KEY POINTS:
Zac Efron in Hairspray, and right in the High School Musical role that made him hugely popular.
Every year or so, a new teen idol emerges on the Hollywood scene with looks that guarantee magazine covers, fill theatres and send girls around the world into a tizz.
Some
of these idols - let's say Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio - stick around long enough to shrug off the teen heart-throb tag, make serious movies, perhaps play a boozed-up pirate or a drug addict, and score Oscar nominations.
Others - let's say Leif Garrett - fade from the spotlight and become drug addicts.
Some - think the male cast of Beverly Hills 90210 or Dawson's Creek - just quietly fade away.
The new kid on Hollywood's teen idol block is Zac Efron, a blue-eyed California lad with Hollywood triple treat skills that should set him on the Depp-DiCaprio track.
The 19-year-old can sing, dance and act on stage or the big screen and, with all that talent, has emerged as Hollywood's most marketable teenage property.
Physically, he's a bit of a wimp. He's only 175cm tall, but if you have a daughter aged six to 18, he is probably stapled on one of her bedroom walls.
It's good to reveal that in person, Efron is a nice fella.
He arrives for our interview in a Los Angeles hotel in a crumpled green vintage T-shirt and faded Diesel jeans, without a posse of publicists or an entourage of friends.
There's a reason, Efron says, for him staying so down to earth.
"My family and friends are waiting for the chance to chop off my head if it gets too big. I have a whole heap of people willing to do that.
"When I go home my little brother won't even let me sit in the front seat of the car. I'm like, 'Dude, give me the front seat'. You'd think being the older brother by over 4 years would give me the right to have the front seat."
The front seat of the car at home may not be available, but Hollywood is willing to roll out the red carpet for Efron.
One of his first high-profile gigs was alongside Australian actor Ryan Kwanten in the 2004 beachside American teen TV series, Summerland, but his breakthrough role was in Disney's phenomenal TV movie High School Musical last year.
The premiere of the sequel, High School Musical 2, created TV history in the United States last month when 17.24 million viewers tuned in to Disney's pay TV channel, making it the most watched broadcast in American cable TV history. Not surprisingly, Disney is planning a third High School Musical, and Efron's pay packet will be boosted from US$3 million ($4.38 million) to US$5 million.
New Zealand and Australia are also receiving a strong dose of Efron over the next month or so.
His first big screen musical, Hairspray, co-starring John Travolta, Christopher Walken, Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah, Amanda Bynes and Nikki Blonsky, is playing at cinemas in both countries.
High School Musical 2 will screen on Sky's Disney Channel on Saturday, and Efron will host Australia's Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in Sydney on October 10.
His path to stardom began when his family noted his singing ability and signed him up for professional lessons.
That led to stage productions near his home town of Arroyo Grande, on California's central coast.
Efron then went to Los Angeles where he found the auditioning process a new experience.
"My first audition was pretty funny," he recalled. "I was probably 14 or 15 and, because I was coming from the stage, I was used to projecting to the back of the room in auditions.
"The audition was for Peter Pan and the scene was for this really sweet, tender moment between Peter and Wendy. But I was screaming at the lady filming the audition and she was backing up the camera and freaking out while I'm spewing out this monologue from Peter Pan.
"At the end, she stopped the tape and politely said 'You've never done this before have you?'
"I was like 'No'.
"She said 'See you next time'.
"That was my first audition."
Efron also had a few early jitters in rehearsals for Hairspray, a re-make of John Waters' classic 1988 musical and the Tony Award-winning Broadway version.
Set in Baltimore in racially-charged 1962, the new Hairspray involves plenty of complex dancing and singing scenes for Efron and his castmates.
"Zac dropped me," says Brittany Snow, who plays one of Efron's character's love interests in Hairspray.
"Not just dropped me, but really dropped me."
Efron laughs when he hears Snow's light-hearted complaint, and agrees that she's telling the truth. He dropped her on his first day of dance rehearsals.
"It was really intimidating," he explains. The first time I ever met Brittany we were in a dance studio.
"I was sitting in a back room watching her as she ran through all her dances, and of course she was perfect.
"I was sweating bullets, thinking I was going to be horrible.
"I'm not really a dancer; other than what I've done for High School Musical, I didn't really know that much.
"The first thing the choreographer did was throw me into a hard partner dance with Brittany.
"She'd been dancing for the past few weeks with professional choreographers, and I came in not really knowing how to control the girl when you're dancing.
"I had just met her, I was sweaty, and the first thing I did was drop her on a wood floor. I justthought 'It's over. I'm done'. But Brittany forgave me."
Efron's character in Hairspray, Link Larkin, is popular with female fans because of his starring role in the afternoon TV variety show, The Corny Collins Show.
In real life, Efron is not doing too bad on the dating scene. He has been romantically linked with his High School Musical co-star, Vanessa Hudgens, but he is not willing to talk about it.
"I don't want to talk about my private life," he says.
He will admit, but only after a little badgering, that he has used his musical talent to woo a girl.
"Okay," he says. "There's probably been one instance where I've sung to a girl to be romantic. I can play two songs on my guitar and I really don't try too hard. I've sung a song to a girl with a guitar."
What song?
"It's a song by Ben Harper and it's called Walk Away."
Walk Away? The title sounds like it would have the opposite effect on a woman.
"Ahhh, but you have to listen to the words," Efron smiles.
- AAP
