Zac Efron shows a different side of himself with the drama 'Charlie St. Cloud'

Zac Efron

Zac Efron became famous for doing musicals, but he is moving away from lighter entertainment by venturing into dramatic films. In "Charlie St. Cloud," Efron plays the title character, a young man who is grieving over the death of his younger brother, Sam (played by Charlie Tahan). It isn’t long before Sam starts appearing to Charlie in visions.

Charlie and Sam shared a passion for sailing and baseball. In fact, Charlie’s sailing skills earn him a scholarship to Stanford University, but Sam died before Charlie could enroll in the university. Before Sam’s death, the two brothers had made a promise to play baseball every day until Charlie went away to Stanford, and when Charlie starts seeing visions of Sam, he keeps that promise. Here is what Efron and Tahan had to say in this interview about what it was like for them to make "Charlie St Cloud."

Can you talk about the brotherly bond between Charlie and Sam St. Cloud?

Efron: They’re not your typical, everyday brothers. We’re a bit closer. We didn’t grow up with a father in the movie, so we really rely on each other for a lot more and that camaraderie. I’m trying to raise him to be a young man that’s successful and strong and everything. So we have a stronger-than-normal brother relationship.

Zac Efron and Charlie Tahan in "Charlie St. Cloud"

Charlie and Sam also bond over baseball. Do you like baseball in real life?

Tahan: No, I’m not really into sports outside of this movie.

Efron: Baseball is the way that we bond and talk and connect. It’s our ritual. That’s the way I kind of instill the rules of success for him, through something that’s a foundation, through baseball.

In your sailing scene in "Charlie St. Cloud," was as fun to film as it looked?

Tahan: It was fun, but pretty hard.

Efron: For such a short scene, it was a long time to film. The sailing scenes are very, very fun and great for the movie, but when you’re out there doing the real sailing, it’s hard because the boats are so unstable and you’re on them for so long. We wouldn’t get seasick. We’d actually get land sick. We’d come back on the land and everything would be moving. I remember buildings looked like they were shaking. It was so weird. But yeah, we did become pretty good sailors by the end of it.

Zac Efron in "Charlie St. Cloud"

Zac, what was your first reaction when you read the "Charlie St. Cloud" script?

Efron: My first reaction when I read the script was that it was very emotional. I connected to it. I have a little brother in real life, and kind of envisioning what it would be like to lose my little brother … it evoked a very strong emotional reaction from me. So I loved that. I also loved what the movie stood for — all the themes and messages about family and strength, being able to move on, keeping your loved ones alive in your heart — it all really rang true to me. It made sense.

Charlie, how was it being in this movie?

Tahan: It was really fun. It wasn’t too hard. Well, at times it was hard.

Efron: He wowed everybody when he came in initially. He was one of the first guys to audition … He really had star quality. I think the best part is that he’s just a natural.

Charlie Tahan and Zac Efron in "Charlie St. Cloud"

How did you two bond when you weren’t working?

Efron: I think we’re just real people. We like to hang out and stuff like that. He’s a cool dude. I felt very much that he was my brother the whole time. It was good to have a partner in crime on set, because everybody else was really old. We were the youngest guys on set. We liked to hang out and do fun stuff. Everybody else would just go home and go to sleep. "What do you want to do? Go to a hockey game?" "Yeah!" You know, fun stuff like that.

Zac, what were some of the other things that attracted you to the "Charlie St. Cloud" script?

Efron: The character’s journey, what happens to him, the experience of loss and not being able to rebound — those were all attractive things. After doing "High School Musical" and doing things that were so upbeat and a happy and heightened reality — "17 Again" was the same kind of heightened reality — this ["Charlie St. Cloud"] was very grounded and real and something I hadn’t done before and something new to share with the audience. Hopefully, they’ll like it and enjoy it.

Zac Efron in "Charlie St. Cloud"

Zac, can you talk about filming that underwater scene with the yacht?

Efron: Underwater scenes are really hard to film, surprisingly. You know when you watch movies, you’re just like, "Oh, it’s a movie. It’s fake." Underwater scenes? Not really. They’ve got some sort of underwater tank in their mouth. I never really grasped how real those scenes were. It’s hard to film underwater. It really is tricky. You don’t have goggles, so you can’t see anything. You don’t know where you’re swimming to. Everything’s blurry.

And then on top of that, you’re breathing compressed air, so there’s no coming up for air at the end of a take. You can’t rise to the surface and take breaths. You have to stay underwater and swim to another respirator, pick it up, and then go for another respirator and then go for another take. Sometimes I’d be underwater for 15 minutes, and that’s a lot. So it was kind of hard. Everybody else was just chilling up top. It’s so weird. They had underwater speakers, so you could hear actually under the water. I’d never seen anything like it. It’s like how dolphins communicate.

What was it like working with Amanda Crew, who plays Charlie’s love interest?

Efron: Working with Amanda was absolutely incredible. She’s so natural and so gifted and so beautiful. I remember meeting her for the first time at her audition, we were all just taken aback at how great she was and so relaxed and cool [she was]. She’s different. She has a very unique quality about her. I don’t even know how to put it into words, but it’s amazing. It really makes her character shine. She’s so gifted. I can’t wait for everyone to see her in this movie, because it’s a different type of role for her.

Zac Efron and Charlie Tahan in "Charlie St. Cloud"

Did you two play any pranks behind the scenes?

Tahan: Yeah. My sister pretended to be a Zac Efron "High School Musical" fan, and she came up [to Zac Efron] with a pen, and said, "Can you sign this paper for me?" And it turned out to be a shocker pen. When you click it, it electrocutes you. Zac, he held it for about five seconds before he really realized what happened. He was like, "Ow!"

Efron: [He laughs.] His cute little sister was like, "Can I have your autograph, Zac?" Of course I’m going to give her an autograph. It was so cute that she wanted one. I had known her for a while, so I should’ve been suspicious. But I went over and grabbed the pen, and to make the ink come out, you have to click the back. It was like 5,000 volts through your arm. I couldn’t let go of it because my hand clenched shut. And they just though that was hilarious. It was so funny, wasn’t it?

Charlie Tahan and Zac Efron in "Charlie St. Cloud"

Zac, did you get revenge for that prank?

Efron: [He says to Tahan] Yeah, I got you pretty good.

Tahan: The scene where we had to jump in the water because the bird poop was coming down on us, it was kind of scary because there was all this mud, and we were wearing full clothes under the water. And [the director] yelled "Action!" and [Zac] just stopped as I jumped in the water.

Efron: We both had to run and dive into the water, and if you didn’t jump and commit, it was a huge reset, because we had to get changed and dry off and all this stuff. I ran to the water, and he jumps in. And I don’t know what happened. I panicked and just stopped. So he jumped in and got soaked and muddy. [Efron and Tahan laugh.] And I didn’t just go in at all. That was pretty funny.

Photo credits: Photo #1: Getty Images. All other photos: Universal Pictures.