King of the Whirl
Fame Sneaked Up on Zac Efron, but Its Arrival Is No Surprise

By Jennifer Frey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 12, 2007

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.

And you, on the other hand, are already ferociously successful on a national stage?

"No! No! That's not what I'm trying to say!" Efron says. "Please, I don't want things to come out the wrong way."

Forgive him, because nothing prepared him for this. In fact, even when "High School Musical" (known as "HSM" to the initiated) premiered in January 2006, he had no idea what was coming his way. In what has already become industry legend, the movie became mammoth because of its repeat business: No matter how many times it re-aired, it kept getting huge viewership. The CD was the biggest seller of the year. It spawned a concert tour (without Efron, who was filming "Hairspray") and a sequel -- which will premiere Friday on the Disney Channel -- and there are already plans for a third edition.

With or without Efron.

Of all the stars of "HSM," Efron is the first to take his niche success to a different level. "Hairspray" was, he acknowledges, a big leap for him, and he almost blew the audition.

"The first time, I went in with this long blond hair, the surferlike look," he says. He hadn't done his homework. He didn't impress. And he didn't expect to be called back. But the producers figured they would be idiots if they didn't give it another shot.

"How can you deny Zac's popularity?" Meron says. "He's like the leading teen and number one thing out there right now, and Link Larkin is the leading teen idol in Baltimore in the movie. It came together perfectly."

On his callback, Efron says, he did more "nitty-gritty Link" and impressed enough to get the job.

"He's what a 19-year-old should be," says James Marsden, who plays dance show host Corny Collins in "Hairspray." "He's very intelligent, he's very talented, and he has zero ego."

Efron is a throwback to the days of Donny Osmond and Shaun Cassidy; he's the ultimate Tiger Beat pullout poster. He made People's "50 Most Beautiful" list. He got invited to the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. When he and 16-year-old Emma Roberts -- Nancy Drew in the recent film, and the niece of Julia Roberts -- posed together for a teen magazine cover, she asked him for an autograph for her little sister. And when he went to a Cheetah Girls concert, his presence caused such a commotion that security had to take him outside.

He's also seen the downside. While vacationing in Hawaii with Vanessa Hudgens -- his "HSM" co-star -- the twosome were beset by paparazzi, who snapped them nuzzling and hand-holding and generally confirming the rumor that they are an item.

"I don't want to be the 19-year-old kid who has his relationships all over the media," Efron says. "I approach dating in a very lax way. A lot of things can get blown out of proportion. I'd rather be completely anonymous."

Fat chance.

Efron is leveraging his success in some ways. He's still negotiating when it comes to signing on for "HSM3." And one of the big hush-hush secrets when "HSM" came out was the fact that most of Efron's singing was dubbed, using the voice of Drew Seeley (who also replaced him on the concert tour) -- in large part because the musical numbers were written prior to casting and the range wasn't suited to Efron's talents. In "HSM2," Efron insisted on doing his own voice work.

"I wanted to fully play Troy, and that involved singing," says Efron, who calls his voice "unpolished" and "not angelic," but who did his own musical numbers in "Hairspray."

As for the dancing, which is key to both "Hairspray" and the "HSM" franchise, Efron calls himself a novice who had to work "four times as hard" as his colleagues to get the moves down. His future dreams? He'd like to play "a heroic character."

For now, though, he's about to go through yet another round of "HSM" insanity, with little girls like Maddie Hedrick looking at him with those big, adoring eyes that have always been reserved for the "It" boy of the moment.

"He borrowed my pen," she says in what is almost a wail, as she stood outside the Charles, Efron having disappeared inside for the screening. "And he signed for everybody in my row but me!" Which, on the one hand, is a tragedy.

But on the other? Zac Efron touched her pen.