Zac Efron famously got into the most shredded shape of his life for the 2017 comedy remake Baywatch, in which he played a lean, ripped Olympic athlete-turned-super-lifeguard. Efron has since gone on the record about just how physically and emotionally grueling the process of preparing his body for that movie was, acknowledging the unrealistic standard it sets.
“That Baywatch look, I don’t know if that’s really attainable,” he told Men’s Health in 2022. “There’s just too little water in the skin. Like, it’s fake; it looks CGI’d. 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, 2 to 3 percent body fat.”
“I started to develop insomnia, and I fell into a pretty bad depression, for a long time,” he added. “Something about that experience burned me out. I had a really hard time re-centering.”
While he has stated on more than one occasion that he does not wish to ever get that lean again, Efron has once again undergone a dramatic physical transformation for his next movie The Iron Claw. He plays professional wrestler Kevin Von Erich, a.k.a. the “Golden Warrior,” a member of the real-life Von Erich wrestling dynasty, and has trained to build a fighter’s body for the upcoming A24 film.
With filming on The Iron Claw now wrapped, Efron is now unwinding on vacation in St. Tropez, where he has been showing off his ripped six-pack, defined chest and jacked biceps while chilling on a yacht and water-skiing in photos acquired by Page Six.
He might be cognizant of the dangers of getting Baywatch levels of shredded again, but for Efron, staying in shape is not just a prerequisite of his job—after purposely easing way back on his nutrition and fitness regiment, he has learned that it is a must-have for his own mental wellbeing.
“What if I just say, ‘Fuck it’ and let myself go?” he said in his 2022 cover story. “So I tried it, and I was successful. And for all the reasons I thought it would be incredible, I was just miserable. My body would not feel healthy; I just didn’t feel alive. I felt bogged down and slow… I enjoy pushing myself and really laying it all out, to the point where I kind of have to do it. Otherwise I don’t feel like myself.”
Philip Ellis is a freelance writer and journalist from the United Kingdom covering pop culture, relationships and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV.