Alcohol, drugs, work became an escape, his means of filling up “some sort of hole” inside

May 1, 2014 19:03 GMT  ·  By

Zac Efron is returning to the big screen with the R-rated comedy “Neighbors,” which he’s promoting with a new, no-holds-barred interview with The Hollywood Reporter. For the first time, he’s also addressing those pesky rumors about his wild partying, addiction, and rehab stints, which may or may not have happened, depending on which media outlet you believe.

All of that was true, he tells THR, though he strongly denies the version of the story of the beating he got on Skid Row that says he was out to buy drugs. That was just a very misfortunate event, an accident because his car just happened to run out of gas in LA’s most infamous drug area.

Still, Zac doesn’t deny that he went to rehab, and even opens up on the topic of his addictions, explaining how alcohol, drugs, and work became his sole refuge, his vain attempt at filling a void that could not be filled, as he later found out.

“There was something lacking, some sort of hole that I couldn’t really fill up. [Work] started to become the reason to go anywhere, the reason to talk to anybody. The phone calls I received were regarding [work], the ones I wanted to make were regarding scripts or to producers. Slowly but surely, I was no longer living in my house. It was just hotel to hotel. So my hobbies went out the window. I was just so deep into my work, it was really the only thing I had. I clung to it in a way that became a little bit destructive,” Efron explains.

He drank a lot and he did a lot of drugs, but he refuses to say to which substance in particular he was addicted. Growing up in Hollywood is all sorts of glamorous and, while he would not trade places with a regular Joe, he also speaks of the perils that lurk at every corner with such a lifestyle.

Efron doesn’t say it in these exact words, but he’s the perfect example of child star gone off the rails: fame came to him early in life and in a way he never imagined it would happen. As he was growing up, temptations inevitably came his way too and he didn’t know any better to try and resist them.

He promises he’s better now. “Without those moments where you feel like your lowest, it’s impossible to appreciate the high ones. But I sit here in front of you today much happier and healthier than I’ve probably ever been,” Efron says.

Today, he attends AA meetings and does therapy sessions, and describes his addictions as a “never-ending struggle,” but he remains optimistic that he will eventually make it out on the other side healthy and sober. THR is convinced that, if he keeps this up and continues to seek roles that stimulate him as an artist, he’s poised for “a career reinvention.”