Zac Efron
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Zac Efron Waits For “Charlie St. Cloud”
Zac Efron was faced with the biggest decision of his career and life when he offered a tasty role to star in the recreated movie, “Footloose.” Even though the decision seemed so easy to accept, the actor turned the chance to earn a whopping $10 million dollars, global fame and superstardom down to the amazement of everyone around him.
Kenny Ortega, the director of “High School Musical” even couldn’t believe his ears when the actor told him in October 2009 to turn the one-in-a-million opportunity down. The 22-year-old actor, who is on tour promoting his new flick “Charlie St. Cloud,” revealed that it was not an easy decision to make but he just didn’t want to be in a rush as he didn’t feel ready for such an acting role at the time. The actor has a new facial hair look and many of his female fans just can’t seem to have enough of him.
Efron stated that he made a decision based on his feelings for the first time then and even though he knew everyone expected him to say yes, he had to decline because it just didn’t feel right. Many of his close people were very much disappointed with his decision especially Ortega who also had to let the opportunity pass because of Efron’s rejection.
The actor has starred in other movies aside “High School Musical” including “17 Again” which made over $140 million at the Box Office. He also featured in “Me and Orson Welles” which showed a lot of his talents even though the movie was a major flop, selling just $2 million.
His character in “Charlie St. Cloud” is a young handsome man who is due to attend college but become grief-stricken when his younger brother passes away in a vehicle accident. He loses it and locks himself up in his seafront hometown to work as an undertaker in the local cemetery.
The ghost of his dead brother pays him a visit everyday till decision time comes when he has decide whether to stop mourning and continue living his life or continue to wallow in the sadness of his brother’s death.
He said it was a very challenging role unlike the ones he was used to and feels satisfied that he didn’t disappoint his fans.
Zac Efron was faced with the biggest decision of his career and life when he offered a tasty role to star in the recreated movie, “Footloose.” Even though the decision seemed so easy to accept, the actor turned the chance to earn a whopping $10 million dollars, global fame and superstardom down to the amazement of everyone around him.
Kenny Ortega, the director of “High School Musical” even couldn’t believe his ears when the actor told him in October 2009 to turn the one-in-a-million opportunity down. The 22-year-old actor, who is on tour promoting his new flick “Charlie St. Cloud,” revealed that it was not an easy decision to make but he just didn’t want to be in a rush as he didn’t feel ready for such an acting role at the time. The actor has a new facial hair look and many of his female fans just can’t seem to have enough of him.
Efron stated that he made a decision based on his feelings for the first time then and even though he knew everyone expected him to say yes, he had to decline because it just didn’t feel right. Many of his close people were very much disappointed with his decision especially Ortega who also had to let the opportunity pass because of Efron’s rejection.
The actor has starred in other movies aside “High School Musical” including “17 Again” which made over $140 million at the Box Office. He also featured in “Me and Orson Welles” which showed a lot of his talents even though the movie was a major flop, selling just $2 million.
His character in “Charlie St. Cloud” is a young handsome man who is due to attend college but become grief-stricken when his younger brother passes away in a vehicle accident. He loses it and locks himself up in his seafront hometown to work as an undertaker in the local cemetery.
The ghost of his dead brother pays him a visit everyday till decision time comes when he has decide whether to stop mourning and continue living his life or continue to wallow in the sadness of his brother’s death.
He said it was a very challenging role unlike the ones he was used to and feels satisfied that he didn’t disappoint his fans.
Zac Efron: Camden Is Super Wild
Zac Efron has reportedly revealed that he enjoys spending time in Camden, London. The 22-year-old lived in the British capital while filming for Me and Orson Welles and believes that the city is “hipper” than other places.
He told the Evening Standard: “I’ve got friends here who know cool places to go. I ran around Camden – it’s super wild.”
He added: “It’s the little things about London I appreciate, as soon as you get off the plane, it’s just that bit hipper.”
Zac Efron has reportedly revealed that he enjoys spending time in Camden, London. The 22-year-old lived in the British capital while filming for Me and Orson Welles and believes that the city is “hipper” than other places.
He told the Evening Standard: “I’ve got friends here who know cool places to go. I ran around Camden – it’s super wild.”
He added: “It’s the little things about London I appreciate, as soon as you get off the plane, it’s just that bit hipper.”
