I love celebrities as much as any millennial. I talk about their gossip as if they told me first hand, I try to wear what they wear, I imagine my life as their significant other… you know, the normal stuff. So when I heard that one of my many #MCMs, Zac Efron, was going to be playing a notorious serial killer, Ted Bundy, I was saddened by the fact that his icon status may change.
How can the man that was once a Disney kid become such a terrifying character? Years of practicing the art of acting and being dreamy af so that people are willing to let you serial kill them. Let’s take a moment to look back and appreciate the course of life Zac took to get him here.
HSM (2005): He sang (or lipsynced in the case of the first) and danced his way into our hearts, all the while dribbling a basketball. How could you not be weak in the knees watching such a talented pretty boy on your tv screen? Troy Bolton and his friends taught us that there are no stereotypes that can’t be broken. Follow your heart and who cares what the haters say!
Hairspray (2007): But the musicals didn’t stop after graduation! Hairspray had a star studded cast and adding Zac to the credits only made that movie better. A cute guy who falls in love with the non-popular, and not conventionally pretty girl? Dreams come true; end scene.
Charlie St Cloud (2010): And then we started seeing his serious side. As a young man who experiences tragedy, Zac could not sing or dance his way into happiness here. He goes through the motions of sadness and grieving and I believed every second of it.
The Lucky One (2012): You know you’ve made it as a male heartthrob when you’re in a Nicholas Sparks movie. As a PTSD ridden war vet, Zac goes on search for the woman who saved his life even though she is a complete stranger. That romantic notion of military men isn’t all lies, let me tell you.
Neighbors (2014): With his looks, he was bound to be cast as a dumb jock sooner or later. And boy did he own it. Cast next to the almost-as-dreamy Dave Franco, he made us want to find the fraternity closest to us and party like it’s 1999.
Dirty Grandpa (2016): If you can act alongside Robert DeNiro, I think you can do it all. If you can act alongside DeNiro while wearing the tightest Nantucket reds possible, I know you can do it all.
Baywatch (2017): Baewatch (sp??)… I haven’t even seen this yet but I know it’s going to be solid gold. Zac, The Rock, a beach setting, what more could anyone want?! The Academy better give this man an Oscar before I start a protest and get a march going up and down those Hollywood streets.
I’m not sure how this psychological thriller will pan out, nor do I know when it premiers, but I know I’ll see it. And I’ll drool. And I’ll wish he had killed me. Zac Efron can literally do no wrong. Plus he seems like a sweet guy-next-door type and I would love for him to be my neighbor even if he was up drunk at all hours of the night waking up my baby. As long as that baby was his. Jus sayin’.
Featured image via “File:Lily Collins & Zac Efron 2.png” by MTV International / CC BY 3.0
