Baywatch was a 90s television classic made popular for depicting tanned and toned impossibly good-looking lifeguards bouncing down the beach in slow-motion wearing nothing but red swimwear.
And while the movie reboot's standout star, Alex Daddario, 31, said she knew what she was getting into when she signed up for a spot alongside Zac Efron, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Kelly Rohrbach, she admitted there were times when she felt self-conscious being so scantily-clad. She even auditioned in a bikini.
Baywatch follows devoted lifeguard Mitch Buchannon (Johnson) as he butts heads with a brash new recruit (Efron). Together, they uncover a local criminal plot that threatens the future of the Bay.
"[I didn't feel] totally objectified but it was uncomfortable for sure because you have to suck your stomach in all of the time," Daddario said.
"You're in a bikini, so you can't just relax. It's tough. You have to pay closer attention to what you look like because you know that there are cameras around."
Her rumoured real-life beau, Efron, who spends most of the movie topless and slathered in oil, said he felt like a piece of meat.
"I absolutely felt objectified, but that was the whole point. My character was objectified in every terrible way and he deserves to be," the High School Musical alumni explained on the Sydney red carpet.
Daddario exercised five days a week with Efron's personal trainer, Patrick Murphy, to achieve her chiselled look.
She joked that now the movie is over she can "let herself go a little" and "pay less attention" to what she eats.
Efron, who delayed the start time of the screening for over an hour as he took selfies with screaming fans, described Australia as his second home.
"I've been coming here for a long time, since my HSM days and everyone is so warm and inviting. I've made good friends here and I come here in my own time," he said.
"I really do love it."
