For years, Zac Efron was held up as the blueprint for the “perfect male” in Hollywood. Between his High School Musical days, the shredded physique, and the endless internet obsession over his appearance, the actor has spent much of his adult life under a microscope.
While Efron stays busy working, he’s been quietly building a new life in Australia. And in a recent interview, he got candid about the extreme lengths he would go to maintain his physique, and a mental switch he recently made.
In an interview with Heat magazine, the actor opened up his preparation for 2017’s Baywatch, admitting the body millions of fans envied came with a mental price tag. “The shape I was in for Baywatch wasn’t sustainable,” Efron said, per DailyMail.
“I wasn’t happy living the way I was to get in that shape,” he admitted. “These days, I place a much bigger priority on my mental health.”
© Backgrid/The Grosby GroupThat admission marks a big shift from the Efron many fans saw just a few years ago. In a Men’s Health interview in 2023, Efron spoke about his body and diet with the discipline of someone locked into optimization.
He talked about intermittent fasting, strict meal timing, bone broth in the mornings, carefully measured protein intake, and carb cycling around training.
Efron talked about Baywatch as the most extreme physical transformation of his career, revealing he followed a rigid eating regimen built around “clean fish or meat with sweet potatoes” for the entire shoot.
© The Grosby GroupAt the time, there was almost a clinical precision to how he approached his body. He even admitted that for certain roles, deprivation became part of the process. “The toughest diet I’ve ever done for a role? Probably just not eating,” he said bluntly.
While Efron once spoke about discipline as part of the job, he now wants to protect his peace. “It’s taken me a while to get there, but my biggest motivation is to be happy in both my professional and personal life,” he told the magazine. “For too long, I only focused on work, and I neglected my personal life.”
© Backgrid UK/The Grosby GroupThat perspective feels especially significant given the public scrutiny he has endured in recent years. In 2021, social media exploded with speculation about Efron’s face after an appearance in Bill Nye’s Earth Day special. His jaw quickly became the subject of viral posts, memes, and endless plastic surgery rumors.
The internet dissected his appearance with brutal intensity, prompting widespread speculation about cosmetic procedures. Efron later shut down those rumors, explaining that his changed appearance stemmed from a serious injury.
After slipping and hitting his chin on a granite fountain, he said he lost consciousness and shattered his jaw, causing surrounding facial muscles to overcompensate during recovery.
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