Carmen Electra Reflects on Being Homeless in L.A. Before Making It Big in the '90s: 'There Was a Lot of Struggling'

The ladies of the 90s are still icons!

Carmen Electra, Juliette Lewis, Brittany Daniel and Cynthia Daniel Hauser sat down for a chat at 90s Con Florida on Saturday, September 14, moderated by PEOPLE TV Staff Editor Dory Jackson, where they discussed their experiences as ’90s starlets.

Although Electra has long been hailed as the bombshell of the 90s, The Baywatch The alum, 52, admitted she was “very shy” at the start of her career as she reflects on how she got her start.

Carmen Electra in ‘Baywatch’.

Getty

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“I was homeless in LA, I’m not from a rich family or anything like that,” she recalled. “I knew where I needed to be in NY or LA. So there was a lot of pain and I didn’t really know what I was going to do. But I just started trying things and really coming out of my shell. So that’s the beginning.”

Although she was trained as a dancer, the model knew that it would be difficult for her to achieve a successful career in that field. She recalled feeling lost and discouraged about how to begin her career in Hollywood.

“I wouldn’t want to go to auditions, I would go and say that everyone is so beautiful, I can’t do this, I can’t remember anything,” she admitted.

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“I wanted to try things out and meet some good people along the way who helped me,” Electra explained. She recalled how she nurtured those relationships by keeping her “knees in jeans” and “walking to the payphone” with pager in hand.

“I don’t know if people really know that about me, but it is true,” she smiled before gesturing to the crowd. “You guys do.”

Electra (born Tara Leigh Patrick) credits her rise to stardom to Prince, who she says “discovered” her. He changed her name to her famous nickname and produced her studio album. “He just set me up and was very supportive,” she recalled, adding that he wanted her to open for him in Europe. “With his support I got a bit more confidence and just tried things out and tried to keep that in mind with all my insecurities that I still have.”

Electra, 52, became a sensation in the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s for her roles in films such as Scary Movie franchise and Starsky & Hutch. But her breakthrough role was the role of Lani McKenzie in Baywatch.

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Juliette Lewis. Roy Rochlin/Getty

Lewis, 51, has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. She has landed some of her biggest film roles over the years Cape Fear, Born killers and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.

While reflecting on how she got her start in ’90s Con Florida, Lewis recalled how she got the acting bug from watching her father, Geoffrey Lewis, perform as a character actor when she was young.

“They basically kept me in the hair and makeup trailer on movie sets when I visited my dad,” she smiled, sharing how she was able to have a “full circle moment” recently when she went back to work on the same stage her father did.

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(L) Brittany and Cynthia Daniel on ‘Sweet Valley High’.

Alamy

Brittany and Cynthia played Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield Sweet Valley High from 1994 to 1997 four seasons. The beloved series is based on the novels of the same name by Francine Pascal.

During the panel, the two talked about how they navigated their early careers in Hollywood while in school.

“We were in high school, a good chunk of it,” Brittany said, adding that at 15, they struggled with “breaking into the business.” “Then it’s me and my sister Basketball diaries together, then we got Sweet Valley High.”

Cynthia also chimed in: “I’ve been working on it Swans Crossing. I was in high school, I was a cheerleader, trying to figure out my life and who I was. Then we started Sweet Valley High and soon after that I met my husband Cole.”

The two are still very close. In 2022, Brittany revealed that she had conceived a child using Cynthia’s donor egg.

“It’s so funny that I have three kids and my daughter looks exactly like my husband,” Cynthia said during the panel. “I gave you my balls and you got a girl who looks like us! But that was really special.”

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90s Con Florida runs through Sunday, September 15th at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida.

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Source: HIS Education