Interview: Zac Efron
Back to School
Just when he thought he was out they pull him back in. High School Musical hottie Zac Efron returns to class, but this time as a 37-year-old. Confused? Read on
By Ingrid Randoja
Zac Efron is taking baby steps — because you don’t just stand up and walk away from being a teen idol. You’ve got to orchestrate the move carefully, pick a project that keeps your rabid fan base happy, turns a profit for a movie studio and also allows you to grow as an actor.
For the now 21-year-old Efron — who helped turn Disney’s High School Musical series into a worldwide phenomenon; the third theatrical film earned nearly $250-million (U.S.) worldwide — it’s a tricky proposition.
On hiatus between the first and second HSM TV movies he starred in the hit musical Hairspray, which only cemented his cutie-pie status. He made his only foray into grown-up movie territory last year when he co-starred in the indie drama Me and Orson Welles, which played the film festival circuit but is presently languishing in distribution limbo with no firm release date.
So what’s a maturing teen idol to do?
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How about 17 Again.
The movie stars Matthew Perry as Mike O’Donnell, a depressed father
and husband who, after longing to return to his happier high school
days, magically transforms back into his teenage self (played by
Efron). He doesn’t go back in time, he just grows younger, meaning his
wife, Scarlett (Leslie Mann), is suddenly a hot soccer mom, and his two
children, Alex (Sterling Knight) and Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg),
are his high school classmates.
“There were a lot
of musicals I could have done, there were a lot of teen high school
romances and things like that,” says Efron on the line from L.A. “But 17 Again
was an opportunity to play a character so far from who I am — a
37-year-old guy. It just seemed like a less obvious choice, and it was
exciting to go there as a performer.”
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It’s a brilliant transition movie. Efron still gets to play a very
familiar type — high school heartthrob and basketball star (just like
his HSM character, Troy Bolton) — but he’s also asked to stretch his
acting skills as his character deals with some very weird adult
situations, like, umm, having his own daughter make a pass at him.
That’s not a situation Efron, or his own dad, had any experience with. Efron admits asking his father, David (who works as a power plant engineer), for advice during the shooting of 17 Again.
“All I had to go on for fatherly instincts was my dad’s response to all the crazy things I did as a kid. I would ask my dad, ‘What would you do if a) you had a daughter and b) she was coming on to you? How would you respond?’
“My dad said he would probably pass out. I said, ‘Well, that’s not interesting dad, I can’t use that, I just can’t pass out or the scene would be over [laughs].’ He just said it would be the most awkward situation that he’s ever faced in his entire life, so that’s the place I tried to put myself into for that scene.”
Awkward situations are something the sun-kissed Efron, it seems, has rarely had to deal with in his young life. He and his younger brother, Dylan, grew up middle-class in Arroyo Grande, California, with two parents who encouraged Zac to take up acting when he was 11. He starred in high school plays, local theatre productions, took acting and singing lessons, and by 14 he was making guest appearances on TV shows such as ER, CSI: Miami and Firefly.
Then the tsunami known as High School Musical hit. Suddenly, the kid who had to mow the lawn on Sundays, and was too short to play high school basketball (“most of my friends were already six-foot and I was breaking the four-foot barrier”), became an international star.
And with megastardom comes media attention. Efron knows he and his girlfriend (HSM co-star Vanessa Hudgens) are favourites with both the tabloids and inquisitive internet sites, even though he claims he ignores all the hoopla.
“It’s much easier for me to focus on my work and live my own life,” he says. “Every once in a while my friends will say, ‘Hey this was posted about you today,’ and I hear about it, but I truthfully don’t pay attention that much.
“It’s just not smart to keep myself educated on the world’s opinion of me. I would much rather just do my own thing as I have always done.”
And Efron has been quite good at keeping his next move a secret from the press.
“My next project isn’t solidified yet,” remarks Efron. “I’m waiting and trying really hard to find a really great role to play. I wanna make a great film and I don’t want to settle for something that seems like a good choice now. The longer I wait the more I figure out the moves I want to make, so I’m really planning this next step carefully.”
There are rumours he will put his cinematic maturation on hold and come back for HSM 4 — but only for a reported $10-million paycheque. And what about the rumour about that other teen musical, you know, the one that made Kevin Bacon a star. Will Efron be sliding into skinny jeans and high-tops for the Footloose remake?
“Right now Footloose is still in development,” he reveals, “but I see it as a great challenge and a very iconic character that I would love to reinvent. I see potential there for an incredible movie and I think it’s a story that should to be revisited, and I think it would be fun too.”
Efron says making 17 Again was also a blast, getting to hang out with Matthew Perry and think about his life before he became famous. One of the themes of 17 Again is redemption, getting the opportunity to undo past mistakes, something Efron says he can relate to.
“Even today, I feel like I just graduated high school and there are certain things I just wish I could go back and change, certain mistakes you make. Whether you slipped on a banana peel, or maybe you got wedgied during P.E. one time, there are certain things you kinda cringe when you think about.”
So what would he change?
“I have 100, I have probably 1,000 things...I can’t remember them right now, but there’s always awkward things [laughing].” And for the first time in the interview he sounds like a normal 21-year-old instead of a movie star when he sputters, “I...um...I don’t know if I want them to be written in a magazine, ya know.”
Ingrid Randoja is the deputy editor of Famous.
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Zac calling Orson, come in Orson
Since we’re not sure
you’re ever going to get to see it in a theatre, and he just looks so
darn cute, we thought we’d share this picture of Zac Efron in his first
post-High School Musical movie, Me and Orson Welles. Directed by Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, The School of Rock), the film stars Efron as a bored 17-year-old who finds himself — quite accidentally — cast in a production of Julius Caesar
being directed by the great Orson Welles. Claire Danes (right) plays
his love interest. But alas, after a decent reception at the Toronto
International Film Festival the movie is still waiting for a theatrical
release date.
—Marni Weisz
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