Zac Efron has a cold. O.K., he doesn’t, but I must admit that as I prepared to interview him, I sensed I was having a Gay Talese moment, and so I couldn’t help but start this piece by evoking Talese’s famous 1966 profile of Frank Sinatra. Like Sinatra, Efron is monumentally well known — facially, anyhow. Hollywood is a magnet for opinions, the public has been thirsty ever since the lights to the iconic sign were switched on, and while technology and the media have changed how information is digested, curiosity and gossip have only intensified certain aspects of the human condition.
One of Zac’s admirable qualities is that his trajectory to (stratospheric) stardom came, unlike Sinatra, from a very young age, where the cultural tendency is for the general public to demand every detail of a performer’s private life and to obsess over his or her ups and downs. And yet, as a result of what I can only assume is an abundance of prudence — a mature head screwed firmly onto young shoulders — precious little is known about Zac, his passions, his personality, and his private life. The phenomenon that was High School Musical turned the then teenaged Efron into an instant pin-up, vulnerable to all of the as-yet-unaddressed dangers that young stars face when a press corps and a screaming fan base stare back.
A king has emerged from a pulchritudinous harlequin, and Efron’s place now is as the sensitive hero.
At this point I want to settle) hearsay about private matters, but the context in which Zac and I talked — notably the limitations of the actors’ strike in the U.S., which was ongoing when our interview took place — meant that I was able to dwell on Efron the man, and his motivations. In his journey so far, a king has emerged from a pulchritudinous harlequin, and his place now is as the sensitive hero, statesmanlike and dignified.
