Growing pains

It’s only 11am, but it’s already been a full day for Zac Efron. He’s done the rounds of the local morning television shows, a task made more challenging by the logistics of getting him through the teen mobs that form seemingly everywhere he goes.

But Efron’s game to talk. At 22, he’s already a seasoned pro at the publicity game. With three High School Musical movies and the surprise hit 17 Again under his belt (not to mention the overlooked Richard Linklater film Me and Orson Welles), Efron knows his way around an interview. He makes lots of eye contact, treats every question as if it were brilliant, and formulates his answers carefully, fully aware that everything he says can and will be used against him.

He’s also disarmingly charming. Maybe it’s all that eye contact; he really is as cute as the photo suggests, in a delicate, elfin way, and he’s very earnest. Maybe he’s just relieved that I don’t start by asking him about his teen fans or his abs.

Efron’s in town to promote Charlie St. Cloud, a romance with a fantasy element about a young man stuck in a cycle of grief for his dead younger brother, whose ghost makes daily visits to play catch. There’s a love interest (of course), some sailing and a bit of drama about a missing girl. For Efron, it’s clearly part of his campaign to break away from the song-and-dance teenybop ghetto, even if the way out is through a soppy romance aimed directly at his fan base.

When pressed, Efron is willing to talk about the difficult transition he now faces. “People always talk about the transition. I don’t know how to describe it…I’ve never really been cognizant of it. Actors at any stage of their career have to deal with the same kind of obstacles. And that is just staying relevant, and making sure you make movies that are good and current and relatable to your audience.”

Still, he acknowledges that he’s trying to move away from singing and dancing; he walked away from a remake of Footloose, and he’s started his own production company so he can be involved in projects at an earlier stage. With a production company, “you have an element of control over your destiny, rather than waiting and being that last puzzle piece in a movie that’s already going to get made anyway,” he says. “I can’t tell you how many doors it has opened. Now we meet with directors who come to us and are actually excited about the meeting. They have a partner in this. Suddenly we’re a creative partner instead of just an actor.…It’s sort of an experiment right now. I want to make new things and different kinds of movies than people would expect.”

When I bring up Me and Orson Welles, he seems happy for the chance to talk about it. “The opportunity to work with Rick [Richard Linklater], who’s an amazing director…there’s no way I could turn down that opportunity,” he explains. “I looked at this chance as so golden and perhaps fleeting, and we went on that fun adventure. Rick always seems to be fighting to get his movies made. Being a part of that makes you feel sort of like a renegade. Getting movies made that aren’t associated with a brand or a preexisting toy is really hard to do these days.”

When it comes to the fame game, Efron plays cautiously. He doesn’t tweet and he isn’t on Facebook. He values his privacy, and he feels there’s already enough out there about him. “There’s blogs and things that follow you everywhere. Every single appearance you make and every photo is uploaded. It’s like a second-to-second update. It’s a bit scary sometimes.”

He’d prefer to be judged for the work. “I can’t help but enjoy the mystery that surrounds my favorite actors,” he muses. “The ones who you wish you knew more about them but you don’t. You don’t know everything they’re thinking. You don’t have access to their minds. I’ve sort of noticed over time that the actors I like keep their thoughts to themselves and perhaps use them in their work, but don’t use them to self-promote.” But Efron knows that promotion is what he’s here for; he rounds out our discussion of social media by mentioning that though he isn’t on Facebook, Charlie St. Cloud does have a page. Spoken like a pro.

Charlie St. Cloud opens Friday.

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