Kelly Rohrbach Walton Is Embracing a New Chapter in Hollywood — With Motherhood at the Center

Nearly a decade after stepping into the iconic red swimsuit for Baywatch, Kelly Rohrbach Walton is charting a different course in Hollywood.

Since her role as C.J. Parker in Paramount Pictures’ film adaptation of the hit television series, the actress and former Sports Illustrated model has largely stepped away from the spotlight. She hasn’t posted on Instagram since 2018, quietly married Walmart heir Steuart Walton in 2019 and welcomed two children, with a third on the way.

“It’s a very hands-on season of motherhood. And spending time with my children is my biggest priority,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “But when I’m not with my kids, I spend my time working to expand opportunities for young women in the heartland, particularly young mothers facing difficult circumstances.”

That work led her to produce Baby/Girls, a documentary following three teenagers — Grace, 15, Olivia, 16, and Ariana, 17 — as they navigate pregnancy and early motherhood at a maternity home in Springdale, Arkansas, a region with some of the highest teen birth rates in the country.

The film follows the young women beyond their pregnancies, documenting the realities of becoming mothers while still navigating their own adolescence. Through their individual experiences, it explores the importance of having a support system and the resources young mothers need. “It’s an incredibly moving film, and I couldn’t be more proud of how it turned out,” she says.

Rohrbach Walton was introduced to the project through Latchkey Films, her producing partner on Baby/Girls. A friend had told the company about the nonprofit work being done through Compassion House, a maternity home.

“After working on this issue from a more macro level, I really wanted to get to know these young women personally, and to put faces and lives to these statistics,” Rohrbach Walton recalls.

Directed by Alyse Walsh and Jackie Jesko, the documentary was filmed over the course of two years, beginning shortly after Rohrbach Walton became pregnant with her first child. The timing made the project even more personal.

“There’s nothing like the vulnerability of being a new mom and watching other young women have experiences where they didn’t have the resources and support was just heartbreaking,” she says. “It made this work even more important.”

The film also gave Rohrbach Walton a chance to explore a part of the country she hadn’t previously known well, while connecting with a region strongly linked to her husband’s family.

“I hadn’t really experienced much of the American heartland before I met my husband. But his family has deep ties — our family has deep ties — to this region,” she says of growing up on the east coast before spending 15 years on the west coast.

Her husband, who is the grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton, was born in Bentonville, Arkansas, not far from Rogers, where Walmart was founded in 1962. Through the project, Rohrbach Walton says she has come to appreciate the different communities and stories within the region.

“It’s been incredibly rewarding to get to know the different slices of American life and to get to tell stories about people in this community that isn’t really portrayed on screen,” she adds.

Baby/Girls is the first film under her Maybe? Productions, the independent production company she founded in 2023.

“I believe storytelling is powerful. It resists easy answers, and in a world where we’re constantly searching for certainty, living in the gray and the unknown is more interesting and actually more truthful,” Rohrbach Walton says.

The name Maybe? Productions comes from a Taoist parable about a farmer whose community labels a series of events as either good or bad, only for their significance to change over time. For Rohrbach Walton, the story reflects the company’s creative philosophy.

“It’s about resisting the urge to decide too quickly what something means, and withholding judgment and understanding that more than one thing can be true at once,” she explains. “It felt aligned with the type of stories that our production company wants to tell, which are stories that make people feel a little less certain and a lot more curious.”

Rohrbach Walton has built the company around an independent model, without outside investors or established studio partners. Having that control was important to her, she says, so projects could develop without outside pressure or restrictions.

“We want to give stories room to breathe, and for the full range of the story to be told,” she says.

That room to breathe was particularly important for Baby/Girls, as Rohrbach Walton wanted to capture the full experience of the young women’s journeys into motherhood rather than limit the story to a particular moment.

“It’s so different from when you’re pregnant to when your baby’s one and they’re alive. I wanted to really honor that journey,” she says. “Having complete control over how long we film for, what the story arc gets to be, letting these people really speak to their story and tell their truth is really important to me.”

The documentary’s subject matter — teen pregnancy, an issue often drawn into political debate — also made it important for Rohrbach Walton to keep the focus on the young women rather than the politics surrounding them.

“I wanted to be honest about what we saw, including the difficult parts of their life, without exploiting anyone or forcing their story into a narrative,” she explains. “The more you watch this story unfold, the more you realize how complex this issue is.”

She hopes that approaching the subject through the teenagers’ experiences will encourage audiences to listen and better understand their challenges.

“I think people would listen more and have more empathy and compassion, and from there, actually be able to understand these issues and what the need really is,” she adds.

The project also reflects a shift in Rohrbach Walton’s own career. She last appeared onscreen in 2019, playing recurring character Cassidy Reid in four episodes of Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone and portraying Terry in Woody Allen’s A Rainy Day in New York. But these days, she’s more interested in shaping stories from behind the camera.

“I’ve really enjoyed the shift from being in front of the camera to behind it. I found it more fulfilling to help shape the story as opposed to being a part of telling it,” she says. “Producing just feels more aligned with where my curiosity and my life is right now, and the season of life that I’m in with young children. I’m a very hands-on mom. It’s nice to be able to control my time, my schedule a bit more than acting.”

Still, she hasn’t lost her appreciation for it. “Film is one of the most connective art mediums, and connection is what brings me the most joy,” she says.

That appreciation for film was formed in part by her own experiences in front of the camera. One of Rohrbach Walton’s most recognizable roles came in 2017, when she starred as Pamela Anderson’s character in Paramount’s Baywatch film adaptation of the hit television series, which ran from 1989 to 2001. The movie marked her first major studio role, with her starring alongside Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario and Priyanka Chopra.

Although the film received mixed reviews and fell short of expectations at the box office, Rohrbach Walton looks back on the experience fondly.

“It was a great time in my life. It was so fun. I mean, I was in my mid-20s and getting to work with amazing people,” she says. “I believe we’re meant to evolve and change, and it’s been really nice to evolve into this new version of myself, the season of motherhood and supporting other mothers.”

The Baywatch franchise is also getting another television reboot, with a new series set to premiere on Fox next year. “I keep in touch with my castmates and everybody who was involved from the movie. I know everybody’s thrilled that the brand lives on and will continue to be successful. So I’m wishing this new version all the success,” she says.

While she isn’t looking to return to acting, Rohrbach Walton says her experiences in front of the camera continue to inform her work as a producer.

“My earlier roles gave me an understanding of what storytelling is about and what the audience is like,” she says. “Now, I want to tell different stories and stories that have impact and meaning.”

Baby/Girls premiered at SXSW in March and has continued its festival run, with its next appearance slated for DOC NYC from Nov. 11–19. As Rohrbach Walton works toward securing distribution for the film, she’s also focused on its educational component and getting resources to communities that need them.

“We’ve made a shorter educational 40-minute version that we’re bringing into schools and community centers and churches throughout the heartland, with the goal for it to be a free and accessible tool for everybody,” she explains.

The film also has an impact campaign that allows audiences to contribute to nonprofits supporting young mothers and organizations working toward systemic change.

“That was a big goal of the film, which we’re doing right now, is this grassroots movement of screenings that brings the people who are living these issues to life and allows for conversation and, through that conversation, creating change,” she says.

As for what’s next, Rohrbach Walton is continuing to look for projects through Maybe? Productions that align with the company’s mission.

“We’re keeping our eyes and ears open for stories that help us to see one another more fully and create more connection and compassion,” she says. “I’m really looking forward to finding our next project.”