14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since he shot to international fame and heartthrob status with “High School Musical,” Zac Efron’s popularity came at the price of never-ceasing gay rumors. He addresses them and much more in his first interview with The Advocate magazine.
The mag is specifically targeted at the LGBT community, one which also supports Zac in most of his endeavors.
He starts by recognizing this support as vital to his career and noticing that it shouldn’t have taken him and The Advocate so long before sitting down for an honest chat / interview.
Speaking of honesty, Zac wants to be known for this quality so he cuts to the chase directly: he’s not gay but, if he were, he would come out because there’s really nothing wrong with it.
“I don’t like to live in fear about things like rumors and backlash to begin with — that’s the way I was raised — but I just can’t see what’s so wrong about being gay,” he says very matter-of-factly.
Granted, this won’t stop the rumors from making the rounds regularly but it should, at the very least, offer his fans (both female and male) the certainty that he’s being true to them.
Zac also talks a bit about his career and how he’s trying to be more fearless with each new project he takes up. On that note, he doesn’t rule out playing a gay character which, he imagines, would be quite the challenge.
“I’d never take a role just for the sake of playing gay, but I’m always looking for a role that’s challenging, different, and entails some risk, so there’s no doubt in my mind that one of those characters will be gay at some point in the future,” he tells the mag.
“It’s always interesting to delve into unexplored territory, and that would be a new avenue for me. I definitely wouldn’t be afraid,” Zac continues.
In the same interview, Zac tackles the topic of marriage equality, working with gay director Lee Daniels on “The Paperboy,” which also stars Nicole Kidman, and the possibility of going back to Broadway someday.