Zac Efron takes a walk down memory lane as he rewatches scenes from his classic works including 'Neighbors,' 'High School Musical,' 'A Family Affair,' 'The Greatest Showman,' 'The Iron Claw' and more. Zac dishes on being blown away by Dave Franco's DeNiro accent in 'Neighbors,' getting everything in one take for 'High School Musical' without any cuts and more.A FAMILY AFFAIR premieres globally on Netflix June 28, https://www.netflix.com/AFamilyAffairDirector: Funmi SunmonuDirector of Photography: AJ YoungEditor: Jimmy ChorngTalent: Zac EfronAssociate Producer: Emebeit BeyeneTalent Booker: Mica MedoffCamera Operator: Lucas VilicichAudio Engineer: Paul CornettProduction Assistant: Liza Antonova; Fernando BarajasSet Designer: Leah Waters-KatzPost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Scout AlterSupervising Editor: Doug LarsenAssistant Editor: Andy Morell
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Get your head in the game, we gotta get it, get it, get it, get it, head in the game.
00:03Woo!
00:05I really drilled all those shots.
00:07There's no CGI in there.
00:08I don't think we had to budget for that.
00:10That makes it feel good.
00:11Hi, I'm Zac Efron, and I'm going to rewatch some scenes from throughout my career.
00:15Some of these are probably going to be pretty visceral.
00:19But some of them are probably going to be really fun.
00:20I have no idea.
00:22All right, here we go.
00:30What are you wearing?
00:38What are you doing?
00:39We're throwing a Robert De Niro party.
00:41Oh.
00:42Should be pretty fucking loud.
00:44It's probably going to go pretty fucking late, too.
00:46I'm a taxi driver De Niro.
00:48Yeah, I meet the fuck as De Niro.
00:51I'm watching you.
00:52I'm watching you.
00:53That's dead on.
00:55Did you do that yourself?
00:56Yes, I did.
00:57Yes, I did, fucker.
00:59Oh my god, that's so funny.
01:02Wow.
01:02I remember this day, oddly, like very vividly.
01:05There was so much going on.
01:06Seth is so good at improv.
01:08He's like, Seth is, to this day, is one of my favorite actors of all time.
01:11In this scene in particular, I remember really not having a De Niro impression,
01:17like a very good one at all, and just kind of knowing I was going to be winging it,
01:21and hopefully betting on the fact the worse it was, the funnier it would be.
01:24And it worked out.
01:26I was blown away, though, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere,
01:29Dave Franco had completely nailed his De Niro impression.
01:34Like, he just crushes that.
01:37Are you talking to me?
01:39Yes.
01:39Yes.
01:40Are you talking to me?
01:40He literally looks like him.
01:42He looks like De Niro.
01:44So I'm here, like, up front, sucking, doing taxi De Niro.
01:48And then he comes out and says, yeah, you, fucker, I'm talking to you.
01:52I was like, did you practice this?
01:55It was so funny.
01:56I was like, what the fuck?
01:57Dave's killing this.
01:58Who are you?
01:59Oh, I'm Sam Jackson, you know, from Jackie Brown.
02:02What the fuck?
02:03Hoo-wah!
02:04Hoo-wah!
02:04Hoo-wah!
02:05Hoo-wah!
02:05Hoo-wah!
02:06Hoo-wah!
02:06That's not even, yeah.
02:07Scent of a woman?
02:08Hoo-wah!
02:08Hoo-wah!
02:09Hoo-wah!
02:09Hoo-wah!
02:10Hoo-wah!
02:10There's no persistence in here.
02:11Seth and Rose doing what they do so well, which was just naturally
02:14reacting to this ridiculousness outside the window.
02:17The hoo-wah, hoo-wah, like, that's not even De Niro.
02:20That's Pacino.
02:21And I don't remember who did it first, but someone did it.
02:23And we all just started copying it.
02:26Seth's reaction to it was very genuine.
02:28It was like, that's not even, you guys, it's not even an impression.
02:32And we just kept doing it to make him upset, because it was making him mad.
02:35And it stayed in.
02:36That's one of the most fun movies I've ever filmed.
02:38So grateful for that and that experience.
02:41Man, I feel like I'm back there.
02:42I haven't watched this.
02:43This is crazy.
