Zac Efron is an actor recognizable to an entire generation. Since capturing the hearts of Generation Z on Disney Channel’s film series High School Musical, he slowly began to pivot out of tween roles, like the one he portrayed in 17 Again and adopted a more mature look in his characters. Efron was born in California and had a stream of guest television roles on early-2000s hits like Firefly and ER, but his big break did not come until he was cast in High School Musical. After his stint with Disney Channel, Efron transitioned into an adaptation of a Nicholas Spark novel, which was all the rage during the early-2010s, and became a different kind of heartthrob.
Since then, Efron has appeared with some of the greatest and most well-known actors of his generation, whether it is Nicole Kidman in The Paperboyor Hugh Jackman and Zendaya in The Greatest Showman. He also shocked audiences when he appeared as Ted Bundy in Shockingly Evil, Wicked and Vile pulling off the cunning serial killer pretty well. Efron will soon star inThe Greatest Beer Run Ever with Russell Crowe and Bill Murray, per Pop Sugar, for Apple TV+ and select theaters. Until then, here are his best dramatic movies, ranked.
6 Charlie St. Cloud
Relativity Media
Charlie St. Cloud was Efron’s first mature project after 17 Again, and he is paired opposite Amanda Crew in this adaptation of a Nicholas Spark novel. Charlie St. Cloud (Efron) has just received a sailing scholarship to attend Stanford University, but his younger brother, Sam, does not want him to leave and go off to college. One night, Charlie is tasked with watching his brother, and when he tries to go to a party, he ends up driving Sam to his friend’s house. Their car gets hit and while the two brothers initially die on impact, Charlie ends up being revived and has to learn to cope with the fact he survived and his brother did not.
5 The Greatest Showman
20th Century Studios
When it came out, The Greatest Showman was a hit among casual audiences and fans alike. Several elements of The Greatest Showman are problematic, as it casts a positive lens of empowerment towards a circus that historically did not view people kindly. In Efron’s storyline, a subplot that threads through the main story, he falls in love with a Black acrobat, and his social class and race pose a barrier to their relationship. Although the songs are catchy and the movie is glamorous on the surface, the film holds too much weight when it rewrites history like this.
4 Parkland
American Film Company
Released in 2013, Parkland stars James Badge Dale as Robert Lee Oswald, Jr. and Efron as a doctor at the Parkland Hospital. The year is 1963, and President John F. Kennedy has been shot by an unknown bystander, leading to chaos as the President lays dying. Efron is a doctor at the hospital that Kennedy is brought into, while the narrative shifts around to the FBI Agents who had a visit from the shooter (Oswald) before it happened, as well as Oswald’s family. Parkland sheds light on the people involved in such a big historical event, showing how the pressure was on to save the President and the impacts on the people working around him.
3 Gold
Deeper Water Films
The Australian film Gold may not have made its way around every theater in the world, but that does not make it less worth watching. Set in the future, which holds dystopian elements, a man named Virgil (Efron) arrives at an outpost and asks for a man to drive him somewhere specific. When the two stumble upon a massive gold nugget while driving through a desert, Virgil’s driver leaves him behind without any resources, morphing this into a survival film that relies on its lead’s performances to drive it forward.
2 Shockingly Evil, Wicked and Vile
Netflix
Directed by Joe Berlinger and starring Efron and Lily Collins, Shockingly Evil, Wicked and Vile capitalizes on the public interest towards serial killers, especially popular ones. This biographical film tackles the subject of Ted Bundy and his girlfriend’s relationship. When the two meet initially, sparks fly and it seems like a picture-perfect romance. That is why she fails to notice Ted’s suspicious behavior at first, chalking it up to a mood swing or something just out of the ordinary. However, when things begin to escalate and suspicion towards Bundy increases with the general public, she realizes she needs to get out of their home and break up with him.
1 The Disaster Artist
New Line Cinema
The Disaster Artist has a particular subject beloved by many audiences together: The Room. The 2003 cult classic has legendary mythos around its creation, actors, and subject, and so another movie was completely made off the process of filming it alone. James and Dave Franco star as the leading actors in The Room, Tommy Wiseau, and Greg Sestero, and cranked the humor and screenplay up for The Disaster Artist. Efron portrays Dan Janjigian, who played Chris R in the original movie.
