Zac Efron Rides Again

He has been a child star, a fitness pinup, a leading man, an onscreen himbo, and an environmental activist. But Zac efron hasn't always been healthy. Now he's reinventing himself again. And he wants to do it right

- By Lauren Larson

WELL, THERE THEY ARE. After Zac Efron removes his jacket and drapes it over the chair beside him, my eyes immediately zoop to his biceps peeking out from beneath his T-shirt. I spot a vein so protuberant that it looks like it's about to exit his skin.

I had seen Efron's biceps earlier, while on set for his photo shoot. When I got to the ranch in the hills north of Malibu, he was zooming about on an ATV, doing wild circles around the photographer and creating a cloud of dust. The sharp lines of his arms were apparent even through a dust tornado and even from a safe distance away.

When he arrives at the steakhouse in Thousand Oaks, where the staff has squirreled us away in a back room behind the kitchen, Efron positions himself as though to background the biceps-leaning forward, with his hands loosely intertwined on the table and I feel louche for peeking.

I feel even loucher for writing about them, but the thing is, Efron's arms have become part of his whole deal, appendages to his identity as well as to his torso-to say nothing of the torso itself. In 2017's Baywatch, his onscreen abs looked almost painted on. That film was a fit-guy debutant waltz for Efron. People started looking very closely at his body after that.