What Could Be Better Than Zac Efron?
Meeting heart-throb Zac Efron yesterday was great news for young Olivia Wall. But it wasn’t the best news.
“While it’s nice that Zac’s here to visit, we got the really good news yesterday that her cancer is in remission,” Shoshana Wall said.
The “High School Musical” star made a low-key visit to the Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick and won the hearts of patients like Olivia, their parents and the staff.
Efron, in Sydney for the premiere of his latest film “Charlie St. Cloud,” spent an hour with the children in the cancer ward.
The star was friendly and relaxed with six-year-old Olivia, an ardent Efron fan who has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The first-grader was happy to hug Efron and read her favourite picture book – “High School Musical.”
“What a coincidence,” Efron joked.
Asked by Efron who was her favourite characters, Olivia replied “Sharpay” (Ashley Tisdale), an answer that brought a few chuckles.
“She’s one of my favourites too,” Eftron said
Meeting heart-throb Zac Efron yesterday was great news for young Olivia Wall. But it wasn’t the best news.
“While it’s nice that Zac’s here to visit, we got the really good news yesterday that her cancer is in remission,” Shoshana Wall said.
The “High School Musical” star made a low-key visit to the Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick and won the hearts of patients like Olivia, their parents and the staff.
Efron, in Sydney for the premiere of his latest film “Charlie St. Cloud,” spent an hour with the children in the cancer ward.
The star was friendly and relaxed with six-year-old Olivia, an ardent Efron fan who has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The first-grader was happy to hug Efron and read her favourite picture book – “High School Musical.”
“What a coincidence,” Efron joked.
Asked by Efron who was her favourite characters, Olivia replied “Sharpay” (Ashley Tisdale), an answer that brought a few chuckles.
“She’s one of my favourites too,” Eftron said
Alvedansen
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i usually love a beard on guys but it looks terrible on him 
and i love his saggy pants
and i love his saggy pants
September 23 – Leaving Urban Outfitters In Los Angeles
Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens were spotted leaving Urban Outfitters in Los Angeles on 23 September 2010. Enjoy the pics!
According to the reports, Zac spotted a photographer and yelled at Vanessa, “run to the car.” The couple ran out the back door and jumped into a white Audi SUV. Vanessa used her hand to cover up her face, while Zac ducked down in full disguise black beanie, mirrored sunglasses, beard and mustache. Zac’s pants were sagging and almost falling off his butt.
zac-efron.us
Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens were spotted leaving Urban Outfitters in Los Angeles on 23 September 2010. Enjoy the pics!
According to the reports, Zac spotted a photographer and yelled at Vanessa, “run to the car.” The couple ran out the back door and jumped into a white Audi SUV. Vanessa used her hand to cover up her face, while Zac ducked down in full disguise black beanie, mirrored sunglasses, beard and mustache. Zac’s pants were sagging and almost falling off his butt.
zac-efron.us
Noah Oppenheim To Write “Snabba Cash” Remake
Noah Oppenheim is set to write the remake of the acclaimed Swedish crime thriller “Snabba Cash.” The story centers on a man living a double-life as a coke dealer. Oppenheim first generated attention when Steven Spielberg cast his eye on Oppenheim’s script about Jackie Kennedy’s life in the days following JFK’s assassination. In addition to reporting that Oppenheim will pen the remake of “Snabba Cash,” 24 Frames confirms that Rachel Weisz is attached to play Jackie and that Darren Aronofsky is on board to direct.
The Swedish version of “Snabba Cash” will be distributed in the U.S. under the far more generic title “Easy Money” even though it’s so much more fun to say “Snabba Cash.”
Noah Oppenheim is set to write the remake of the acclaimed Swedish crime thriller “Snabba Cash.” The story centers on a man living a double-life as a coke dealer. Oppenheim first generated attention when Steven Spielberg cast his eye on Oppenheim’s script about Jackie Kennedy’s life in the days following JFK’s assassination. In addition to reporting that Oppenheim will pen the remake of “Snabba Cash,” 24 Frames confirms that Rachel Weisz is attached to play Jackie and that Darren Aronofsky is on board to direct.
The Swedish version of “Snabba Cash” will be distributed in the U.S. under the far more generic title “Easy Money” even though it’s so much more fun to say “Snabba Cash.”
