Zac Efron has a face that screams "teen dream." The combination of his dreamy baby blue eyes, perfectly coiffed hair and bronze skin gets teen girls everywhere all fired up — which is probably why it seems he was born to play basketball stud Troy Bolton in the "High School Musical" franchise.
But with Troy graduating from high school, Efron isn't satisfied to be just the Disney pretty boy. He's already lined up a few more films, and his two upcoming projects find him showing his chops as an actor and a teen heartthrob. Efron is set to star in another teen flick, "17 Again," as well as a literary drama about Orson Welles.
Efron is also slated to start work on a remake of "Footloose," in which he'll reprise the role made famous by Kevin Bacon. Earlier this month, Bacon gave Efron his blessing, and Efron is pumped about the endorsement. "It's great," he said. "I couldn't be more excited. He's the man."
A role Efron would really like to sink his teeth into is the one he's rumored to have in the recently announced fourth installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean." Efron thinks it would be "awesome" to join the cast but denies knowing anything about it. "No one has talked to me about it," he insisted. "I didn't know anything about that. [But] cross your fingers for me, guys!"
In the end, he owes it all to "High School Musical," a film series that has given him the chance to live out his childhood dreams of acting. "A lot of high school wasn't as fun. But it's really been a high school experience for a lot of us," he said. "We've been through a lot together."
And, this time around, one scene in particular — a dance sequence for the song "The Boys Are Back" — really solidified his love of dancing on the big screen. "When we got to the junkyard, everything just opened up for us," he explained. "We had all these props and cars. It was like a dream come true. I've wanted to do that since I was, like, 5."
Efron admitted that he loves the challenge of trying to make dancing look hip and masculine for the film — and it was a challenge he took on without any reservations. "I mean, we're guys," he said. "We're always going to try to do the most guy version of a dance. We're gonna look different than when we do the same moves as a girl."
