This past summer, Baywatch dusted the sand off its feet and dove back into the water for a refreshed comedy about lifeguards taking their life-saving responsibilities too far. In place of David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson, audiences got The Rock and Zac Efron cracking on each other -- and cracking up mostly German theatergoers -- in the name of hard-R comedy. That was the biggest change in the updated Baywatch. Instead of TV-friendly titillation, director Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) ratcheted up the adult content, embracing more mature humor. And in this exclusive clip, Pamela Anderson says that approach wouldn't have worked back in the day! Anderson explains:
We've been talking about doing a movie for almost 20 years. I wasn't going to really believe it until I saw it, so it's actually happening, which is great. And they've been talking to me for a while about doing it. I really appreciate them bringing me here. There's a little bit of swearing, I hear. And a little bit of nudity. That would not have flown, back in the day when we were doing Baywatch. [Laughs]
There's only so much that you can get away with on television -- and truthfully, Baywatch successfully pushed enough envelopes when it was on TV back in the 1990s. The show celebrated the near-perfect beach bods of its beautiful cast, having well-toned men and women sprinting in slow-motion across sun-kissed California beaches. It was softcore television entertainment at its finest. You trying to tell me that people tuned into Baywatch on a weekly basis for the performances, or the plots?
So, in bringing the concept back for a modern audience, the producers of the Baywatch comedy dove head first into the raunchiness that comes with an R rating, pouring on the foul language and even attempting several gross out gags involving dead bodies and erections. Yes, you read that correctly. Check out OG Baywatch beauty Pamela Anderson filming some of her Baywatch cameo, and commenting on the change of direction for the 2017 comedy, in this exclusive clip:
Despite its Summer Blockbuster release window, Baywatch stalled in the States, earning $58 million over the Memorial Day weekend. The comedy, however, did much better overseas, tacking an additional $118M to its cume to push everything up to $176M. Not amazing, but not terrible for a modestly budgeted production.
We expect people to seek out Baywatch on home video, Speaking of which, the movie hits Digital HD from Paramount on Tuesday, August 15, so be sure to start streaming it on your preferred services on that date.
