Paramount’s big screen adaptation of Baywatch has Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) directing as well as Zac Efron and Dwayne Johnson headlining the “Men in Red Shorts” brigade. Now the studio is turning its attention to a crop of actresses who will test for the lead role. According to Deadline, the studio is circling seven candidates. Of course, one of these lucky actors will carry the torch for brunette bombshell Yasmine Bleeth who was the leading lady of the show during the 90s. So let’s take a (figurative) dive into the new ladies and look at where you may have seen them before.
1. Alexandra Daddario
First up is likely front-runner Alexandra Daddario. The 29 year old from NYC got her start in both acting and modeling and has had roles in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Hall Pass, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D, and most recently San Andreas where she played Dwayne Johnson’s really hot daughter. Daddario has also had a slew of roles in TV shows such as White Collar, Parenthood, and most notably True Detective as a woman who Woody Harrelson has an affair with. That role won her a lot of attention, to say the least.
2. Ashley Benson
Next up is 25 year old Ashley Benson, of Spring Breakers and Pixels fame and a whole bunch of shows too like Zoey 101, Supernatural, and Punk’d. She even appeared in a Puddle of Mudd music video from 2008! That’s some range. Benson got her first big break in 2004’s 13 Going On 30 and has continued her meteoric rise since, now playing in the recurring role of Hanna Marin on Pretty Little Liars.
3. Nina Dobrev
Nina Dobrev is the studio’s next candidate. She’s 26 and hails from Bulgaria. You’ve probably seen her on TV as Mia Jones in Degrassi: The Next Generation and Elena Gilbert on The Vampire Diaries, a role which has nabbed her seven (!) Teen Choice Awards. Eat your heart out, Meryl Streep! She was also recently in The Final Girls, a movie we really enjoyed.
4. Shelley Hennig and Bianca Santos
Shelley Hennig and Bianca Santos are the two before the final two candidates. Hennig, 28, won Miss Teen USA in 2004 and went on to star in 2014’s Ouija (pronounced ‘wee-gee’ in case you didn’t know) and in 2015’s Unfriended, the movie about real-world consequences of removing friends from Facebook. Santos, 25, also starred in Ouija and then in 2015’s The Duff.
5. Alexandra Shipp and Denyse Tontz
Lastly we have Alexandra Shipp and Denyse Tontz. Both ladies’ careers are fairly young. But don’t count them out yet! Shipp had a minor role in 2009’s Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel as well as a larger role in this year’s Straight Outta Compton as Kimberly Woodruff. She has also been cast as the younger Storm in next year’s X-Men: Apocalypse.
21 year old Tontz has had a role in Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush as well as Disney Channel’s Dog with a Blog. She is also a singer-songwriter. According to her Wikipedia page, her latest song “Go” is a “…somewhat cynical take on Hollywood, stemming from Tontz’s personal experiences in the industry”. Which have been few and far between judging from the same page.
There you have it. The potential leading ladies of the new Baywatch. It’ll be a fierce competition to secure that role, with a lot of sprinting, swimming, and being in a red one-piece all day. Oh, and maybe some line-reading too.
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