Most of your fans (including this old soul) support you because you have always come across as such a darn nice, down-to-earth, level headed guy. You have always emitted kindness in both word and deed. Even to those who are downright mean to you. Even to those who use you to promote themselves and gain attention. We saw your acting potential in Summerland, The Derby Stallion and Miracle Run. We also spotted that special something about you . . . charisma.
Jesse McCartney said Zac "doesn't have a mean bone in his body."
I've always believed that. But, something has changed recently, and I've begun to wonder if we fans even know the real Zac Efron. Of late, it seems that you are willing to sell your soul to the devil in exchange for success as an actor. Or to ensure that a particular movie will be a success.
In the past few months, some of your actions and interview comments have created an explosion of Internet debate in an effort to understand what you're all about these days. Some devotees have vowed to abandon the fandom ship because of all the snafus and insensitive comments you made during the promotion of 17 Again. These recent incidents also bring to everyone's mind your Hairspray promotion snafu two years' ago. Some disappointed fans don't like you anymore. You are evil.
GQ: “That was such bullshit,” he says. “I’m definitely not getting married. In this business, you’re either getting married or they want you to be pregnant. I’m not getting married until I’m 40. If ever. The thought never crossed my mind.” Is this the real Zac Efron?
No one would have raised a brow had you tactfully said, "No, we're too young to get married." Instead, your brash statement brought a barrage of negative media attention to the relationship you work so hard to keep private. Ryan Seacrest announced it over and over and over—"Is Vanessa furious with Zac over what he said about never getting married?"—before showing the short segment. And because of your hasty comment, your girlfriend was put on the spot. But her answer was more appropriate than yours. She simply said she was too young to think about marriage and kids because "I'm only twenty."
GQ: "That's where fucking Britney Spears lives."
Hmmmm . . . what was that all about? What has Britney ever done to you? I hope you were complaining about the paparazzi. But, since the GQ article poked fun at you—the young HSM guy who has no right to utter Paul Newman's name—I will believe they put you on the defensive. You came across as bitter and angry. Is this the real Zac Efron?
Berlin Interview: You've never spoken about marriage with your girlfriend?
"No."
After nearly four years together? OUCH!!! That's gotta sting. Women all over the world felt that insensitive barb. Why not a more subtle response such as "That's personal." You know . . . kept it private.
Photoshoot with a naked model: We know . . . it just kind of happened. Isn't that what you said? You had no control over it? God, isn't that the lame excuse every man on earth uses for every blunder he makes, including cheating? Did "rolling around" with a naked model make you feel more grown up? Did it give you a deep-down-good-inside-feeling about yourself? Or did you feel the need to justify it to your family and friends? Is this the real Zac Efron?
A Gift to Perez Hilton: A gift, even in jest, to a malicious, dishonorable, lower-than-scum excuse for a human who repeatedly defaces your girlfriend's pictures and verbally degrades her for the entire world to see—the girl with whom your relationship is supposed to be "sacred ground"—that, Mr. Efron, is a blatant slap in your girlfriend's face. Doesn't make you look good. Is this the real Zac Efron?
If you did send such a gift, you are immensely naïve or have a sensitivity chip missing. Have your endeavors to succeed in the entertainment world become more important than your principles, straight-thinking, sensibility and personal values? Or did someone else send the champagne as a joke in order to make you look like a fool? Not one of your friends, I hope.
Two years ago: During Hairspray promotions you held your costar's hand on the red carpet, brushed hair from her face, and patted her knee in interviews. You even kissed her on MODTV—the kiss seen around the world. Movie promotion or not, that is not fitting behavior when you have a girlfriend—a girlfriend whose ring you were wearing, a girlfriend who was going through her own private hell and humiliation back home. Not once did you ever speak about her situation or defended her in any way. Was that the real Zac Efron?
Many fans were willing to forgive you for the Hairspray debacle, though. Why? Because you were young, inexperienced, and allowed people to talk you into prostituting yourself for a movie promotion.
Keeping your relationship private is one thing; publicly degrading it is a whole other matter. Your young fans who have never been in a relationship are taking note. They are confused. Who are you? What is your agenda?
You're twenty-one now. Almost twenty-two. You've been around the block a few times in the movie promoting department. You know the ropes. Time to straighten your suspenders and act like a man. And please fire whoever is advising you to transition from a tween idol into a cougar magnet. If you want to be taken seriously for your acting, focus on your acting in interviews—how you get into character, how you stay there, how difficult or easy it is.
No need to talk about how Ashton Kutcher has the cougar thing down and your making out with Leslie Mann in the movie. (Were those scenes cut? I saw the movie four times and missed them.) A marketing ploy? You bet. Did it bring in thousands of cougars? Or more men? I seriously doubt it. I do know, however, that such talk turned off a lot of your fans. It made you sound tactless and insensitive. Why? Because we all know Leslie Mann has a husband and you have a girlfriend. It's one thing to do a love/sex scene in a movie, but to gloat about it in promotions makes you sound like a fourteen-year-old boy. Not a man.
When Hugh Jackman was asked about his hot kissing scenes with Nicole Kidman in Australia—the interviewer ask if there was something "going on" between them. Hugh, simply said, "What you see there is good acting."
Since I'm far older than you, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I'm inclined to believe there's an apprehensive boy inside that man's body. And that boy is still allowing others to make career decisions for him. Like many young people your age, especially in the entertainment industry, you are feeling the pressure—pressure to ensure that your movies will be successful, pressure to somehow prove that being grown up equates to sounding tough: blitzing us with the F bomb.
Maybe the real Zac Efron needs to take a step back and decide what is important to him and what kind of fans he really wants.
If you want the Perez Hiltons of the world to be behind you, from what I've seen in recent interviews and behavior, you are certainly headed down the right path. But, if you want to keep your hard core fans—the young fans and their parents who latched on to you in Summerland, The Derby Stallion, Miracle Run and the HSM movies—you need to remain true to yourself.
Someday, you may look back and regret that, in your bid for success, you were insensitive to someone close to you, someone who has feelings, someone who stuck with you through the bad as well as the good.
With all that said, I don't think your loyal fans will hold against you a few missteps along the way. You are just starting out on the road of life as well as the one of your career. I still have high hopes for you. I don't think you have totally lost your way.
But remember. . . .
He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.
..........Raymond Hull
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
..........e.e. cummings
One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes . . . and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.
..........Eleanor Roosevelt
