David Hasselhoff on the Return of 'Baywatch' : 'It's Going to Be Different'

David Hasselhoff is back on lifeguard duty.The 64-year-old actor famously starred in the hit ’90s TV show Baywatch and now, he’s back to mentor the new crop of lifeguards for the upcoming movie remake.“In the beginning, I didn’t get it,” Hasselhoff told PEOPLE at the 69th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles on Saturday night. “I was like, wait a second, Dwayne Johnson is playing me, Mitch Buchannon? Or he’s not. … They’re just bringing their own personalities into it. It’s going to be different. It’s going to be campy. It’s going to be fun. The action is going to far be superior to Baywatch because they’ve got the movies behind them.”The actor is lending his acting chops to the film, and said returning to the Baywatch family was a positive experience.“When I was on the set, they were incredibly nice, and incredibly respectful, and welcoming, and wanted to know why Baywatch was so successful,” he said. “They were kind of in awe of me, and I was in awe of them, because they’re all working in a big way. I’ve had my shot, and I’m kind of circling around doing this and doing that.”

And what does he think is responsible for the now-iconic show’s success?“I told them it was heart, humor and action,” he explained. “You’ve got to have heart. You’ve got to have a story. You’ve got to have humor. And you’ve got to have action.”

RELATED VIDEO: David Hasselhoff Officially Joins the ‘Baywatch’ Movie!

Hasselhoff added that we won’t be missing out on the classic moves from the show. Namely, slow motion.“We did some stuff that’s going to be all over the social media at the end where I was running in slow motion and then gave them the rescue can,” he said. “They did a big test of the movie, and they said that when I came on, there was a nice reaction. So they invited me back to do more. So it’s all working.”He also talked about the trials and tribulations of keeping Baywatch afloat. When NBC canceled the show after just one season, Hasselhoff revived the series with a syndication deal that resulted in 242 episodes, 11 seasons, a spin-off and much more.“I think the favorite thing about Baywatch was the fact that it was all run by us,” he said. “The show was cancelled, we brought it back, and there was four of us. So one of us was a writer, one of us was a director, one of us was the lifeguard, and David Hasselhoff was the PR guy, the star, keeping up the morale. … Keeping it afloat, and keeping it positive, and keeping it light.”The father of two daughters — Hayley, 24, and Taylor, 26 — also opened up about his decision to get married for a third time. He proposed to longtime girlfriend, 36-year-old model Hayley Roberts, in May 2016.“I don’t want her to get away,” he said. “I want to trap her, because this is one that I really love, and this is the one when I got down on my knees and said, ‘Will you marry me?’ It was from my heart. It wasn’t an ultimatum. My other marriages were kind of like, well, you’ve got to get married, or there was an ultimatum. This one is something that I wanted to do.”The couple met while Hasselhoff was a judge on Britain’s Got Talent.“We’ve been together for six years. We had no idea how long we’d been together because it’s been so easy and so great. To have somebody there to support me who isn’t in the industry, and who tells me the truth — she tells me the truth. Because the people in this industry a lot of times don’t tell you the truth, and that’s what gets you in trouble.”