W

hile FAU alumnus Lee Hodge patrolled the sands of Broward County as a lifeguard, he was approached with the opportunity to play one on the big screen.

Hodge, who graduated in 2011, played an uncredited lifeguard in “Baywatch,” the action comedy film based on the 1990s TV series with the same name.

He was cast alongside Zac Efron and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson while he was working as a lifeguard at Deerfield Beach, according to an FAU interview with the actor.

“At [the] beginning of last year if you would have told me I was going to have the opportunity of a lifetime to work on a major motion picture production behind some of the biggest stars in the world, I would have said you’re fucking crazy!” Hodge said via his Instagram.

The Sun Sentinel reported that partial filming took place in February 2016 at the Boca Raton Resort and Club on Camino Real, Ocean Inlet Park in Boynton Beach and Deerfield Beach. These areas will be referred to as Emerald Bay in the film.

Scenes involving a party, the Baywatch lifeguard building and the opening rescue were filmed in these respective locations, according to IMDB. The rest of the film was shot in Miami, Florida, Savannah and Tybee Island, Georgia.

The actor has previously had a credited role in the HBO show “Ballers” and an uncredited role in “The Fate of the Furious.”

“Coming to FAU is what got me to South Florida which put me in the position to be able to apply for these roles and to have these opportunities,” Hodge said. “I never dreamed that I was going to be in the position that I actually ended up in.”

Kerri-Marie Covington is the managing editor of the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet her @kerri_marie23.