Fine, that second one is false—at least when Brook is back home in the U.K. “Forget about London,” she says. “I’d be out drinking with my friends and partying all the time.”
That said, Brook—a 35-year-old pinup of epic proportions and co-star of NBC’s new sitcom One Big Happy—is now living among the hard bodies of L.A., and undertaking a fitness makeover she’s been chronicling for her fans on Instagram.
Hourglass enthusiasts, don’t fret: “I’m not losing my curves,” says Brook, who admits she’s happy the media now celebrate “more than just really thin girls. It’s nice to have all different body shapes and sizes—like Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez, who are curvy and athletic. Otherwise you get a lot of miserable young girls out there who don’t realize they’re beautiful.”
Brook, who’s been a celeb in the U.K. since she was 18, acting on TV and even competing on the Brit version of Dancing with the Stars, is best known to U.S. audiences as the beauty who swam nude and got devoured while dangling over a lake on a wire in 2010’s Piranha 3D. Now, with One Big Happy, she’s thrilled to have a shot at the big time.
“Often the cast will just look at one another with these terrified looks on their faces and whisper, ‘Do we know what we’re doing? Will we remember our lines? Land our jokes?’ But in the end, you have to say, ‘Screw it—we’re here to entertain, not save lives.’ The audience loves when you mess up, anyway.”
To prep for the show, she’s delved into MMA, studying with kung fu legend Hu Jianqiang (The Shaolin Temple), training with fans and spears. “I would totally be in a wushu movie,” she says. “I just need Quentin Tarantino to call me up!”
Want to score a date with the sword-wielding, whip-smart Brook? Don’t even think of trying to two-time her, like one guy did who chatted her up on FaceTime: “He turned his phone to a mirror to show off his body, and in the reflection I saw a picture of his other girl,” she says.
