Just a regular guy…

Well, you all know we like to share the very worthy articles with our readers, so it is no surprise that this one made it to an Entry. One of the latest (and best) interviews with everyone’s favorite blue-eyed hunk, Zac Efron.

Here, he talks some about his family, how he perceives his own fame, some peculiar ways his life has changed since he became Mr. Popularity… and Zac even says a little something about his on & off-screen girlfriend, Vanessa Hudgens.

Read it, enjoy it and just sigh along with what he says about her!

Interview: Zac Efron Is Looking Beyond The Lockers.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – There’s something you need to know about Zac Efron.

Despite the phenomenon of High School Musical, despite an international stardom that he never expected, despite an acceptance that his life will never be the same, it’s the smaller things that continue to count.

Things like family and his passion for old cars. Which is why, whenever he has the opportunity, Zac heads up the California coast to his hometown of San Luis Obispo.

“My grandpa’s helping me rebuild this 1965 Mustang convertible,” he explains enthusiastically. And when he talks about that automobile, which was given to him by his grandfather, a different Zac Efron emerges – the Zac Efron who cares less about receiving the Teen Choice award for Choice Male Hottie in 2007 than he does about maintaining a connection with reality.

“I’ve always treated acting as my hobby which is the way it started for me, ” he tells Canwest News Service. “It’s always been my creative outlet. I went into it for fun.”

He accepts that the huge success of the High School Musical franchise thrust him into a new celebrity culture, and that the Oct. 24 theatrical release of High School Musical 3: Senior Year will have an even greater impact on his life, but he insists that he hasn’t changed.

He may be the dashing and romantic Troy Bolton to millions of adoring fans, but Efron is still his own person.

“I’m determined not to let the Hollywood side of things take over my life. So it’s always been about the work for me. I don’t want that to change. My family’s been on this crazy adventure with me. I call home and we laugh about the things that happen. It’s very surreal.”

Casually attired in a sports shirt and neatly pressed jeans, Zac is chatting on the eighth floor of a Beverly Hills hotel. He’s so relaxed and friendly and laid back that you wouldn’t know that he and co-star (and real-life girlfriend) Vanessa Hudgens had to be brought into the building under security conditions so tight that even journalists had to wear identification tags this weekend. But he and his family continue to take it all in their stride.

“There were small things we needed to deal with, like having to change our phone number,” he grins. “It’s a little something extra to talk about at family dinners.”

At 21 he’s reached the point where he’s convinced that if he is to have a performing career beyond High School Musical, he will have to branch out.

Which is why he’s excited about two other movies awaiting release – Me and Orson Welles and 17 again – and about the prospects for a new film version of Footloose. But he’s also conscious of how much he owes to High School

He and the film’s cast say they would do anything to make the new film – the first to be released theatrically – a success.

Number 3 proved the toughest physically so far – but he’d been warned in advance by director Kenny Ortega.

“From the very first day, Kenny made a point of really challenging us. I remember I wasn’t particularly confident in my dancing, and it still tends to be the weaker aspect of my musical performance. But in this third movie, I feel that we all have grown in a lot of ways. We felt more prepared this time.”

And they needed to be prepared.

“The pressure was definitely on this time,” Zac remembers.

No more so than in one of the film’s most astonishing numbers which sees Efron and a nimble-footed Corbin Bleu perform The Boys Are Back, a fantasy rock duet that takes place in a junkyard at night.

Efron says the scene required razor-sharp timing and gruelling preparation. Before it’s done, he and Bleu roll a giant tire, play at sword fighting and dance on the tops of cars.

“The junkyard was the most physically demanding musical number we had ever attempted,” Zac says now.

“That was a real junkyard. Actually, it’s one of the only all-auto junkyards in the United States, and it happens to be in Utah, a few miles from where we were filming. It was amazing how different the dance became with the transition between working on the number in a studio and moving to an actual junkyard setting.”

Utah was the shooting locale, but the setting remains Albuquerque, New Mexico, and East High School where Troy (Efron), Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) and their friends are now in their senior year and facing new challenges about their future lives and relationships. Before the film is done, Troy and Gabriella will have sung a love duet in Troy’s tree house and – a definite first – waltzed in each other’s arms on the roof of East High School.

Zac continues to be astonished at the success of High School Musical which began as just another Disney cable movie.

“When we set out to make the first movie, we had no expectations. We weren’t trying to make a statement in any way. We were close to being the sixtieth Disney Channel movie, so we had no idea we would in any way surpass our predecessors. But that’s probably one of the reasons High School Musical was successful. We came in with that youthful naivete.”

So why did it take off so spectacularly?

“I’ll tell you. When I was growing up and the age of our fans, I watched nothing but musicals. And then, when I got older, they kind of went out of fashion.”

Efron, who in real life performed in shows like The Music Man at school, thinks Hollywood had wrongly assumed there was no young audience for such fare.

“So I think High School Musical filled a void. Obviously, it’s something that this generation’s youth was craving.”

What’s important about the new film, he suggests, is that the kids are turning into adults. Troy is an example.

“He’s just growing up. The character is very identifiable with kids growing up all over the world today. And Troy seems like `everyguy’ to me. That’s what I’ve always liked about him.”

And, of course, working with Vanessa Hudgens was as always a professional and personal joy.

“The first time I met Vanessa, I was blown away with her beauty and her charm and elegance. They were effortless. I noticed that at the very first audition when we paired up together and we hadn’t known each other at all.”

Any 21-year-old who has managed to play both the title role in The Music Man on stage and Troy Bolton on screen can already claim versatile musical credentials. Zac deeply admires performers who can do both musicals and straight drama – people like John Travolta, Ewan McGregor and Kevin Kline – and he would like to be within their ranks. But first, he has to prove he has acting chops, and he hopes that will happen with the two films slated for release next year.

In Efron’s case, it was a need to establish himself as an actor, despite the enticing prospect of a major career in music when American Idol’s Simon Cowell put out feelers to him.

“It wasn’t a direct offer. He was simply asking if I wanted to pursue that because if I did, he wanted to work with me. But I had already determined my goals. I figured that it was going to be hard enough to shake High School Musical in terms of having a professional career afterwards, and it seemed to me it would be even more difficult with a straight music career. It would be difficult to balance two very different aspirations, and for some reason, the music side wasn’t as appealing to me.”

Like if he wasn’t lovable enough, he has to go and make us swoon saying things like that! (*not that I would ever complain though!!*)…. So, if this makes you want to have a boyfriend just like him, don’t worry you are not alone. But, if it actually makes you want to have HIM as a boyfriend -and then probably also marry him and have his kids- you must remember girls, he is very much taken.

Zac Efron is gorgeous; he might be the knight in shining armor of your dreams, the envy of other guys all around the globe, and lots of other things. But above everything else, he is just a normal, regular 20-year-old who only wants to work, play video games, ride his skateboard, live his life and be in love.

source: Dose.ca