Zac Efron Grows Up

Saturday 28th November 2009 - 08:15:24

Zac Efron and Claire Danes star in the new Richard Linklater film 'Me and Orson Welles', a coming-of-age drama set in 1937 New York. The film tells the story of a teenager (Zac Efron) who is plucked off the streets and hired to star in Orson Welles' production of 'Julius Caesar'. Zac's character becomes attracted to a career-driven production assistant played by Claire Danes and although Richard is eventually sacked from the theatre, he leaves with a whole new perspective on life.

The film, which is based on Robert Kaplow's young adult novel of the same name, blends fictional characters with real ones. Zac Efron plays a fictional Richard Samuels who is given a small part in Orson's play, which truly was performed, to great success, at New York's Mercury Theater.

Zac, 22 - who first found fame in Disney films such as 'High School Musical' and 'Hairspray' is already a huge hit with teenage audiences - and joined the cast of 'Me and Orson Welles' in what is being considered a break-out role for the young actor.

In a similar move, Claire Danes, 30 - who first made her name in the television series 'My So-Called Life' and is most well known for her performance in 'Romeo and Juliet' - has regarded this role as a comeback performance. Claire - who has had a couple of years off from big screen roles has recently been making a name for herself on stage instead.

BANG Showbiz spoke to Claire and Zac about why the film appealed to them, how it was to work as on-screen lovers, as well as reflecting back on the career moves they've previously made.

Q:  Zac did you feel this was your time to break out from the mould that we'd had you in for the past few years with the 'High School Musical' films?

ZAC: Yes, I recognised that this was a pretty unique opportunity and I remember when I got the phone call that Rick had a script that he would like me to read, and I was so excited that I remember running home to read the script. And I read it and I was very pleasantly surprised that the part was pretty big and that wasn't exactly what I'd expected. I was me, which was pretty cool. I could be me. So I was very excited and yes I was looking for that opportunity not to necessarily change my image or anything but for a good role that was a new challenge, that was something fresh and interesting. This was it.

Q: Were you concerned at all that your teenage fan base would not have even heard of Orson Welles?

ZAC: Not really concerned. I thought this was a good opportunity to reveal to them the genius that is Orson Welles, you know perhaps the fans that don't know about Orson will maybe have more of an opinion when they start to study it at school, more of a perspective into the early life of this American icon.

Q: Claire, your character sort of hovers on the outside and doesn't get involved - would you say she's more of an organiser?

CLAIRE: Yes organising things or creating chaos in the life of one young man. That was never intentional, but yes I play Orson's girl and she's very ambitions and very forth right about that, she's unapologetically so.

Q: What was it like to flirt with Zac Efron?

CLAIRE: Tough. It was amazing, firstly the dialogue was very special, and it's very rare to find writing of this quality. It's very witty and engaging and I had a lot of fun with this, mincing around on stage but yes scenes like that were very tender and Zac's amazing.

ZAC: Yeah, the dialogue made me look really good.

CLAIRE: No! I was really delighted to discover how fine an actor he is. It's true really. And he can move very well. We did some dancing lessons for that brief scene in the dance hall and that was very humbling. Zac was much quicker than I was - a co-ordinated guy.

ZAC: It was the first time I actually led. It was great.

Q: You shot the film in a theatre in the Isle of Man ... Zac, how was that for you?

ZAC: It was great. I was looking forward to that seclusion. From what I'd heard it was a pretty cool place and that there weren't a lot of people there you know, I can't tell you how appealing that sounded. Anyways, I found out there's a whole lot of people there. And we met most of them. I mean I felt pretty welcome.