  Zac Efron stars in 17 Again. (Handout) |
LOS ANGELES — At 21, Zac Efron’s growing pains have likely just begun.
Consider: The daunting transition he faces as he segues from teen heartthrob to legitimate leading man. How daunting is it really? Just ask John Travolta and Michael J. Fox. Or, more cynically, Kirk Cameron and Scott Baio.
So maybe it’s appropriate Efron’s first solo movie outside the formidable High School Musical franchise concerns an awkward transformation of another sort: Namely, adolescence, albeit unspooled in reverse. In 17 Again, Efron stars as the teenage version of a 37-year-old husband and father (former Friends star Matthew Perry) who, through an inexplicable leap in cinematic logic, finds himself de-aged two decades. For Efron, the slapstick fantasy — with its echoes of Big, Back to the Future and Freaky Friday — represents the truest test yet of his box-office appeal. How come? Because while Hollywood seems eager to crown him its new prince, the question remains: Can he attract moviegoers who aren’t 1) teenage girls and 2) screaming?
“I want to be well-rounded, a renaissance man, so to speak,” Efron tells journalists at a news conference in Beverly Hills. “That’s what I’m trying to go for ... This was exactly what I was looking for. It was that chance to switch it up.”
Well, sort of. Granted, at no point does he burst into song, but make no mistake: 17 Again, which opens Friday, contains plenty to satiate his hard-core followers.
There’s basketball! A high school! Even some dance moves! But it also smartly surrounds him with veteran actors (Perry and Leslie Mann, among them) to appease 20-and-30-somethings, and offers up a script that’s neither edgy enough to offend his base, nor saccharine enough to repel potential newcomers.
A flop is unlikely. Rather, it will probably further affirm Efron’s meteoric ascent from middle-class roots: His father was a power plant engineer, while his mother was a secretary. Now thanks to the phenomenon of the Disney HSM franchise (the last of which earned $90 million at the North American box office), he’s estimated to be worth as much as $10 million US, according to Forbes magazine. A far cry from the days when he was just an “average” high school student.
“I was pretty cool until freshman year of high school and then it was downhill until I was about 17,” Efron remembers. “And then something happened and it all came back. But that was the time I was average — I worked hard, got good grades. I was not so cool, so to speak.”
Even now he describes his circle of best friends as “geeky fun-loving guys.”
Still, downplay it as he might, the professional pressure on Efron is intense. The coming months — and years — will determine the shape of his career. If he still has one.
One good sign: Hollywood, desperate for young commodities, is convinced of his potential. Already, even before 17 Again’s release, there is talk he will star as the title character in a live-action adaptation of the animated adventure series Jonny Quest. More film offers will follow.
As producer Adam Shankman (who also directed Efron in 2007’s Hairspray) puts it: “He’s already got the girls to such an extent that guys hate him ... If he wants to go do Blackhawk Down or have the option to work with (directors) Michael Mann or James Cameron, you’ve got to mix it up. But that kid is literally talent wrapped in skin.”
In fact, while the original script for 17 Again centred on a man transformed into a 14-year-old, the character’s age was upped to 17 to suit Efron, who now gets to play a person desperate to redo his life. Understandably, it’s a desire he can’t quite relate to.
“The number one question I’m getting (doing press for this movie) is, ‘If you could go back, would you change anything? If you could be 17 again, what would you do different?’ But this is the best job in the world; I’m having the time of my life. I wake up every day with a new challenge in front of me, whether it’s learning a new skill-set or doing interviews and press. It’s always fun and it’s always a challenge. I’m very happy with my life right now.”
When an interview his 17 Again co-star Melora Hardin (The Office) recently gave to Parade magazine is mentioned — one in which she said Efron is “struggling with his fame” — he counters, “I’m honestly not having a tough time.”
Moving forward, 17 Again director Burr Steers believes his star has more on his mind than celebrity or clout. “It’s about realizing his talent. The people he’s modelling himself after are real actors ... And he’s a hard worker.”
As an example of Efron’s commitment, Steers confirms during production of
17 Again, Efron had to have his appendix removed.
“We were shooting late at night and I noticed he was turning slightly green,” Steers says. “But he wouldn’t quit. He’s a very tough kid. He was making these horrible expressions between takes and I thought, ‘He must hate my guts.’ Then the next morning he was rushed to the emergency where he had an appendectomy. He called the next day to apologize for costing us a day of shooting. He’s an incredibly driven, hard-working kid.”
And a week after being hospitalized, Efron was back in the thick of the movie’s slapstick. “He’s so good at the physical stuff. I’d never seen anyone spin a basketball on their pinky before. Zac can do any physical trick like that.”
Zac taking next step…and it’s not a dance
LOS ANGELES — Zac Efron sounds ready to hang up his dancing shoes.
The teen idol — who’s to the Twitter crowd what John Travolta was to the disco generation — confirms he has bolted from a remake of Footloose, the Kenny Loggins-fuelled coming-of-age drama that made Kevin Bacon a star 25 years ago. Everybody cut footloose? Apparently not.
“I’m just looking for a change,” says Efron.
So you can probably scratch off any other musicals (original or redos) from Efron’s to-do list until the 21-year-old has shown he can carry a hit movie without fancy footwork.
“There’s so many factors that went into it,” he says of his decision to bail on Footloose. “There’s a million things and it was very difficult. But I’m excited (to do other things). I feel prepared and I’m hungry.”
What this means for the new Footloose is up in the air. While High School Musical 3’s Kenny Ortega remains set to direct, it will presumably be a harder sell without the star attached.
Instead, Efron may next re-team with his 17 Again director Burr Steers for the supernatural drama The Death & Life of Charlie St. Cloud. Jokes his 17 Again co-star Matthew Perry: “It’s still about a town that refuses to dance.”
Not quite. Efron would play a cemetery caretaker who strikes up a romance with a woman who may or may not be a ghost.
“It’s still in early development right now,” Efron says, stressing he has always considered himself an actor first, a dancer second.
“I did not dance at all before High School Musical. It was a skill-set I acquired for those movies. And even though I love it, there’s many more things out there to try.”
kevin.williamson@sunmedia.ca
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