September 27 – Out & About In Beverly Hills
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Zac Efron was spotted in Beverly Hills on 27 September 2010. Enjoy the pics!
zac-efron.us
Moderator's note:
• In order to improve site performance, long threads that are draining our loading time will be closed and we are going to be periodically starting new threads. This should help pages load faster.
• Please remember that not everyone is on a fast connection, or has a large screen, and keep your picture sizes to 800 pixels or less in the largest dimension. This will also help with page load speed.
• Please refrain from posting the same images as contained in the archived threads (eg in the old closed thread).
• Please remember to stay on topic... All off topic discussion will be removed.
• Please do not power post eg make empty posts with no Info/questions/Images - Empty posts cause threads to grow rapidly and is a nuisance to those who subscribe to many threads. Please take any private conversations to PMs or Profile Comments.
• To view old thread, click here.
Thank you.
___________________________________________________
Zac Efron was spotted in Beverly Hills on 27 September 2010. Enjoy the pics!
zac-efron.us
Last edited by a moderator:
Interview: Zac Efron
The people who made “The Death And Life Of Charlie St. Cloud” know why we’re here – and they don’t hang about giving it to us. Right from the opening credits, Zac Efron is swinging around a boat, hair artfully tousled and his tight muscles misted with something that could be sweat but is more like dew.
So Zac, I say to the current dreamboat du jour, do you, like me, ever wonder if your good looks have held back your career? It speaks well of him that he immediately laughs at this.
“It’s a big part of why I’m here, and a big part of why my fans come to my films,” he says easily. “I used to get into those conversations all the time, but now I have this ugly beard so it’s slowing down.”
The beard in question is a scruffy musketeer moustache and goatee that he slyly says “could be” for a film role, before adding: “Really I’m just testing out – how do you know what a beard will look like unless you grow one? And also to set fire to the internet!”
He may joke but, when Googled, the beard has generated hundreds of debates including a poll at UsMagazine.com, where 8,800 signed in to vote down the Efron facial topiary. People over the age of 20 without kids may be puzzled by the intense debate as to whether a nice, polite 22-year-old should stay beardless, but the girls outside his hotel spent the night on the street in the hope of seeing him (they did), and hearts were broken when he recently finally admitted – reluctantly – that “High School Musical” co-star Vanessa Hudgens is his girlfriend of three years.
Doesn’t this relentless, full-on attention drive him a bit mad? “You have to have a ninja mentality,” says Efron, who named his new production company Ninja Running. “There’s a way to sneak in and out of places. You just have to be smart about it.” A few weeks ago, he adds, he managed to enjoy a night out by shinning down the drainpipe of his hotel without the waiting paparazzi noticing.
No-one really prepared him for this kind of focus. “For me it was on-the-job training, and you just sink or swim. You learn to never take it too seriously because it’s going to be gone some day.”
Efron is so lusted after by women that comic book writer Mark Millar admits he campaigned for Efron to play the superhero geek in the movie version of Kick-***.
“My entire idea was that any guy would pay $10 to see someone beat the **** out of Zac Efron,” said Millar. Efron not only accepts the backhanded compliment, but is deft enough to throw in a story of his own.
“Right when ‘High School Musical’ was getting popular, one of my cousins very excitedly told me that there was a huge I Hate Zac Efron club at his school. I’m sure they’re doing great.”More power to them."
As well as using humility to defuse schadenfreude, Efron comes across as a genial, hard-working young man who is only slightly impatient with his part-time job as a teen heart-throb. He frets about sounding arrogant in interviews - "I have a lot to l
earn," he assures me, fervently and frequently.
He says he tries to avoid saying things that attract gossip. "I get asked about other actors and celebrities, and I've noticed that people who make the cool movies and stick around tend not to be the ones who are famous for their personal lives. And my personal life isn't that interesting anyway."
It started getting interesting when he was 16. Before then Efron was living at home, and twice a month his mother would drive him 145 miles to auditions in Los Angeles. He got a few bit parts on TV shows but if he couldn't get more regular work he was going to head to university. He was just about to buy his folders and files when an actor friend told him he'd tried out for a Disney musical. "The only thing that separates me from a few hundred other brown-haired, blue-eyed actors is that audition," he says. "I never forget that."
Trying to get us to forget High School Musical may be more difficult. He's always careful to acknowledge the career break he got by playing a sporty student with a bowl haircut who just wants to save money for college and sing about it to his mathlete girlfriend, but at 22 he's keen to move on. His next few roles will determine if he stays a teen idol or becomes a star that adults without kids could recognise. He turned down a remake of Footloose, the 80s high school musical, to free up time for more mature films such as Charlie St Cloud and Richard Linklater's period piece about an aspiring actor, Me And Orson Welles.
The road from tween idol is a perilous path, littered with the failed attempts of previous dreamboats du jour. Does anyone still take David Cassidy's calls? Me And Orson Welles won plaudits but modest box-office success so there's a lot riding on the soft-focus Charlie St Cloud. The director is Burr Steers, who directed Efron before in last year's age-switch comedy 17 Again, as well as the superior 2002 black comedy Igby Goes Down, and for the first time Efron plays someone his own age, struggling with the death of his younger brother (Charlie Tahan).
"The emotional aspects really rang true to me," says Efron. "Having left home at 17, I've been on the road ever since and I left my brother Dylan behind. Suddenly, my little bro is fending for himself in high school and I'm not there to guide him through that whole thing. Now he's 18 and going to college so he's not my little brother any more, but we're starting to become even better friends than we were."
By the time Dylan finishes his freshman year, his big brother will have made two more films, including a rumoured Nicholas Sparks project in which he plays an Iraq veteran who falls for two women.
But the career he'd most like at the moment, he says, is that of his girlfriend Vanessa, who he visited on the set of her new action movie Sucker Punch. "I watched her beating the hell out of stunt guys," he says. "She's incredible - but at the same time I was so jealous because it looked so cool."
Adult screams instead of teen shrieks? No-one seems more eager to grow up than Efron.
The Death And Life Of Charlie St Cloud is on general release from Friday
The people who made “The Death And Life Of Charlie St. Cloud” know why we’re here – and they don’t hang about giving it to us. Right from the opening credits, Zac Efron is swinging around a boat, hair artfully tousled and his tight muscles misted with something that could be sweat but is more like dew.
So Zac, I say to the current dreamboat du jour, do you, like me, ever wonder if your good looks have held back your career? It speaks well of him that he immediately laughs at this.
“It’s a big part of why I’m here, and a big part of why my fans come to my films,” he says easily. “I used to get into those conversations all the time, but now I have this ugly beard so it’s slowing down.”
The beard in question is a scruffy musketeer moustache and goatee that he slyly says “could be” for a film role, before adding: “Really I’m just testing out – how do you know what a beard will look like unless you grow one? And also to set fire to the internet!”
He may joke but, when Googled, the beard has generated hundreds of debates including a poll at UsMagazine.com, where 8,800 signed in to vote down the Efron facial topiary. People over the age of 20 without kids may be puzzled by the intense debate as to whether a nice, polite 22-year-old should stay beardless, but the girls outside his hotel spent the night on the street in the hope of seeing him (they did), and hearts were broken when he recently finally admitted – reluctantly – that “High School Musical” co-star Vanessa Hudgens is his girlfriend of three years.
Doesn’t this relentless, full-on attention drive him a bit mad? “You have to have a ninja mentality,” says Efron, who named his new production company Ninja Running. “There’s a way to sneak in and out of places. You just have to be smart about it.” A few weeks ago, he adds, he managed to enjoy a night out by shinning down the drainpipe of his hotel without the waiting paparazzi noticing.
No-one really prepared him for this kind of focus. “For me it was on-the-job training, and you just sink or swim. You learn to never take it too seriously because it’s going to be gone some day.”
Efron is so lusted after by women that comic book writer Mark Millar admits he campaigned for Efron to play the superhero geek in the movie version of Kick-***.
“My entire idea was that any guy would pay $10 to see someone beat the **** out of Zac Efron,” said Millar. Efron not only accepts the backhanded compliment, but is deft enough to throw in a story of his own.
“Right when ‘High School Musical’ was getting popular, one of my cousins very excitedly told me that there was a huge I Hate Zac Efron club at his school. I’m sure they’re doing great.”More power to them."
