Laura Prepon Recalls Paragliding in Germany: 'Why Am I Running Towards the Edge of a Cliff?'

Liz McNeil
·3 min read

Cindy Ord/Getty

Laura Prepon is reminiscing on her daredevil days.

Years ago, the That '70s Show star watched a YouTube video showing someone paragliding around Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle (known for inspiring the Disney castle) and decided she wanted to take on the feat herself.

"I was like, 'I want to do that,'" she tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "So my friend and I went to Germany," Prepon says, explaining that when they arrived at the castle, they "found these people who paraglide around the castle."

Though the first day they tried to paraglide, there wasn't enough wind to successfully do it, so Prepon, 41, and her friend returned the next day determined to complete their mission.

"I'm just like, 'Okay, two weeks ago I saw some dude on YouTube doing this and now here I am looking over a cliff and there's not enough wind, in other words: this is crazy,''" she recalls. "And then we go back the next day and [the instructor] is like, 'Okay, there's enough wind,' and he lays out this massive kite behind us basically."

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The Orange Is the New Black actress continues, "Then he's hooked behind me like, in tandem, and he literally just yells in my ear, 'Run!' And I'm like, 'What?' And then he's just running to the literal edge of the cliff. We run off and the thing catches wind and I'm paragliding around."

Though she calls the experience "amazing" and "beautiful," the mom of two admits that she likely wouldn't do such a stunt today.

"Your survival thing kicks in when you're like, 'Why am I running towards the edge of a cliff with a kite behind me that's supposed to catch wind?'" Prepon says. "Now, as a parent, I think I would maybe be like, 'Should I be doing this?' But this was before I was a parent, and I don't know, I liked things that got my heart rate up!"

In addition to her German adventuring, Prepon dishes on her latest business venture — her very own cookware line with HSN, aptly named PrepOn Kitchen.

HSN

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"I've been developing this line for years," she says. "I grew up in the kitchen, and I learned so much from my mom … she was a huge inspiration for me getting into cooking to begin with."

"Especially now being a working mom, I wanted practicality in the kitchen," Prepon continues. "I've been dreaming of doing a product line that just made our lives easier in the kitchen. All my products are solution-based — they're all based on me running into issues in the kitchen and being like, 'There's got to be an easier way to do this,' not being able to find it, so then I created the product."

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One example, she says, is her cutting board that comes with an arm for a compostable bag to hold food scraps.

"I cannot tell you how thrilled I am," she adds of the whole line of products, which launched earlier this month.

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