Zac Efron
The High School Musical heartthrob is one of Hollywood’s most in-demand leading men. He talks about his career, island fun and his latest film.

High School Musical heartthrob Zac Efron is one of Hollywood’s most in-demand leading men. Zac talks to Pure Movies about his new film Me and Orson Welles, how his career is progressing, and the delights of the Isle of Man.

What drew you to Me and Orson Welles?

Zac Efron: I recognised immediately that this was a pretty unique opportunity. When I got the phone call that Rick [director Richard Linklater] had a script that he would like me to read, I was so excited. I remember running home to read it.

What was your reaction after reading the script?

ZE: The role was pretty big and it was not exactly what I expected. I was the “me”. That was pretty cool, I can do me!

The character you play in the film is very different to your previous roles…

ZE: I was looking for that opportunity, not to necessarily change my image or anything, but for a good role that was a new challenge.

Is this why you decided to drop out of Footloose?

ZE: Footloose didn’t happen for a number of reasons. It just felt like territory that I had already explored, as opposed to trying something brand new, which is a bit riskier and a whole lot scarier. But so much more interesting.

With your career progressing so quickly, do you have a plan for the future?

ZE: I’m not sure, it’s kind of day to day. I am very specific about scripts that I like and I don’t have a master plan. I am very much playing it by ear and things just happen and undeniably you go that way, I don’t have a path I am following.

You filmed on the Isle of Man. Did you know where it was before you went?

ZE: No, I didn’t know where it was!

Did you have legions of screaming girls following you around?

ZE: I was looking forward to the seclusion, from what I heard it was a pretty quiet place, I can’t tell you how appealing that sounded!  Turns out there are a lot of people there, I think I met most of them and I felt pretty welcome!

Did anything funny happen when you were on set?

ZE: One of the guys in the cast was really good on the ukulele (which Zac had to learn for the film) and we would all improvise songs about people in the cast. We made one about Claire [Danes, his co-star].

How did it go?

ZE: Where’s Claire, Claire is not there, Claire has the prettiest hair – that was one thing I’ll never forget – it’s not a very good story! It is clean though….

What is the worst audition you’ve ever done?

ZE: My first ever audition was for the film Peter Pan and I had just done the play version so I thought, who could be better? I showed up to the audition, and on stage you speak to the back of the room, you project – so that’s what I did. When we finished, [the casting director] interrupted me and said, “You’ve never done this before have you?” That was the worst audition, I ever had in my entire life – I wept about that one.

But it didn’t put you off?

ZE: Not at all are you kidding?!