Zac Efron has addressed rumours that he underwent plastic surgery, with the actor revealing that changes to the shape of his jaw were actually the result of an injury.
The High School Musical star, 34, first sparked plastic surgery speculation in April 2021, when he appeared in a clip promoting an Earth Day special with Bill Nye. At the time, fans were quick to notice a difference in the structure of Efron’s face, with many questioning whether his newly pronounced jaw was the result of cosmetic surgery.
In a new interview with Men’s Health, Efron addressed the viral conversation about his appearance, dubbed “jaw-gate,” where he explained that the change to his face was actually due to an accident that shattered his jaw and the physical therapy that followed the injury.
According to Efron, he shattered his jaw when he slipped while running through his house in socks. The fall, which resulted in him smashing his chin against the granite corner of a fountain, knocked him out, with the actor telling the outlet that, when he came to, his “chin bone was hanging off his face”.
As a result of the injury, Efron said the muscles inside his jaw and face had to work harder to compensate, which he explained he tries to “mediate” by working with a specialist and doing physical therapy.
However, according to the actor, when he decided to take some time off from his physical therapy, his masseter muscles, which are used for chewing, “just grew”.
“The masseters just grew,” he said. “They just got really, really big.”
As for whether Efron was aware of the internet’s speculation about his appearance, the Baywatch star told Men’s Health that he hadn’t known about “jaw-gate” until he was questioned by his mother, who had called him to ask whether he’d had plastic surgery.
According to Efron, he’d managed to avoid seeing the rumours because he avoids social media, a “survival” tactic that he noted is useful as a public figure.
“If I valued what other people thought of me to the extent that they may think I do,” he said. “I definitely wouldn’t be able to do this work.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the 34-yea-old spoke candidly about the lengths he has gone to to change his appearance, with Efron opening up about the negative impact that the training for his 2017 Baywatch physique had on his mental and physical health.
According to the actor, who acknowledged that the “Baywatch look” isn’t “really attainable,” the preparation for the role required him to take powerful diuretics to rid his body of water weight, in addition to overtraining.
“That Baywatch look, I don’t know if that’s really attainable. There’s just too little water in the skin. Like, it’s fake; it looks CGI’d,” he said. “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, two to three per cent body fat.”
Efron also revealed that, as a result of the toll on his body, he began to develop insomnia, and ultimately, depression.
“I started to develop insomnia,” he said. “And I fell into a pretty bad depression, for a long time. Something about that experience burned me out. I had a really hard time recentering. Ultimately they chalked it up to taking way too many diuretics for way too long, and it messed something up.”
According to Efron, it took six months after filming had finished before he began to feel right again.
