A shattered jaw and agoraphobia: 5 things we learned from Zac Efron's latest profile.

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After a few years being relatively quiet, Zac Efron is making headlines in 2022.

Earlier this week, Men's Health published a profile with the 34-year-old where he discusses everything from his upcoming movie, The Greatest Beer Run Ever, to why his face looks dramatically different.

Here are five things we learned.

1. He plans to return to Byron Bay.

Remember that time Zac Efron was living in Byron Bay? Yep, you remember - at the height of the pandemic when we were all stuck at home, the Baywatch actor was based in the NSW coastal town.

He filmed a movie (Stan's Gold), slept in hammocks, and dated a civilian. What a time.

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A post shared by Zac Efron (@zacefron)

And from the sounds of things, Efron plans on heading back. 

At the beginning of the article, profiler Lauren Larson says Efron prefers Los Angeles in "small doses". And he eventually plans to relocate to Byron Bay, where he reportedly owns land.

But for the time being, you can find the actor on the road, exploring.

"I’m in a van trying to travel and see as much of the world as I can," he said. "Or just hiking in the woods and camping."

2. There's a reason we see less of him these days.

As Larson notes, following the High School Musical movies, Zac Efron was everywhere, and in everything - Baywatch, Neighbours, The Greatest Showman, That Awkward Moment, etc, etc.

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Although the 34-year-old continues to work, there's a reason he's mostly absent on social media and in public.

In the profile, Larson writes that she interviewed Efron from the back room of an LA steakhouse. The actor tells her it's his first meal out in a long time, before explaining why that is.

"I just don’t go out. People in large groups, it triggers my agoraphobia," he said.

According to Health Direct, agoraphobia is a type of anxiety disorder "where a person fears having a panic attack in certain places". 

Those places include public transport, crowds, queues, or situations from which escape is difficult. The condition can restrict a person’s ability to go to work or socialise with friends and family.

3. He went vegan.

If you've watched his doco-series, Down to Earth, or stalked his Instagram, you'll know Efron is passionate about the environment. So much so, he went vegan for two years.

During the interview, he explains that despite wanting to stay that way, his energy levels were low and his body wasn't processing the vegetables in the right way when following the plant-based diet.

These days, he eats mostly protein and drinks apple cider vinegar before meals.

"Morally, of course, I still wish I was vegan," he said. 

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4. Training for Baywatch made him physically and mentally ill.

Before everyone was talking about Efron's face, they were talking about his body - specifically, his Baywatch body.

In 2017, the actor starred in the action comedy film, Baywatch, based on the popular 90s TV series of the same name. He played Matt Brody, a former Olympian turned lifeguard. 

Being mostly shirtless during the 120-minute film, the role required intense training and a very restrictive diet.

The 34-year-old over-trained, ate the same three meals a day, and was running on limited sleep.

Zac Efron in Baywatch. Image: Paramount Pictures. 

He never wants to do that again.

"That Baywatch look, I don’t know if that’s really attainable. There’s just too little water in the skin. Like, it’s fake. It looks CGI'd," he told Larson. 

"And that required Lasix, powerful diuretics, to achieve. So I don’t need to do that. I much prefer to have an extra, you know, two to three per cent body fat."

The process sent the actor into depression.

"I started to develop insomnia, and I fell into a pretty bad depression for a long time. Something about that experience burned me out," he said in the interview.

"I had a really hard time re-centreing. Ultimately, they chalked it up to taking way too many diuretics for way too long, and it messed something up."

It took Efron six months to recover.

5. What happened to his face.

Finally, he addresses what everyone's been wondering: what happened to Zac Efron's face?

In case you haven't seen the online commentary, it all started in April 2021, when the actor appeared in a clip promoting an Earth Day special with Bill Nye.

His face looked different, and there was widespread speculation that he'd had plastic surgery. 

Zac Efron in the Earth Day special. Image: Facebook Watch. 

According to the actor, it looks that way because of an injury.

"About four years ago, in the span of a year and a half, [Efron] tore his ACL, dislocated his shoulder, broke his wrist, and threw out his back. He also shattered his jaw," Larson writes.

The 34-year-old said he was running through his house wearing socks when he slipped, smacking his chin against a granite corner. He lost consciousness, and when he woke up, his chin bone was hanging off his face.

Efron explained to Larson that his masseter muscles "compensated". And although he worked with a specialist and did physical therapy to fix them, he stopped that when in Australia.

"The masseters just grew," he said. "They just got really, really big."

He also said that since he mostly avoids social media, he didn't know about the commentary until his mum called asking if he'd had some work done.

"If I valued what other people thought of me to the extent that they may think I do, I definitely wouldn’t be able to do this work," he said. 

You can read the full profile here.

Feature Image: Men's Health/Mamamia.

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