Zac Efron’s winning gambit

EFRON. Rigorous self-reinvention.

OF the young talents who got their break in the “High School Musical” movies, it’s Zac Efron who’s doing best of all, thanks to the astute career-development initiatives of his handlers and mentors.

At first, the young musical performer was limited to singing and dancing parts, and when he ventured into acting, it was the light, blithe boy-next-door sort.

Soon enough, however, he reinvented and expanded his performing persona to prove that he didn’t need to sing and dance to keep viewers interested. His recent starrer, “The Lucky One,” is his most audacious career-changing gambit thus far. He’s still playing a fairly young man, but his character has stared death in the face as a Marine in Iraq, with three tours of duty tucked under his belt.

Tragic encounter

He did go back to civilian life, but only after he almost got killed when his unit was caught in a trap set by enemy forces. Curiously, what saved his life was the photograph of a stranger, a woman who turned out to be related to a soldier who did die during that tragic encounter.

Since the photograph saved his life, Efron’s character vowed to look for the woman in it after he got back to the States. Eventually, he found out that she was the dead soldier’s sister, a divorcee with a young son and a kennel business to take care of.

The ex-Marine ended up working for her, but couldn’t quite bring himself to reveal who he really was, and the psychic bond he felt with her.

In time they fell in love, but her ex-husband, a burly cop, tried to break up their romance, but without much success. At film’s end, the ex-Marine and the cop were brought together by a heavy-handed deus exmachina plot device that made them forget their enmity and save the little boy in the story from death by drowning.

Stellar vehicle

As a film, “The Lucky One” isn’t all that exceptional—but, as a stellar vehicle for the “new and improved” Zac Efron, it’s a winning gambit, an example of how an astute career-management move can successfully propel a young talent into filmdom’s big leagues.

For one thing, Zac doesn’t sing a note in the entire film. He’s also bulked up a lot to make himself believable as a tough ex-soldier—and perhaps also to prepare himself for action-hero roles in the future?

Most strikingly of all, the actor has reined in his ebullience and charm to make himself credible as a former combatant who’s hounded by memories of death and loss.

He won’t win any acting awards for his portrayal, but at least it shows that he’s willing to “give up” some of his signature plus points, in order to move up another level in his career.

Local actors can learn a lot from Efron’s rigorous and even occasionally ruthless self-reinvention—especially those insecure and lazy performers who refuse to change and grow—until bored viewers reject them out of hand.