As well as using humility to defuse schadenfreude, Efron comes across as a genial, hard-working young man who is only slightly impatient with his part-time job as a teen heart-throb. He frets about sounding arrogant in interviews - "I have a lot to l
earn," he assures me, fervently and frequently.
He says he tries to avoid saying things that attract gossip. "I get asked about other actors and celebrities, and I've noticed that people who make the cool movies and stick around tend not to be the ones who are famous for their personal lives. And my personal life isn't that interesting anyway."
It started getting interesting when he was 16. Before then Efron was living at home, and twice a month his mother would drive him 145 miles to auditions in Los Angeles. He got a few bit parts on TV shows but if he couldn't get more regular work he was going to head to university. He was just about to buy his folders and files when an actor friend told him he'd tried out for a Disney musical. "The only thing that separates me from a few hundred other brown-haired, blue-eyed actors is that audition," he says. "I never forget that."
Trying to get us to forget High School Musical may be more difficult. He's always careful to acknowledge the career break he got by playing a sporty student with a bowl haircut who just wants to save money for college and sing about it to his mathlete girlfriend, but at 22 he's keen to move on. His next few roles will determine if he stays a teen idol or becomes a star that adults without kids could recognise. He turned down a remake of Footloose, the 80s high school musical, to free up time for more mature films such as Charlie St Cloud and Richard Linklater's period piece about an aspiring actor, Me And Orson Welles.
The road from tween idol is a perilous path, littered with the failed attempts of previous dreamboats du jour. Does anyone still take David Cassidy's calls? Me And Orson Welles won plaudits but modest box-office success so there's a lot riding on the soft-focus Charlie St Cloud. The director is Burr Steers, who directed Efron before in last year's age-switch comedy 17 Again, as well as the superior 2002 black comedy Igby Goes Down, and for the first time Efron plays someone his own age, struggling with the death of his younger brother (Charlie Tahan).
"The emotional aspects really rang true to me," says Efron. "Having left home at 17, I've been on the road ever since and I left my brother Dylan behind. Suddenly, my little bro is fending for himself in high school and I'm not there to guide him through that whole thing. Now he's 18 and going to college so he's not my little brother any more, but we're starting to become even better friends than we were."
By the time Dylan finishes his freshman year, his big brother will have made two more films, including a rumoured Nicholas Sparks project in which he plays an Iraq veteran who falls for two women.
But the career he'd most like at the moment, he says, is that of his girlfriend Vanessa, who he visited on the set of her new action movie Sucker Punch. "I watched her beating the hell out of stunt guys," he says. "She's incredible - but at the same time I was so jealous because it looked so cool."
Adult screams instead of teen shrieks? No-one seems more eager to grow up than Efron.
The Death And Life Of Charlie St Cloud is on general release from Friday
Last edited by a moderator:
Interview: Zac Efron
The people who made “The Death And Life Of Charlie St. Cloud” know why we’re here – and they don’t hang about giving it to us. Right from the opening credits, Zac Efron is swinging around a boat, hair artfully tousled and his tight muscles misted with something that could be sweat but is more like dew.
So Zac, I say to the current dreamboat du jour, do you, like me, ever wonder if your good looks have held back your career? It speaks well of him that he immediately laughs at this.
“It’s a big part of why I’m here, and a big part of why my fans come to my films,” he says easily. “I used to get into those conversations all the time, but now I have this ugly beard so it’s slowing down.”
The beard in question is a scruffy musketeer moustache and goatee that he slyly says “could be” for a film role, before adding: “Really I’m just testing out – how do you know what a beard will look like unless you grow one? And also to set fire to the internet!”
He may joke but, when Googled, the beard has generated hundreds of debates including a poll at UsMagazine.com, where 8,800 signed in to vote down the Efron facial topiary. People over the age of 20 without kids may be puzzled by the intense debate as to whether a nice, polite 22-year-old should stay beardless, but the girls outside his hotel spent the night on the street in the hope of seeing him (they did), and hearts were broken when he recently finally admitted – reluctantly – that “High School Musical” co-star Vanessa Hudgens is his girlfriend of three years.
Doesn’t this relentless, full-on attention drive him a bit mad? “You have to have a ninja mentality,” says Efron, who named his new production company Ninja Running. “There’s a way to sneak in and out of places. You just have to be smart about it.” A few weeks ago, he adds, he managed to enjoy a night out by shinning down the drainpipe of his hotel without the waiting paparazzi noticing.
