King of the Whirl

Fame Sneaked Up on Zac Efron, but Its Arrival Is No Surprise

BALTIMORE -- Once upon a time, a teenager named Zac Efron lived in a modest house in Arroyo Grande, on the central coast of California, with his parents -- who both worked at a nuclear power plant -- and his little brother, with whom he shared a room. He was a straight-A student and was shooting to get into a good college. He liked to sing in the car. He had a thing for old musicals, like "Grease" and "Singin' in the Rain." He did regional theater as what he calls "a hobby."

"Really, I grew up and led a very normal life," Efron says.

Still, his mom agreed to drive him back and forth to L.A. -- three hours each way -- to attend casting calls. He got guest parts on a few shows, then a recurring role in a short-lived TV series called "Summerland."

Then Efron got cast as Troy Bolton -- a basketball star with a secret passion for singing -- in this little made-for-TV Disney movie called "High School Musical." His cast mates? "We were all nobodies," he says, except for Ashley Tisdale, who was considered pretty cool for having a regular role on the Disney Channel sitcom "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody."

Ka-boom.

Want to know what it's like to suddenly, out of nowhere, become the biggest teen sensation not only in this country, but pretty much the world? Witness the scene at last month's premiere of "Hairspray" -- at 19, this is Efron's first role in a major film -- at Baltimore's Charles Theatre:

There are girls as young as 4 lined up dozens deep, screaming his name, holding up handmade signs with lopsided hearts inscribed upon them and clutching the autograph books sold at Disney World. In the parking garage across the street, preteens lean over the concrete wall, blowing kisses. Mothers -- yes, women in their 40s -- swoon ("Oh! He's so cute!" says Kit Hedrick, there with her 11-year-old daughter, Maddie). The movie's stars, John Travolta and Michelle Pfeiffer, may not be at this particular premiere, but does it even matter? It's all about Zac.

"At the London premiere, we had people lining up in Leicester Square at 8 a.m. in the rain and they were there for Zac," says "Hairspray" producer Neil Meron. "All for Zac. Everywhere we go, they come out for Zac."

What's it like to be a teen heartthrob? To wake up one morning and have your poster on the walls of girls everywhere? To go from the theater kid at school who studied like mad and never really did team sports to the on-screen epitome of the star high school athlete with the blond good looks and the hot girl?

"I'm in the twilight zone," Efron says.

In person, he comes across as a sweet kid. He's dressed all suave, with the gray silk shirt and tie, and the vest, and the black pants that emphasize the slim-hipped dancer thing he has going on, his hair dyed a dark brown with dark blond streaks. Still, he blushes, he gets embarrassed when asked about his love life, he backtracks wildly when he thinks something he has said might be misconstrued as showing ego. Like when he's asked about the similarities between his own current life and that of his "Hairspray" character, Link Larkin, the teen star of a Baltimore dance show.

"Well, Link is just on this local show and he's looking for his break," Efron says.