Zac Efron’s ‘Baywatch’ Co-Star Dwayne Johnson On Their Edgy Underwater Kiss
Entertainment Tonight reports that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Zac Efron’s co-star in the new Baywatch reboot, recently opened up about the odd lip-to-lip moment the two of them shared during the film and what kissing Efron actually felt like. His opinion of the kiss, and the conflicting views held by Efron, may surprise you.
“Millions and millions of young ladies, and ladies in general, want to know,” joked Johnson before his reveal.
The red band trailer released for Baywatch a few days ago opens with a sequence that can only be a dream of Zac Efron’s character: he is swimming under the ocean surf when he sees female co-star Alexandra Daddario bobbing alluringly in front of him. Efron glides through the water and plants a kiss on her lips. When he pulls away, he sees Daddario’s face has been replaced with that of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who smiles mockingly at Efron before giving him the middle finger.
Obviously, the filmmakers behind Baywatch had to get tricky in the editing room to make this scene play out for the camera, and that necessitated shooting two separate kisses — one between Efron and Daddario and one between Efron and Johnson — that could be cobbled together.
When asked about the man-on-man kiss, former WWE star Johnson initially joked that it had been horrible due to the painful texture of Efron’s lips.
“His lips were like if you have a bottle and you shatter it on the ground – that shattered glass,” laughed Johnson, who is in a relationship with singer Lauren Hashian.
He quickly revealed that the kiss had actually gone swimmingly, calling Efron’s lips “soft.”
Efron did not share quite the same enthusiasm about his moment with Johnson, clarifying that he had liked the kiss with Daddario much better even though it was not as comical.
“She was a better kisser for sure,” Efron reflected. “But it was funnier to look up and see Dwayne’s face.”
Say what you will about the implications of a man kissing a man being the punchline to a joke, but you cannot deny that Efron is doing a great job of breaking free from his traditional boyish High School Musical persona. The hugely popular set-to-music trilogy ended nearly a decade ago, but the three movies provided Zac Efron’s breakout roles and could easily have ended up defining his career and getting him typecast had he not ventured into deeper waters as he progressed through his 20s. By touching on edgier themes such as homosexuality, Efron continues to accomplish just that.
Zac Efron’s inclusion in Baywatch is not even the best example of how he is branching out in terms of his acting choices — after all, he is still an athletic hunk. Perhaps a better one is his casting as Ted Bundy in the upcoming biopic about the notorious serial killer titled Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. From high school heartthrob to bloodthirsty killer? That’s quite a leap, and, if Bundy’s real-life ex-attorney is right about the casting, it could really define Efron’s career if the acting is done well (via The Daily News).
Zac Efron as Ted Bundy Could be Movie Role of a Lifetime, Says Bundys Lawyer https://t.co/zRi77JPwzk pic.twitter.com/pVwwB5YoSg
— Zesty Celebrity News (@zesty_celebrity) May 18, 2017
For the time being, Efron has quite enough to focus on in regard to Baywatch without thinking about the Ted Bundy role. According to Variety, the social media presence surrounding the movie is absolutely exploding and dwarfs that of even most big blockbusters. Last week alone, Baywatch was the subject of over 45,000 posts across social media. That is compared to Alien: Covenant, which was the subject of 34,000 posts, and Wonder Woman, which was the subject of 29,000.
It seems a huge amount of movie-goers can’t wait for this updated and much edgier revival of the sunny ’90s TV drama Baywatch. Are you among them? Let others know in the comments section below.
[Featured Image by Omar Vega/Invision/AP Images]
