind of similar to me. There are definitely elements of her that aren’t like me, and that’s what’s fun about getting into character. It’s fun to play someone you’re not, because on Love Thy Nader I play myself.”
BROOKS WEARS DRESS STELLA MCCARTNEY.NECKLACE SWAROVSKI
BROOKS WEARS JACKET AND SKIRT BOTH MCQUEEN. EARRINGS SWAROVSKI
She’s got big shoes to fill. Few television shows have traveled quite like Baywatch, turning red swimsuits, slow-motion beach runs and California optimism into instantly recognizable symbols of 90s popular culture. The original show, at its peak in the mid-90s — around the time Brooks was born — reached an estimated global weekly audience of 1.1 billion viewers across 142 countries. In the midst of a 90s nostalgia wave, the style of its beloved stars is at its peak. “Pam [Anderson], Carmen [Electra] and the whole original cast did such a great job, so there is pressure,” Brooks admits. “I’ve had all the Baywatch women on my inspiration board forever. But we’ve been working so hard behind the scenes for months and months, and I’m excited for everyone to see it and, hopefully, enjoy it. It’s an amazing cast, and we’re definitely trying to pay homage to the original series, what it represents and the stories it told. But we also have our own twist on it.”
I’ve had all the Baywatch women on my inspiration board forever… I’m so excited for everyone to see it and, hopefully, enjoy it. It’s an amazing cast. We’re definitely trying to pay homage to the original series, but we also have our own twist on it.
BROOKS NADER
DRESS (JUST SEEN) SINEAD GOREY. SUNGLASSES BALENCIAGA
BROOKS WEARS SUIT LOUIS VUITTON.SWIMSUIT HUNZA G. SHOES MARC JACOBS
A part in a Netflix film directed by Eva Longoria and starring Kim Kardashian and Nikki Glaser is also in the works, although she can’t talk much about it yet. We end on a question about her relationship to the spotlight: How has it changed over the years as she’s become more visible and more widely known? “I don’t think it has changed, because the way I was raised really did shape me,” she says. “My parents instilled in us to be kind to everyone, treat others the way you want to be treated, never change who you are, and never change your values. I’m so lucky to have them as parents, and I really do credit my attitude, drive and grit to them.” “But of course,” she adds. “I love the attention.”
The way I was raised really did shape me… My parents instilled in us to be kind to everyone, treat others the way you want to be treated, never change who you are, and never change your values.
BROOKS NADER
BROOKS WEARS SWEATER ANDPANTS BOTH VERSACE
PHOTOGRAPHY ALEC MAXWELL
STYLING GEORGIA MEDLEY
HAIR EAMONN HUGHES
MAKEUP DANIEL KOLARIC USING DIOR FOREVER FOUNDATION AND CAPTURE LE SÉRUM.
NAILS ANASTASIA TIHANKOVA
PRODUCTION TOM HARDERN
DIGITECH ALJAŽ HABJAN
LIGHTING TECHS LUKE REGAN, SCOTT ARCHIBALD
STYLING ASSISTANT AMBER COX
HAIR ASSISTANT RYAN STEEDMAN
SPECIAL THANKS OTIS TAITT
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT LUKÖ OSAY
RETOUCHING SIMON INGS AT COCOON CREATIVE
LOCATION YOU STUDIO, LONDON
Girl gone wild: Antonin Tron gets bolder at Balmain Girl gone wild: Antonin Tron gets bolder at Balmain
Girl gone wild: Antonin Tron gets bolder at Balmain
An incroyable return: John Galliano re{form}s Zara An incroyable return: John Galliano re{form}s Zara
An incroyable return: John Galliano re{form}s Zara
A new Courrèges: Débutant Drew Henry finds joy in disruption A new Courrèges: Débutant Drew Henry finds joy in disruption
A new Courrèges: Débutant Drew Henry finds joy in disruption
The wonder years: Kate Moss and John Galliano on fashion and friendship in the 90s The wonder years: Kate Moss and John Galliano on fashion and friendship in the 90s
The wonder years: Kate Moss and John Galliano on fashion and friendship in the 90s
Heritage in disguise: Jonathan Anderson plays with perception at Dior Heritage in disguise: Jonathan Anderson plays with perception at Dior
Heritage in disguise: Jonathan Anderson plays with perception at Dior
Golden years: Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent glow-up Golden years: Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent glow-up
Golden years: Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent glow-up
Hard and soft: Glenn Martens keeps it simple at Maison Margiela Hard and soft: Glenn Martens keeps it simple at Maison Margiela
Hard and soft: Glenn Martens keeps it simple at Maison Margiela
A house in motion: Silvana Armani loosens the lines at Giorgio Armani A house in motion: Silvana Armani loosens the lines at Giorgio Armani