No-one really prepared him for this kind of focus. “For me it was on-the-job training, and you just sink or swim. You learn to never take it too seriously because it’s going to be gone some day.”
Efron is so lusted after by women that comic book writer Mark Millar admits he campaigned for Efron to play the superhero geek in the movie version of Kick-***.
“My entire idea was that any guy would pay $10 to see someone beat the **** out of Zac Efron,” said Millar. Efron not only accepts the backhanded compliment, but is deft enough to throw in a story of his own.
“Right when ‘High School Musical’ was getting popular, one of my cousins very excitedly told me that there was a huge I Hate Zac Efron club at his school. I’m sure they’re doing great.”More power to them."
As well as using humility to defuse schadenfreude, Efron comes across as a genial, hard-working young man who is only slightly impatient with his part-time job as a teen heart-throb. He frets about sounding arrogant in interviews - "I have a lot to l
earn," he assures me, fervently and frequently.
He says he tries to avoid saying things that attract gossip. "I get asked about other actors and celebrities, and I've noticed that people who make the cool movies and stick around tend not to be the ones who are famous for their personal lives. And my personal life isn't that interesting anyway."
It started getting interesting when he was 16. Before then Efron was living at home, and twice a month his mother would drive him 145 miles to auditions in Los Angeles. He got a few bit parts on TV shows but if he couldn't get more regular work he was going to head to university. He was just about to buy his folders and files when an actor friend told him he'd tried out for a Disney musical. "The only thing that separates me from a few hundred other brown-haired, blue-eyed actors is that audition," he says. "I never forget that."
Trying to get us to forget High School Musical may be more difficult. He's always careful to acknowledge the career break he got by playing a sporty student with a bowl haircut who just wants to save money for college and sing about it to his mathlete girlfriend, but at 22 he's keen to move on. His next few roles will determine if he stays a teen idol or becomes a star that adults without kids could recognise. He turned down a remake of Footloose, the 80s high school musical, to free up time for more mature films such as Charlie St Cloud and Richard Linklater's period piece about an aspiring actor, Me And Orson Welles.
The road from tween idol is a perilous path, littered with the failed attempts of previous dreamboats du jour. Does anyone still take David Cassidy's calls? Me And Orson Welles won plaudits but modest box-office success so there's a lot riding on the soft-focus Charlie St Cloud. The director is Burr Steers, who directed Efron before in last year's age-switch comedy 17 Again, as well as the superior 2002 black comedy Igby Goes Down, and for the first time Efron plays someone his own age, struggling with the death of his younger brother (Charlie Tahan).
"The emotional aspects really rang true to me," says Efron. "Having left home at 17, I've been on the road ever since and I left my brother Dylan behind. Suddenly, my little bro is fending for himself in high school and I'm not there to guide him through that whole thing. Now he's 18 and going to college so he's not my little brother any more, but we're starting to become even better friends than we were."
By the time Dylan finishes his freshman year, his big brother will have made two more films, including a rumoured Nicholas Sparks project in which he plays an Iraq veteran who falls for two women.
But the career he'd most like at the moment, he says, is that of his girlfriend Vanessa, who he visited on the set of her new action movie Sucker Punch. "I watched her beating the hell out of stunt guys," he says. "She's incredible - but at the same time I was so jealous because it looked so cool."
Adult screams instead of teen shrieks? No-one seems more eager to grow up than Efron.
The Death And Life Of Charlie St Cloud is on general release from Friday
The people who made “The Death And Life Of Charlie St. Cloud” know why we’re here – and they don’t hang about giving it to us. Right from the opening credits, Zac Efron is swinging around a boat, hair artfully tousled and his tight muscles misted with something that could be sweat but is more like dew.
So Zac, I say to the current dreamboat du jour, do you, like me, ever wonder if your good looks have held back your career? It speaks well of him that he immediately laughs at this.
“It’s a big part of why I’m here, and a big part of why my fans come to my films,” he says easily. “I used to get into those conversations all the time, but now I have this ugly beard so it’s slowing down.”
The beard in question is a scruffy musketeer moustache and goatee that he slyly says “could be” for a film role, before adding: “Really I’m just testing out – how do you know what a beard will look like unless you grow one? And also to set fire to the internet!”
