Zac Efron Recalls Moment He Knew High School Musical Was Going to be “Cool”

Zac Efron is getting nostalgic for his High School Musical days.

In a recent sit-down with Vanity Fair for their “Scene Selection” series, Efron rewatched some of his old movies and gave fans a little behind-the-scenes tidbit for each. The actor went through his roles in films including Neighbors, The Greatest Showman, The Iron Claw, his most recent movie, A Family Affair, and of course, the role that launched him into stardom, High School Musical.

“First thing that comes to mind is that I really drilled all those shots,” Efron said as he watched a clip of him performing ‘Get Your Head in the Game’ from HSM.

“There’s no CGI in there,” he joked. “I don’t think we had the budget for that. So that makes me feel good.”

Efron recalled how “young” and “incredibly motivated” the whole team of actors were while filming the Disney Channel original movie. Because it was a made-for-TV movie, Efron explained that it was a quick and small shoot.

“We had a very condensed shooting schedule and very limited rehearsal time,” Efron said. “[Director] Kenny Ortega had pretty big ambitions for this movie. But I think he was pleasantly surprised when all the boys were like excited to not only fulfill what he wanted but to take it one step further.”

Efron famously played the lead role as Troy Bolton — a high school basketball star who is torn between his ambitions with the sport and his love for musical theater. Typical! He starred alongside Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Corbin Bleu, and more.

When it came to the basketball sequence with the actors dribbling and dancing in sync, Efron said the cast only practiced it two days prior to shooting.

“After like five takes, we nailed it. Like we got it all in one,” Efron explained. “They didn’t cut from start to finish, and all of us were blown away.”

He continued: “I think that was the first time all of us went, ‘Is this gonna be cool?’ This felt really cool. It was a really special moment and I’m still just proud of all those guys for doing that. ‘Cause it was hard.”

After airing on Disney Channel in 2006, the franchise became one of Disney’s biggest successes — spawning two sequels and a spin-off series. When the sequel premiered the following year, it set a cable viewership record with 17.2 million viewers. The third film received a theatrical release and raked in $250 million at the global box office. Efron has said he would be “seriously” down to return for a reboot of the films if the opportunity ever arose.

The films flung Zac Efron into mainstream success and kicked off his career. But looking back on clips from the first movie, Efron had a huge smile on his face and seemed to remember it fondly.