Zac Efron interview

UK newspaper The Sun has published their interview with Zac Efron. Zac, of course, is in London because of the UK premiere of High School Musical 3:

HE is the biggest teenage pin-up on the planet and has been plastered on the front pages of newspapers around the globe.
But it’s not all good news for Zac Efron, who plays heart-throb Troy in movie sensation High School Musical.

In fact, one foreign newspaper even reported that he had died.

Zac, 20, said: “I was really shocked to find out — and my mom was real upset too when I called and told her.”

The third film in the series, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, premieres in London today.

The movie sees athletic Troy, who plays for the Wildcats school team, torn between a future in acting and basketball.

It is not a problem the 5ft 9in actor has had to face.

He said: “I played for a few years when I was at school. I remember a championship game when I was in the sixth grade.

“I gave away the ball at the last second and the other team scored.

“I lost the game for my team. It was pretty bad. It’s much more fun now because it’s usually in the script that we win.”

Zac claims that he isn’t much of a mover on the dancefloor either, which is hard to believe as the HSM series contains such breathtaking routines.

He said: “I’m definitely not a dancer. I grew up being into sports and I wasn’t trained to move my body in the right way for dancing. I’m the last one to get any move correct.

“In rehearsals it’s always, ‘OK, one more take for Zac’. ”

None of the cast had any idea that the Disney film would turn them into megastars. It was only when the soundtrack album went into the charts before the film was even out that Zac thought they were on to a winner.

He said: “One of my friends called and told me to look on iTunes — and there was High School Musical in the top five most downloaded albums.

“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ This was a week before the film even premiered on TV.”

Now he hopes it has opened the way to a future on the big screen.

He intends to concentrate on acting, where he can soon be seen in the film Me And Orson Welles, with Claire Danes.

Zac is loving the Hollywood life. He said: “I look at other jobs in the world and I’m just very grateful that I get to do this every day, to sing, dance and be with my friends. It’s crazy that we even get paid for it.

“I never set out to be a star or one-up anybody. Acting was just something I loved to do and always had fun with. That has been like a rule to me, to always remember that.

“I’ve never done things based on money. I’ve always tried to do the sort of things I’d dig myself and that I’d like to watch.

“I also think there’s a lot of luck involved, being in the right place at the right time.”

He was definitely in the right place at the right time when he got together romantically off screen with High School Musical co-star Vanessa Hudgens, 19, who plays Gabriella.

On the set of HSM3 they were often seen wrapping their arms around each other, sharing sweets between takes and holding hands.

According to Zac their relationship came along very “naturally”.

He said: “We are just very comfortable together as friends, as actors.

“We are used to it now. We have done quite a bit. It is not like being with a brand new person.

“We have grown to a certain level of comfort in these past movies over the years.

“Now it comes very naturally acting together.”

Director Kenny Ortega admits that he tried to keep Zac and Vanessa apart in the movie.

He said: “We tried to separate them and try them with other partners but it didn’t work.

“The magic was already there between them.

“Life imitates art. When Zac and Vanessa first auditioned for me they didn’t know each other.

“But the chemistry those two kids share was just there. It has always been there.”

Zac said: “We were the first ones to be paired up together in rehearsals and it pretty much stayed that way through all the auditions.”

First shown in January 2006 on the Disney Channel, the original High School Musical film featured a Grease-meets-Fame plot.

The Emmy Award-winning movie became the most successful Disney Channel original ever produced, and was followed by High School Musical 2 last year, making the too-cute cast household names.

High School Musical 3: Senior Year is the first story made for the cinemas — and promises to be the best yet.

Off screen, Zac and Vanessa have become staples in the showbiz columns.

Zac was brought up in California, had singing lessons from the age of 11 and was soon performing on stage and in TV shows.

He said: “We are really lucky to do this. But I think, from a publicity standpoint, things can get kind of crazy.

“We all have our own lives. I grew up as a regular person and want to keep it that way. In the new movie there are also a lot of great songs and every different kind of music.

“I hope the fans are going to love it as much as all of us do.”

High School Musical 3 opens in the UK on October 22.