EDGE Rewind: Zac Efron Addresses Plastic Surgery Rumors and Pressures to Keep Fit
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Zac Efron is addressing questions about his changing appearance over the years in a new wide-ranging interview with Men's Health.
According to him, even his own mother questioned how much his appearance has changed at one point after he appeared in a clip with Bill Nye in promotion for Earth Day last year. His jaw looked noticeably swollen, leading many to assume he had work done.
But according to Efron, the swollen face was the result of shattering his jaw while waltzing around his mansion and falling. He reportedly lost consciousness and when he came to "his chin bone was hanging off his face."
After undergoing physical therapy, his jaw began to overcompensate and "the masseters just grew," Efron said. "They just got really, really big."
That's not the only time Efron began to noticeably grow. He also opened up about the unhealthy effect his bulky "Baywatch" body had on his mental health.
"That Baywatch look, I don't know if that's really attainable," he said. The look "required Lasix" and "powerful diuretics" to achieve, on top of grueling training.
"I started to develop insomnia and I fell into a pretty bad depression, for a long time," Efron shared. "Something about that experience burned me out. I had a really hard time re-centering. Ultimately they chalked it up to taking way too many diuretics for way too long, and it messed something up."
After filming the movie, he took six months to recenter himself and rethink his health priorities about what it means to be fit.
"At one point, that was a dream of mine — what it would be like to not have to be in shape all the time," he said. "What if I just say, 'F*** it' and let myself go? So I tried it, and I was successful. And for all the reasons I thought it would be incredible, I was just miserable. My body would not feel healthy; I just didn't feel alive. I felt bogged down and slow."
Turning his attention away from his looks, Efron is focusing more on his soul, including finding love, he said.
"I've really been taking time to focus on, you know, self-fulfillment and trying to find my groove," he shared. "I know that probably when I meet the right person, it's going to be when I least expect it."
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