Zac Efron Reveals Moment He Realized 'High School Musical' Would be Special, Talks Filming Iconic Scene
Zac Efron revisited the movie that turned him into the star he is today – High School Musical.
The 36-year-old A Family Plan actor was only a teen when he was cast in the Disney Channel movie alongside the likes of Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale.
It turned out to be a huge success, birthing a franchise that ran three movies and led to an eventual spinoff TV series.
During a recent interview, Zac revisited the 2006 classic and reflected on one of its most iconic scenes. He also revealed the moment when the cast realized that the movie had the potential to be special.
Keep reading to find out more…
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Zac watched back his performance of “Get’cha Head in the Game” and recalled the huge challenge of filming it.
If you were not aware, in the scene Zac‘s character battles with his love of basketball and the stage as he and his basketball teammates execute some intense choreographed feats.
“First thing that comes to mind is I really drilled all those shots. There’s no CGI there. I don’t think we had the budget for that,” Zac revealed. “So that makes me feel good.”
He continued, explaining the true challenges of the scene: “Not many people know this, but High School Musical was just a made-for-TV movie, and it was very small. So we had a very condensed shooting schedule and very limited rehearsal time. Our choreographer, Chucky, is actually in that shot, and Kenny Ortega [the director] had pretty big ambitions for this movie.”
For Zac and his teammates, the scene wound up being a big one for him.
“But I think he was pleasantly surprised all the boys were excited to not only fulfill what he wanted, but to take it a step further. This whole sequence with the basketballs and the dribbling in that movie… We started practicing with basketballs, and I think we might’ve practiced it for two days prior to doing all that in sync. We probably had maybe two, three hour rehearsals with basketballs. After like five takes, we nailed it. Like, we got it all in one,” he said.
He continued, saying, “And all of us were blown away, and I think that was the first time all of us went, ‘Is this gonna be cool?’”
“This felt really cool. It was a really special moment, and I’m still just proud of all those guys for doing that. ‘Cause it was hard. It was hard. Like you can’t predict where the basketball’s going. A lot of people got hit in the face. It was hilarious, man,” he said.
After revisiting his other musical, The Greatest Showman, Zac said that the genre is “very, very near and dear to my heart.”
He recently revealed if he was interested in filming another musical.