He may joke but, when Googled, the beard has generated hundreds of debates including a poll at UsMagazine.com, where 8,800 signed in to vote down the Efron facial topiary. People over the age of 20 without kids may be puzzled by the intense debate as to whether a nice, polite 22-year-old should stay beardless, but the girls outside his hotel spent the night on the street in the hope of seeing him (they did), and hearts were broken when he recently finally admitted – reluctantly – that “High School Musical” co-star Vanessa Hudgens is his girlfriend of three years.
Doesn’t this relentless, full-on attention drive him a bit mad? “You have to have a ninja mentality,” says Efron, who named his new production company Ninja Running. “There’s a way to sneak in and out of places. You just have to be smart about it.” A few weeks ago, he adds, he managed to enjoy a night out by shinning down the drainpipe of his hotel without the waiting paparazzi noticing.
No-one really prepared him for this kind of focus. “For me it was on-the-job training, and you just sink or swim. You learn to never take it too seriously because it’s going to be gone some day.”
Efron is so lusted after by women that comic book writer Mark Millar admits he campaigned for Efron to play the superhero geek in the movie version of Kick-***.
“My entire idea was that any guy would pay $10 to see someone beat the **** out of Zac Efron,” said Millar. Efron not only accepts the backhanded compliment, but is deft enough to throw in a story of his own.
“Right when ‘High School Musical’ was getting popular, one of my cousins very excitedly told me that there was a huge I Hate Zac Efron club at his school. I’m sure they’re doing great.”More power to them."
As well as using humility to defuse schadenfreude, Efron comes across as a genial, hard-working young man who is only slightly impatient with his part-time job as a teen heart-throb. He frets about sounding arrogant in interviews - "I have a lot to l
earn," he assures me, fervently and frequently.
He says he tries to avoid saying things that attract gossip. "I get asked about other actors and celebrities, and I've noticed that people who make the cool movies and stick around tend not to be the ones who are famous for their personal lives. And my personal life isn't that interesting anyway."
It started getting interesting when he was 16. Before then Efron was living at home, and twice a month his mother would drive him 145 miles to auditions in Los Angeles. He got a few bit parts on TV shows but if he couldn't get more regular work he was going to head to university. He was just about to buy his folders and files when an actor friend told him he'd tried out for a Disney musical. "The only thing that separates me from a few hundred other brown-haired, blue-eyed actors is that audition," he says. "I never forget that."
Trying to get us to forget High School Musical may be more difficult. He's always careful to acknowledge the career break he got by playing a sporty student with a bowl haircut who just wants to save money for college and sing about it to his mathlete girlfriend, but at 22 he's keen to move on. His next few roles will determine if he stays a teen idol or becomes a star that adults without kids could recognise. He turned down a remake of Footloose, the 80s high school musical, to free up time for more mature films such as Charlie St Cloud and Richard Linklater's period piece about an aspiring actor, Me And Orson Welles.
The road from tween idol is a perilous path, littered with the failed attempts of previous dreamboats du jour. Does anyone still take David Cassidy's calls? Me And Orson Welles won plaudits but modest box-office success so there's a lot riding on the soft-focus Charlie St Cloud. The director is Burr Steers, who directed Efron before in last year's age-switch comedy 17 Again, as well as the superior 2002 black comedy Igby Goes Down, and for the first time Efron plays someone his own age, struggling with the death of his younger brother (Charlie Tahan).
"The emotional aspects really rang true to me," says Efron. "Having left home at 17, I've been on the road ever since and I left my brother Dylan behind. Suddenly, my little bro is fending for himself in high school and I'm not there to guide him through that whole thing. Now he's 18 and going to college so he's not my little brother any more, but we're starting to become even better friends than we were."
By the time Dylan finishes his freshman year, his big brother will have made two more films, including a rumoured Nicholas Sparks project in which he plays an Iraq veteran who falls for two women.
But the career he'd most like at the moment, he says, is that of his girlfriend Vanessa, who he visited on the set of her new action movie Sucker Punch. "I watched her beating the hell out of stunt guys," he says. "She's incredible - but at the same time I was so jealous because it looked so cool."
Adult screams instead of teen shrieks? No-one seems more eager to grow up than Efron.
The Death And Life Of Charlie St Cloud is on general release from Friday
