According to the internet, Zac Efron’s mom is a woman named Starla Baskett. According to Zac Efron’s Instagram, Starla Baskett gave him a box of penis-shaped pasta for Christmas. “You know your mom’s on point,” wrote Zac Efron, pun unintended, I hope, but who’s to say with this family, “when she puts this in your stocking.”
Who is Starla Baskett? Clearly, she’s a wonderfully self-aware woman with a dark, twisted sense of humor, a woman who understands that her son himself is something of a box of penis pasta — an overly sexualized product packaged and sold to the masses that is delicious when boiled and topped with marinara. But who is Starla Baskett, really? Who is this woman who birthed a Zac Efron, then 28 years later gave him this most trenchant and lightly disturbing Christmas gift? Where did she come from? Where is she going? And, most importantly, by understanding Starla Baskett, might we better understand Zac himself?
Here’s everything we were able to find out about Starla Baskett, courtesy of Zac Efron himself, who occasionally mentions her in interviews and brings her to raunchy Broadway shows:
- She is a former secretary who worked at the same power plant as Efron’s father. “His mother, Starla Baskett, is a former secretary who worked at the same power plant as Efron’s father.” – The Jewish Journal
- She drives a minivan, drops off her children in the middle of North Hollywood and lets them go to intensive Disney auditions alone. “My mom dropped me off out of a minivan somewhere in North Hollywood. I had no idea what to expect,” [Efron] remembers. “There were about 40 guys. And we walked in, and [director] Kenny Ortega was there with a piano, and they put everybody in a room together, and we ran through different phases of what we would need to do — first dancing, then singing — and a few of us got tapped on the shoulder [to leave], and I didn’t.” – The Hollywood Reporter
- Sometimes, she takes people places without telling them where they are going. “Dad David Efron, an engineer at a local power plant, and mum Starla Baskett, a former secretary, were convinced their son had what it took to be famous. They would even drive him to auditions without telling him where they were going.” – The Mirror
- She has been known to both sexually shame and then purchase economy boxes of condoms for Zac. “My mom is like, ‘Zac, what did you buy in a sex shop?’ I was like, ‘Mom, calm down, it’s not a sex shop.’ She wouldn’t have any of it. She’s like ‘I knew you were being sexual!’ But she understood. My stocking was full of condoms this Christmas. She buys me the economy box.” – Elle
- She watches Zac’s love scenes; there’s really no way around it. “We saw the film together and I was kind of squirming,” said Zac. “Even though she was a couple of seats down from me, I tried to duck out during those scenes because it was too embarrassing. Obviously I’m acting, but knowing that my mom and my family were watching is kind of awkward. There’s really no way around it.” – People
- Then she laughs out loud at those sex scenes. “When on-screen festivities began, she cried out, ‘Oh god, that’s my son.’ Cue hysterical laughter throughout the theater.” – Famously.com
- She loves cheeky puppets who sing about porn. “On Valentine’s weekend, Zac Efron brought his mom, Starla, to Broadway’s Avenue Q.” – Broadway.com
- She is Zac’s biggest supporter. “My mom is my biggest supporter.” – Just Jared, Jr.
- She wears sunglasses at night. Here’s a picture of that.
There we have it. Starla Baskett is a sunglass-wearing, mini-van-driving former secretary who supports her son by buying him condoms, dropping him off at auditions without his knowledge, and purchasing him pastas in the shapes of his genitalia. We could all learn something from Starla Baskett.
