Smooth sailing: Zac Efron leaves teen image behind in 'Charlie St. Cloud'

AFTER MAKING a name for himself in the "High School Musical" trilogy and "Hairspray," Zac Efron has been branching out with a starring role in "17 Again" and dramatic turns in "Me and Orson Welles" and his new film, "Charlie St. Cloud."

It's another step in his evolution from tween star to movie star. And just to help his young fans along in this transition, Efron has a pretty cool shirtless underwater scene.

The 22-year-old sat down with the Daily News July 12 at the Ritz-Carlton to discuss his sailing memories, view on second chances and playing the big brother on screen.

Q: How did you get involved with the movie?

A.It was a script I was supposed to read but it got buried in a pile of scripts. One day I went sailing with my dad and I found it, and the only thing on it was "The death and life of Charlie St. Cloud." It didn't say anything about sailing or anything like that. But I was on a sailboat when I opened it...and the wind kind of picked up in the sails and I was like, "If there's ever been a sign, can you be more obvious?"

Q: Do you have any experience with sailing?

A.Nah. For about three weeks before the movie, I got a lot of practice. It started to get really fun. I looked forward to it every day. We were out on the water for anywhere from two hours to five or six. Everyone sails in the movie. And that scene we did out in the water, that's all us.

Q: We're you scared out there?

A.It's scary sometimes. Some of the turning is really precise and you have to feel where the wind's coming from because it can change. You have to feel it on your face. Looking into the wind, you can feel the wind hit you in the right place of your face and that's the only way you have to judge. So you have to rely a lot on your gut. It's really hard. And you have to be confident.

Q: Charlie has a lot of confidence in the beginning of the movie. Did you take away any of that?

A.Emotionally a lot I think I took away. And now I appreciate my time with my brother a lot. I just went home, he graduated, so I took him to Hawaii just the two of us. For five days. It was fun.

Q: It's funny because you seem to graduate a lot in movies.

A.I'm always graduating. It's perpetual.

Q: Was it easy for you to play the older brother in the movie then?

A.It was some kind of connection. I wouldn't say that it made it easier. It made it more real in a lot of ways. Some of it was second nature, like, you really didn't have to think, and I knew exactly what I would do in the scenario, which is a lot to be able to bring into a role. Sometimes, people who haven't had siblings would be like, "No, no that's being mean." And we'd be like, "No, that's what you do to your little brother." It is love. It just manifests itself differently.

Q: Do you feel like this movie is another opportunity to move away from "High School Musical"?

A.There's always a little bit of that feeling. But that's not what's driving the decisions for me to do films, at all. As excited as I am for the possibility of some people to feel that way, its not like that was the goal. If I wanted to make a movie just to appear like I'm changing my image, it wouldn't have been a movie like this.

Q: How do you judge your performance on screen?

A.The first time you see yourself in a movie is the worst, always the worst. It's not superficial. It's more like when I see myself acting. Deep inside it's like an embarrassment only you can feel. It all dissipates over time.

Q: Was there anything new that you learned in this movie as an actor?

A.There was a lot of underwater filming that took place. You see underwater filming and you're like, "Oh, it's a movie, it's fake," but the actors were really underwater for that scene. My mind was blown. They would plant little canisters of air 20 feet below with a little mask attached to it. I'd get to the respirator under water on free air, then breathe into it and take five deep breaths and then I'd hear "action" and I would do the scene.

And at the end I couldn't come up for air because I was 20 feet under water. So I would swim to another little canister. I would stay under for 15 to 20 minutes. And then I'd come up for 10 minutes and take a breath and then go back down. Sometimes 20 minutes would go by. It was pretty insane. I'm really good at holding my breath now. I can do 1:20 easy.

Q: Aside from holding your breath, what else did you accomplish?

A.My goal and intention is always just to commit, to relax and not worry about the way it's going to be perceived, but just kind of go with your gut. Giving it everything you have is always my goal. It's just the same as its always been—have fun and do it. Just do it. *