From Tween Fantasy to Serious Actor: Zac Efron Restyles

With new film "Charlie St. Cloud," Zac Efron shows off his acting chops.

ByABC News
July 20, 2010, 4:44 PM

July 21, 2010— -- Four years after he shot to superstardom in "High School Musical," Zac Efron, 22, is working to re-fashion his image as more than a tween fantasy.

With his starring role in the new film "Charlie St. Cloud," Efron, the young man with the perfect smile, the sculpted abs, and the oh-so-styled locks, is showing off his acting chops.

In the new film, to be released July 30, Efron plays a man wracked with guilt for surviving a car crash that killed his little brother.

"When I read the script, I recognized that this was a brand new challenge,'' Efron told ABC's Neal Karlinsky. 'Could I do it, I don't know?' And that was exciting at the time. How do you go there, how do you reach those emotional scenes?"

And there are many tear-filled moments in the film.

The film was a strategic choice for a young actor trying to navigate Hollywood's sometimes treacherous waters.

Efron's big break came with Disney's wildly successful "High School Musical," released in 2006. (ABC News is a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company.)

Efron played Troy, and emerged from the generation-defining juggernaut as one of the hit film's brightest stars.

He started acting at the age of 12. And like the characters on TV's "Glee," Efron says something clicked when he realized he was a "theatre geek."

"When I got on stage, I found that not only could a lot of people not do those things but they were dead afraid of it," he said. "You know, I didn't have that fear, so I remember one day I was walking around school and some guy that I used to play basketball with goes, 'Oh there goes the theatre dork,' and I was like, 'yeah that's right. Here I am, I'm the theatre dork."

His mother made the three-hour drive from the family's middle-class California home to Hollywood so he could audition and eventually land bit parts on shows like "ER" and "Summerland."

As his star rose, Efron said he has not forgotten where he came from or what is important. "That was just always important to me, I've always been able to get along with everyone," he said. "I've never been in a fist fight, I've never really crossed anyone cause I've never really felt crossed."