Zac Efron was intimidated by Michelle Pfeiffer when he first worked with her.
The hunky actor starred alongside the veteran actress in musical 'Hairspray' in 2007 and will soon be seen with her again in romantic comedy 'New Year's Eve', and he admits he was more relaxed around her the second time.
He said: 'I had the chance to work with her on 'Hairspray', but I was very young and I was a little bit nervous to work with her, so I tended to say all the wrong things and I was very bashful around her.
'When I found out that she wanted to play this role, I was in 100 per cent, and it was really great.'
Zac initially rose to fame on musical TV show 'High School Musical' - which also starred Vanessa Hudgens, who later became his girlfriend - and he admits he has some very 'fond memories' of his time on the set of the teen franchise.
He told 'Daybreak' on ITV1: 'It's lovely to reflect. I'm very, very grateful for those days - they are some of my fondest memories and I'm still very close with all my friends so we get a good laugh every time we see it come on TV or anything like that.'
Director Garry Marshall and a stellar ensemble cast will ring in the 2011 holiday season with the romantic comedy ‘New Year’s Eve.’ ‘New Year’s Eve’ celebrates love, hope, forgiveness, second chances and fresh starts. The film stars Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Academy Award-nominee Abigail Breslin, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, two-time Academy Award-winner Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Hector Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Academy Award-nominee Michelle Pfeiffer, (YES! YES! YES!) Til Schweiger, Ryan Seacrest, two-time Academy Award-winner Hilary Swank and Sofia Vergara. ‘New Year’s Eve’ is set for release December 8th, 2011. Check out what Zac Efron had to say about the film below. Look out for a more in-depth interview with Zac Efron and the rest of the cast next week.
Paul is extremely fun loving. He meets the opposite of him in Michelle Pfeiffer’s character, Ingrid. Paul really helps her come out of her shell?
Zac Efron: Yeah. Paul is just this energetic, kind of cool, fun-loving character. I dunno, he’s like me on a good day (laughs). He just wakes up and he’s very excited about New Year’s. You can tell he just wants to party, he’s all about having fun. He meets his counterpart on New Year’s Eve, Ingrid is this very closed lady. You can tell she has probably never really celebrated New Year’s, ever. She’s just so quiet and meek. I dunno, I guess they just latch onto each other. Their fates are intertwined. Ingrid tells Paul that he can have 4 tickets to this midnight New Year’s Eve ball, if he helps take her around New York and helps her complete her list of resolutions – which she hasn’t completed in God knows how many years. And she came to the right place, because Paul’s the man (laughs), he can take care of anything. So he takes on this challenge and pretty soon they’re jetting off to all 5 boroughs on a Vespa, taking care of these resolutions. And some of them are pretty impossible, so Paul has to use his imagination, he can’t just take everything too literal – he’s gotta improvise!
I heard you and director Garry Marshall had a code word?
Zac Efron: (Laughs) The first thing Gary asked me wasn’t about character or motivation, it was, “What’s our code word?” I’m like, “Code word!?” He’s like, “Yeah, you’ve gotta give me a code word, so if you need anything you just say the code word. Then I can talk to you in private.” I’m like, “That’s brilliant, a code word?” He goes, “Where are you from?” I reply, “San Luis Obispo,” and he goes, “That’s the code word, anytime you need to talk to me, just say San Luis Obispo.” I was like, “I love this guy,” (laughs) he’s just awesome, really cool.
Do you have your own New Year’s Resolution, or personal goal?
Zac Efron: My resolution is to just stop talking about going and doing things, all the adventures I want to have in life, and just really go and do them. I’m 24, I’m not getting any younger. I want to go climb all these mountains, I wanna hike the Appalachian Trail, I still haven’t gone sky-diving – I promised myself that I’d go sky-diving when I was 18, and I still haven’t done that. I wanna check out China, India, there’s all these things I wanna go do. So I’d say that’s my resolution, just to go and get lost, do some Indiana Jones stuff (laughs).
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I will put my damn faith in Gary Marshall to not screw this up. After all, he and his sister gave us A League of Our Own, Big, The Princess Diaries, and Hocus Pocus. PLEASE don't let this be another Valentine's Day....ugh....
In terms of Efron...I used to despise him and the rest of the HSM cast because I honestly thought they killed Disney, what with brainwashing the youth of today and whatnot with their songs and....ugh it was torture. But anyway to sum things up....HE BETTER HAVE BEEN NERVOUS TO BE WORKING WITH SUCH A GODDESS.
