I Asked Zac Efron About What Roles He Gets Stopped About, But I Was Not Expecting His Reaction To Hairspray

Zac Efron’s latest role in Netflix’s A Family Affair has The Iron Claw star playing a fictional actor whom the public cannot get enough of. In one scene, his character, Chris Cole, is stopped in the midst of his assistant getting medical care by the doctor after she walks in on her boss getting intimate with her mother (played by Nicole Kidman). The medical professional gets completely sidetracked by Cole being there and stops to ask him how he did a specific scene in one of his movies. Of course, Efron must deal with this all the time!

So when I sat down with the actor and his co-star Joey King, I asked them what they have gotten stopped for that perhaps they were not expecting. Here’s how the answer played out:

Zac: “I think yeah, anything from when you're a lot younger. It's funny 'cause you like have to go back there in your mind.”

Joey: “Do people talk about 17 Again?”

Zac: “Yeah…”

Joey: “I thought it was special.”

Zac: “I mean that was such a fun experience to work with. Matthew Perry of course was magical and a lot of people wanna know what John Travolta was like for Hairspray.

Joey: [Goes into impression of him] “And, I am Link!”

Zac: “I think I did that like a hundred times.”

Joey: “I love it so much.”

Zac: “That was so fun. Such a dork.”

Joey: “No, it’s my favorite every time. It's so funny, literally when that movie came out, I screamed when you did that. I was like ‘Ah!’”

Zac: "Aw, you made my day."

A “dork”? Excuse me?!!? Much like myself, Joey King grew up at a time when Zac Efron was the heartthrob of heartthrobs. It, of course, started with the phenomenon of the High School Musical movies and continued to grow as he booked more Hollywood roles.

Efron shared that the “deep cut” references that people come up to him about that often shock him have to do with what he did in his younger years, because at this point, that was a long time ago for him. But I’m absolutely shocked that the actor thinks of himself as a “dork” and actually hid his face in embarrassment over mention of the role. It goes to show that no matter who you are, we’re all dealing with our own stories in our heads about not being good enough. That being said, it was funny to see Efron cringe a tad about his younger self, because don’t we all?

Joey King jumped in to ask if asking about 17 Again is popular, which definitely seemed to be the case. It also feels like following the death of Matthew Perry last year, more people, including himself, treasure that film. As Efron pointed out, he’s approached quite a bit for his role in 2007’s Hairspray, particularly for co-starring in one of John Travolta’s best movies. I think a rewatch of Hairspray is in order!

You can stream A Family Affair with a Netflix subscription starting June 28. Check out what other Netflix movie and TV show releases dates are headed our way this summer.