Ilfenesh Hadera is confirmed to join Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron in Baywatch, Paramount’s big-screen take on the 1990s television series about California lifeguards.
Seth Gordon is directing the 2017 feature, which is paddling toward a shoot with Alexandra Daddario and Kelly Rohrbach also suiting up.
The movie centers on the leader (Johnson) of an elite group of lifeguards who is forced to team up with a young, hotshot former Olympian (Efron) to save their beloved bay.
Hadera (Showtime’s Billions) will play Johnson’s onscreen love interest, Stef, who the actor says in his announcement on Instagram must “be a lot of things: Strong, intelligent, formidable, beautiful and funny,” and calls the actress “a 5’11 walkin‘ smokestack with legs for days. Smart and tougher than new rope … just the way we like ’em.”
Hadera has also appeared in the Spike Lee films Chi-Raq and Oldboy, as well as HBO’s Show Me a Hero and NBC’s Chicago Fire. She is repped by The Gersh Agency.
Beau Flynn and Ivan Reitman are producing Baywatch. Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions will produce in some capacity. Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz, Gregory Bonann also are producing.
See Johnson’s announcement below.
Borys Kit contributed to this article.