If you remember last April, you might remember that several pictures of Zac Efron went viral on social media after fans noticed his face looked quite different.
For those who missed it, Zac garnered attention online after appearing on Bill Nye’s Earth Day special, and several netizens speculated that he had plastic surgery to alter his face.
“I refuse to believe this is Zac Efron,” one person tweeted. Another wrote: “Holy shit I can’t believe Zac Efron is a handsome Squidward.”
And a lot of fans defended That Awkward Moment star Zac’s face quickly became the subject of many memes and ongoing taunts.
A year and a half later, Zac addressed the debacle that month, explaining during an interview with Men’s Health that he had previously been injured in a serious accident that completely shattered his jaw.
Zac revealed he slipped while running around his house in his socks and said he hit his chin on a granite fountain and lost consciousness. When he woke up, the actor said his jawbone was “hanging” from his face.
The incident happened in 2013 and resulted in Zac’s mouth being wired. He also suffered a cut deep enough to require stitches, per E! News.
And as a result of the broken jaw, Zac said his other facial muscles — namely, the masseter muscles used to chew — had to “compensate,” which ultimately caused his jaw to look different.
“The masseter just grew,” he said. “They just got really, really big.”
Zac went on to reveal that he actually had no idea about the online taunts and plastic surgery rumors until his mom asked him if he’d made any cosmetic changes to his face.
Now a week later, Zac has discussed the incident in more detail, revealing that it was far more serious than some people thought.
Sitting down with Entertainment Tonight ahead of his new film The Greatest Beer Run Ever, alongside director Peter Farrelly, Zac first revealed that he “actually doesn’t give a shit” about rumors that he’s had surgery to alter his face.
“My mom told me I don’t really read the internet so I don’t give a shit,” he said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
Zac then said that after noting the “direction” the rumors were taking, he felt like “maybe it’s time” to speak up about it, though he claimed he wasn’t too bothered felt compelled to address the whole matter.
Though Zac dismissed the whole thing as “funny,” he went on to reveal that the accident almost killed him.
“It was funny,” he said, before adding, “It sucks. I almost died, but we’re good.”
And Peter jokingly chimed in, quipping that if Zac “got plastic surgery, he wouldn’t get that.”
“There’s just not enough water in the skin. Like, it’s fake; it looks CGI-d. And that required Lasix, powerful diuretics, to make that happen. So I don’t need that. I prefer a lot more, you know, 2 to 3 percent body fat,” he said.
And Zac went on to reveal that the rigorous training experience even left him with insomnia and a “pretty bad depression.”
“I started developing insomnia,” he said. “I fell into a pretty bad depression for a long time. Something about that experience burned me out. I was having a really hard time re-centering. They ended up blaming it on taking way too many diuretics for way too long and it messed things up.”
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