Zac Efron made a candid and chilling confession on the red carpet of the London premiere of his Ted Bundy film, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile: He had trouble completely letting go of the serial killer when he stopped working for the day during shooting. According to Daily Mail, he told red carpet reporters, "I’ve never played a role in which I really have to separate myself from when I go home at night and it was almost impossible. I’d like to say that I did it successfully but I couldn’t."
Efron admitted that playing Bundy, a man who murdered over 30 women, wasn't the role he ever imagined himself taking. "I really wasn’t interested in playing a serial killer, I’m not in the business of glamorizing a horrendous person or his acts, but there is something unique about the way we went into the psyche of Ted, and his longtime girlfriend Liz [played by Lily Collins]," Efron said. "It’s a different perspective and not your run-of-the-mill serial killer cliché, body count gets higher and higher and oh the guy you always knew did it, did it. This is what it was like to be there on the day, we didn’t know if he was innocent or guilty, we just saw Ted Bundy through their eyes."
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile comes out on Netflix on May 3. You can watch the trailer below and get a glimpse yourself of what Efron is like in the role:
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