02:43I never watch this stuff.
02:45This is insane.
02:46It's cool.
02:47I know they're making it look like I do this, but I don't do this.
02:49I really don't.
02:53["Fake Right and Break Left"]
02:57Coach said to fake right and break left.
03:00Watch out for the pick and keep an eye on the fence.
03:02Gotta run the give and go.
03:03Take the ball to the hole.
03:04And don't be afraid to shoot the outside, yeah.
03:08First thing that comes to mind is I really drilled all those shots.
03:11There's no CGI in there.
03:12I don't think we had to see the budget for that.
03:14So that makes me feel good.
03:15That just takes me back to where all of us were at, all the young men on that team.
03:21We were so young.
03:23And so incredibly motivated.
03:26Not many people know this, but High School Musical was just a made-for-TV movie.
03:30And it was very small.
03:31So we had a very condensed shooting schedule and very limited rehearsal time.
03:35Our choreographer, Chuck, he was actually in that shot.
03:37And Kenny Ortega had pretty big ambitions for this movie.
03:41But I think he was pleasantly surprised when all the boys were excited to not only fulfill what he wanted,
03:48but to take it one step further.
03:50This whole sequence with the basketballs and the dribbling in that movie,
03:53we started practicing with basketballs.
03:55And I think we might have practiced it for two days prior to doing all that in sync.
04:02We probably had maybe two, three-hour rehearsals with basketballs.
04:06After five takes, we nailed it.
04:08We got it all in one.
04:10They didn't cut from start to finish.
04:12And all of us were blown away.
04:13And I think that was the first time all of us went, is this going to be cool?
04:20It felt really cool.
04:21It was a really special moment.
04:22And I'm still just proud of all those guys for doing that.
04:26Because it was hard.
04:27It was hard.
04:27You can't predict where basketball is going.
04:30A lot of people got hit in the face.
04:32It was hilarious, man.
04:33It's so funny.
04:35I just see I look so light in my feet in that.
04:37Oh, my gosh.
04:38Oh, wow.
04:39Oh, I love you, Kenny.
04:40I miss you guys.
04:41Man, that's bringing it all back.
04:43I haven't watched that in years.
04:44That's crazy.
04:51Bye, Chris.
04:52Bye.
04:54See ya.
04:54Oh, my God.
04:55You're not Jack and Rose.
04:57Just get out of the car.
04:58Get out of the car.
05:04What do you want?
05:05I didn't come here looking to have sex with your mom, all right?
05:08I came to your house looking for you so I could offer you this job.
05:12Oh, God.
05:15Joey's so good in that scene.
05:16She's so great in that.
05:19You know, I had seen her earlier work from when she was a little bit younger,
05:23and I noticed back then that, like, she was just acting beyond, you know,
05:30anybody else I'd seen at her age.
05:31We had so much fun working together as we kind of got back to that place
05:34where we were in that De Niro scene.
05:35Like, that was the kind of the shape of the scene that we had planned,
05:39but a lot of that stuff we added our own, like, flavor to, which was really fun.
05:44Celebrity?
05:44She didn't sleep with a celebrity.
05:45That's derogatory, okay?
05:47I'm a movie star.
05:47She slept with a movie star.
05:49Okay, I don't remember saying that that way.
05:52I wanted there to be a clear delineation between Chris Cole and, like, myself.
05:58As much as I can relate in ways to things that Chris might be going through,
06:05I think the way that he handles it is very different from myself.
06:10I got to play, like, the worst version of somebody experiencing fame
06:15and sort of the fear and the imposter syndrome that comes with that.
06:19On the one hand, I'm still, like, starstruck every time I see her.
06:24So that's—and it's never—I don't think it's ever going to change.
06:26It's weird, even to this day.
06:28I really just am, in a sense, just always going to be in permanent awe of her.
06:32I don't know.
06:33I've got a deep trust and, like, respect for her that I think just makes it fun.
06:39Like, I look forward to scenes with her, and there's very little stress.
06:42I just got to get past that initial,
06:45you're Nicole Kidman, and we're doing a scene together.
06:48Okay, cool. Let's go.
07:13I saw that one back fairly recently.
07:15My friend invited me over for dinner, and he's got quite a few kids, and it was just on.
