Zac Efron stars in the new movie adaptation of Baywatch, Paramount's wisecrack take on the late '80s, early 2000s TV show that originally starred David Hasselhoff, Pamela Anderson, and Carmen Electra.
In the reboot, Efron will play a revamped version of Matt Brody (originally played by David Charvet), an Olympic gold medalist swimmer who suffers from a failing career after being on the wrong side of the law. In an attempt to rehabilitate his image, Brody joins the lifeguard team as an act of community service.
"It's everything you love about the old show, except just cranked up and so much more action-packed," Efron told On Air with Ryan Seacrest on Thursday. "It's really fun. It's a big summer movie and I think it's exactly what you want to go do at the movies this summer. It's perfect for what we need right now."
Efron's Baywatch character is being compared to American swimmer Ryan Lochte, who was involved in a scandal in which he said he was robbed in a gas station at the Rio Olympics. The story turned out to be false when security footage captured Lochte and other swimmers vandalizing a gas station bathroom. Baywatch -- helmed by Seth Gordon -- was actually written, shot, filmed, and edited in June before the 2016 Rio Games last August, so the parallel happened by accident.
"The director and I came up with the concept and we thought it was funnier than it was originally written," Efron said. "Then I don't know what happened! The Olympics happened much later and we were texting each other, 'What the heck is going on dude? Is this for real? ... It was very trippy."
Baywatch, also starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Priyanka Chopra, is in theaters today.