Tara Reid has admitted that when she made the first Sharknado film, she was too embarrassed to tell anyone about it.

The actress also starred in the follow up, Sharknado 2: The Second One, which recently premiered on TV channel Syfy, and told Access Hollywood Live that it had taken her a while to realise what a huge success the concept would be.

She said of making the original: "When I first did it, it was called Dark Skies, so I thought, 'Okay, it's not going to sound so bad on my resume... it'll be fine.'

"And then, all of a sudden, not even a week into it, they're like, 'We're changing the name to Sharknado'. I said, 'Oh my God, this is it. My career is over. I'm going to make a movie called Sharknado?'

"I begged them to change the name. It was horrible. They said, 'Trust us, you'll get it, it'll work'."

Tara went on: "When it came, I never told anyone about it. I can't say I'm starring in a movie called Sharknado. I thought, 'Okay, it's on Syfy, no-one will ever see it.' When it became this phenomenon, I was like, 'Are you joking me, is this really happening?'"

She also reassured fans that another follow-up was in the works: "We know [Sharknado 3 is] green lit for sure," but when London was suggested as a setting said she didn't want to shoot in the cold: "No, somewhere warm this time. Let's go to the Caribbean."

American Pie actress Tara also spoke about her former co-star on the hit franchise, Jason Biggs, who she fell out with after he made fun of her body on TV and in Twitter comments.

She said: "I think when people use social media to hurt other people publicly and try to embarrass them is just not a right thing. I would never do that. I don't even really want to think what he's thinking, because I don't care.

"That's just the way this town works in a lot of ways. Loyalty is very rare. It's a tough town to live in."