Zac Efron trades tan for turntables

From left, Alex Shaffer, Zac Efron, Jonny Weston and Shiloh Fernandez star in We Are Your Friends. Photo / AP

American heart-throb reshapes his hunky physique to play an aspiring DJ searching for his hitmaker track.

US actor Zac Efron lost the tan - and nearly 10kg - to play an aspiring DJ in We Are Your Friends.

And the former teen heart-throb says it was worth the effort.

The 27-year-old actor acquired a few tricks of the music-making trade to portray DJ Cole Carter and is more than keen to show off his newfound knowledge when asked.

"I have DJ'd before. I haven't done it properly, I've had a lot of help," he explains.

"There's definitely a lot of buttons and a lot of knobs, but once you get the hang of it and you spend enough time on that deck, you're going to get a kick out of it.

"I would say I'm proficient at it, but by no means am I going to be headlining any wrap parties or anything like that."

California-born Efron trained with Swedish DJ Alesso and Los Angeles-based DJ and producer Jason Stewart, known as Them Jeans.

"DJing is hard, definitely much harder than I thought it would be. It's truly an art form," he said.

His role in We Are Your Friends marks a bit of a departure for the actor, who shot to worldwide fame through Disney's High School Musical in 2006. The movie, which also starred his then-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens, became a huge hit, spawning two sequels, a concert tour, a stage adaptation and a reality TV show.

Since then, he has starred in romantic dramas The Lucky One and New Year's Eve, gritty thriller The Paperboy and comedies Bad Neighbours and That Awkward Moment.

This time, his chiselled good looks and hunky physique put him at a slight disadvantage for the part in Max Joseph's directorial debut.

The director, better recognised as Nev Schulman's sidekick in Catfish: The TV Show, admitted: "When I first met Zac, he was big and buff from doing Bad Neighbours. I explained to him that most DJs don't eat well and spend all night long at their computers, not sleeping. And they don't have perfect tans because they're not out in the sun."

So sports-lover Efron, who is dating model Sami Miro, shed almost 10kg before filming started in June 2014.

We Are Your Friends follows Efron's character, Cole, who is on a quest to find the one track that will give him a hit, which leads him to question his life and friendships along the way.

He finds a mentor in the more experienced, but troubled, DJ James Reed, played by Wes Bentley, until he falls for his younger girlfriend, Sophie (Emily Ratajkowski, from the infamous Blurred Lines music video).

Efron is now back in gym mode, in preparation for reprising his role as Teddy Sanders in the Bad Neighbours sequel, due out next year.

Beefing up will come in handy when he starts filming for the planned Baywatch movie too, alongside Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, whom he has to out-swim.

- AAP