Affable handsome entertainer Zac Efron shared two compelling stories on the New Year’s Eve edition of The Graham Norton Show. One involved a phone call from his hero that brought the Neighbors actor to tears. The other.. Well, the other involved Hugh Jackman nearly killing him. Thankfully, the two stories aren’t about the same thing.
Chatting with Norton on the BBC One program, Efron spoke about a very special phone call he received from his idol Michael Jackson. He recalled how High School Musical director Kenny Ortega handed the phone off to him during a call with Jackson. Naturally, Efron gushed about how MJ was his hero and other standard things you do when you speak with a personal god. Jackson wrapped up the call, but wound up placing another one to Efron after putting it together what Efron’s (then) claim to fame was.
“I picked up the phone and I go, ‘Hello?’ and he goes, ‘Oh this is Zac from High School Musical, and I was like, ‘Uh, yeah.’ And he was like, ‘Oh I love what you do. I’m a huge fan,'” shared Efron.
Efron explained to Jackson what an inspiration he was and the tears began flowing for both parties.
“That made him cry,” revealed the actor. “We’re both crying to each other on the phone and he ended the whole phone call conversation along the lines of, ‘Hey Zac. Isn’t it awesome? Dreams really do come true, don’t they.'”
Elsewhere in Zac’s interactions with famous song-n-dance men, Efron relayed the story of going cycling with his Greatest Showman co-star Hugh Jackman. One regular ol’ bit of cycling had Efron fearing for his safety. (In a fun talk show way, of course.)
“I cycled with him in London but I’m not one to ride a bike early in the morning in traffic so it turned out to be quite dangerous,” shared Efron in the still-to-be-aired episode (h/t Digital Spy). “I followed Hugh around a few cars and suddenly there was a double decker bus right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes, went under the front tire and narrowly missed death. Hugh was on the other side of the road and stuck up his thumb and just said, ‘You good? Let’s go.'”
There’s no clip for that particular portion of Norton out just yet seeing as its taped, but hasn’t aired. Jackman’s big showbiz-y close of the episode has bubbled up, though. It’s Jackman going into P.T. Barnum mode and there’s even a bit of canework. There isn’t enough canework on TV these days, y’know.
