Efron's experience on Hairspray made him hungry for more substance and big-screen success. He was reluctant to sign on for HSM2, and did even more tortured hand-wringing before committing to HSM3. Ultimately, he decided that he owed it to the fans and to himself to complete Senior Year before he could graduate. ''This felt like a good final chapter of HSM for me,'' Efron says of the film. ''The fans basically demanded we make it. So this was our opportunity to do everything to the best of our abilities on a big screen.'' Plus, there's no underestimating the appeal of getting paid for singing and dancing and maybe even kissing his real-life girlfriend on the big screen. ''After three movies together, Vanessa and I feel free to do whatever we want, and we're just kind of silly and uninhibited,'' he says. ''It felt like the best working vacation I've ever taken.''
You don't often hear a 20-year-old superstar throwing around terms normally uttered between a couple of suits on the commuter train. But Efron hopes that by taking his job seriously, he'll make audiences take him seriously. Earlier this year, while shooting 17 Again, he worked a whole day on set despite excruciating stomach pains. Everyone joked that he had a bad case of gas and suggested he down some Beano. But Efron suspected something more dire. ''I'm sitting in between takes, just off set, debating whether or not an alien was going to pop out of my stomach,'' says the actor, who was later taken to the hospital with a case of appendicitis that nearly killed him. Even so, he was so worried about delaying the production that he was back at work two days later performing an emotional scene in which he breaks down in tears proclaiming his love for the woman (Leslie Mann) whom the grown-up version of himself had let slip away. ''I was one organ lighter, but I had to get back,'' he says nonchalantly. ''Not only was I putting 17 Again in danger of not finishing, but I was also potentially threatening Me and Orson Welles.''
NEXT PAGE: Efron's next immediate challenge? Facing off against some EW staffers on PlayStation 3's Rock Band.
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