Leonardo DiCaprio blocked from starring in Baywatch by a self-conscious David Hasselhoff, original producer reveals

The Hoff reportedly also protested Pamela Anderson's casting as CJ Parker

David Hasselhoff as Mitch Buchanan in Nineties TV series Baywatch

Leonardo DiCaprio was “ready to be cast” in Baywatch but missed out because a self-conscious David Hasselhoff complained, the show’s original producer has revealed.

Michael Berk almost had the Oscar winner, then 15, on board to play the son of Hasselhoff’s Mitch Buchanan, but was forced to reconsider after the Hoff voiced concerns that DiCaprio would “make him look older”.

“We actually had DiCaprio ready to be cast but David thought he was too old to play his son,” Berk told the Hollywood Reporter. “David thought it would make him look older. He had a lot of concerns of that type.”

Nine-year-old Jeremy Jackson was eventually cast in DiCaprio’s place as Hobie but the Hoff, who worked as executive producer on the Nineties lifeguard soap as well as starring in the lead, soon moved on to protest other castings, with Pamela Anderson also nearly losing her big shot.

“David said, ‘I don’t want a girl that’s been in Playboy, children watch his show,’” Berk added, but his fellow producer Douglas Schwartz reckons there was another reason for the Hoff’s concern.

“She had these enormous breasts and David thought he would be upstaged by everyone looking at her breasts,” he laughed. “Which is what happened.”

Pamela Anderson in her iconic red swimsuit as CJ Parker in Baywatch

Both Hasselhoff and Anderson have signed up to make cameo appearances in the upcoming film adaptation of Baywatch, with Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron also starring.

Directed by Horrible Bosses’ Seth Gordon, the film will follow Efron’s young lifeguard and his colleagues as they take on an oil tycoon whose ruthless plans are threatening their jobs (and the beach’s environment, of course).

Johnson will play Mitch, while model Kelly Rohrbach will play Anderson’s original part of CJ Parker. It remains unknown how Anderson and the Hoff will feature but the film hits UK cinemas on 12 May next year.

Representatives for Hasselhoff did not immediately respond to our request for comment.