LimeLife Original: Paul Walker Talks Raising a Teenager, Being Comfortable In His Own Skin and Cool Water

Now We Know What Paul Walker Smelled Like In High School

Paul Walker has a new leading man gig as the face of Davidoff Cool Water fragrance. At a swanky Malibu beach house, the Fast and the Furious actor opens up about the campaign, his [nearly] teenage daughter and taking control of his life.

Walker, 38, admits he wasn't completely sold on the idea of being a fragrance pitchman at first, having recently turned down a different offer before he was approached by Cool Water, whose previous spokesmen have included Lost's Josh Holloway and surfer Laird Hamilton.

"This came around and inside I was like, 'Oh, Cool Water, that's the stuff I wore growing up,'" remembers Walker. "I was the target audience at the inception of this product. I didn't find that out until later. I was a junior in high school, starting to notice more girls, wanted to wear cologne and Cool Water was the one the girls liked. I guess that would be a plus for Davidoff. The marketing definitely works because they got me."

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Still, the laid-back actor has never fancied himself a salesman, so it took a little more convincing on the part of the folks from Davidoff to encourage him to accept the gig.

"They were like, we think you're good for the product because of your love for the ocean and marine biology and  you've been doing the charitable stuff and the Great White Shark research, and we want to make a donation to the Surfrider Foundation or Heal the Bay," says Walker. "So then I'm going, maybe this isn't so bad! It was a good experience. A few years ago if you had asked me to do this I don't think I would have been comfortable enough in my own skin to do it."

Despite his obvious movie star good lucks, Walker appears to be a reluctant star, and says shooting the campaign was a bit of a struggle because it meant all eyes were going to be focused on him.

"When I do stuff I like to throw the attention off a little bit, even when I’m making movies, I try to make things as relaxed and let it roll off and throw it away as much as possible," says Walker. "With this one there’s no hiding it. You’re the guy, you’ve got all of these people around you and they’re doing their stuff. The commercial – I can do that. I’m driving cars, running out on the beach, I can run in the sand – no problem. But when we started doing the photos ..."

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Let's just say Walker has a new respect for models, including his co-star in the campaign, Bianca Balti.

"Bianca, the girl who is in the campaign, she's cool and I really liked her a lot," he says. "She's realy comfortable in her own skin but she's definitely a professional. She definitely knows what's going on and is comfortable doing it."

Photo shoots aren't the only thing that's making Walker squirm these days -- he's also doing his best to raise his daughter, who is almost 13.

"Are you in control? No, absolutely not," laughs the Southern California native on the subject of parenting. "You can set up guidelines and try to be a positive reinforcement of goodness, but outside of that it's living by example. One thing I do know is that I open every door for her and I pull out every chair for her. I'm setting standdards now. I'm like stack the standards as high as you can that way no one measures up and she never dates anybody and she never, ever has sex."

That's a lofty goal, but Walker is trying to take everything else in stride, something he admits he might not have been able to do 10 years ago.

"Things are definitely better for me and I'm getting to a good place," he says. "I feel like I'm more in control of my life as opposed to just being along for the ride. I'm taking more control. When I was young it was pretty overwhelming and there was a lot going on -- child out of wedlock, crazy career that I never wanted and trying to figure out who you are in the midst of it all. This next year's supposed to be really busy and there's more opportunity now than there probably ever was . I think now I'm just trying to balance because I want to be present. I want to be home, I don't want to be gone all year long for obvious reasons. It's just a balancing act."