Zac Efron: I was drastically under-prepared to play a dad

11 May 2022

Zac Efron "didn’t know what he was doing" when he portrayed a dad on screen for the first time.

Zac Efron 'didn’t know what he was doing' when he portrayed a dad on screen for the first time

The 34-year-old actor will be taking on the role of Andy McGee - a father with psychic abilities – in upcoming horror remake ‘Firestarter’, and the ‘High School Musical’ star admitted he was "drastically under-prepared" when filming a father-daughter scene.

In the latest episode of ‘The Ellen DeGeneres show’, he told the host: “I didn’t think about it all that much.

“And then when we started filming the movie, I had a two-week quarantine … and when I got out of quarantine, we started filming that Monday, so it was a pretty quick intro to the film, and all of a sudden I had this daughter in front of me.

“We had a pretty heavy dad-daughter scene right off the bat, and I realised I was drastically under-prepared for this part. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

After shooting the movie, the ‘17 Again’ star admitted he will not be looking to have kids anytime soon.

He added: "I think that was a healthy dose to put me off for as long as necessary. I have a little bit more growing to do, probably."

The 2022 sci-fi thriller has been adapted from the 1984 film based on Stephen King’s 1980 novel of the same name, and originally starred David Keith as Andy and Drew Barrymore as Andy’s daughter Charlie McGee.

The movie, which follows the story of a young girl who tries to understand how she mysteriously gained the ability to set things alight with her mind, will be released on May 13th.