07:19I realized I had entered a trap.
07:21So I sat there, and 20 minutes later, we were all, like, up singing and dancing
07:26and doing, like, acrobatics on the couch.
07:29It was really fun.
07:30I mean, I love—musicals are very, very near and dear to my heart.
07:34I think they always will be.
07:36Michael Gracie.
07:37I think Michael Gracie and Hugh—
07:39they're incredibly special people.
07:40I think that Michael is such a visionary.
07:43I can admit that at the time that he came to me and sort of pitched this film to me,
07:48a musical was probably not the first thing I was looking for at the time.
07:52Then he sort of played me the music and talked me through his vision,
07:56and it was one of the most ambitious but also well-thought-out explanations of a story
08:05but also well-thought-out explanations of a story
08:08that I've ever experienced.
08:10This is—it's kind of similar to working with Sean Durkin on The Iron Claw.
08:14It was very clear that Michael Gracie had this in his dreams,
08:19and he was going to bring to life a very vivid dream
08:22that meant something very special to him and was not one to compromise.
08:27So if you're going to make a musical, you better make it damn good.
08:30And I felt like this was a chance to make it good.
08:36We're going to the other side.
08:38So if you feel like it, to the other side.
08:41So if you feel like it, we're going to the other side.
08:44The choreography for this scene was actually pretty extensive.
08:47All of those shot classes, we really did that.
08:49And the guy in the middle, his name's Cloud, he was extraordinarily talented.
08:53And we practiced for weeks and weeks to get that right.
08:56To not mess that up was—we had to catch them all in the right timing,
09:00drink them on the right timing, send them back, catch new ones,
09:04do dancing in the middle, and not mess up the words.
09:06And it was really hard.
09:07It looks effortless, and I'm happy that it looks that way,
09:09but that's how Cary Grant is.
09:12It seems effortless, but there's a lot of rehearsal that goes into that.
09:15I love seeing that back. That's wild. It's crazy.
09:28The way that he revealed Zendaya's character, that was such a cool thing.
09:32And bless her heart, she really did that.
09:34Every time, she flew from across the room on a trapeze,
09:38and then went into her close-up a lot.
09:41It was very impressive.
09:43I mean, Zen's the best. She's great.
09:45She's down for anything. She's super brave.
09:50I've got so much respect for Zen.
09:51I hope we get to do something again in the future. She's the best.
09:54I'll never forget it. It's really nice to watch this stuff with you guys.
09:57It's weird, I'm getting emotional over this. It's crazy.
10:02You okay, Dad?
10:04Hey, I'm sorry.
10:07I'm sorry, boys.
10:10You shouldn't see me like this.
10:13A man doesn't cry.
10:15Sean Durkin, the director of this movie,
10:19had a very carefully drawn-out plan for the execution of this film,
10:23and of course, on purpose, put this scene,
10:26probably very much last night,
10:29in the film, and I think it was for good reason.
10:31Kevin Von Erich was never meant to be seen crying,
10:34because the family was not allowed to show weakness.
10:37And I thought that was a really fantastic note from Sean,
10:40and a brilliant kind of thing to guide me through the movie.
10:42And there were a lot of scenes, I think, earlier in the film,
10:44that warranted tears.
10:46I wanted to cry a lot during this movie,
10:48and he was just saying,
10:50no, hold it back, hold it back for the right moment.
10:52But then this day came along. It was the last day of filming,
10:56and I couldn't hold back tears.
10:58And all I'm thinking here is,
11:00don't cry, dude, you're going to have to do it again.
11:02Like, Sean's not going to go for this.
11:04And when they said, you know,
11:06we'll be your brothers, I just lost it.
11:08We'll be your brothers, Dad.
11:10Yeah, Dad, we'll be your brothers.
11:12I thought I'd ruined the take at that point,
11:14but I decided to stay in it.
11:16And when we finished, the boys kind of ran away,
11:18and we continued the take, and I looked up at Sean.
11:20I was about to apologize.
11:22He's like, no, that was it.
11:25I was like, really?
11:27So this was the first time, I think,
11:29that he wanted Kevin to experience this emotion.
11:31So I was happy that Sean was happy.
11:33It's a cool scene.
11:37Well, thank you so much, Vanity Fair.
11:39Thank you for watching.