Even Zac Efron's Mom Called Him About Those Plastic Surgery Rumors

Zac Efron recalled having first learned about online rumors he had plastic surgery from his mom in a new interview with Men’s Health.

By Daisy Maldonado Sep 07, 2022 8:32 PMTags
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Zac Efron has revealed what led to those plastic surgery rumors. 

Last year, the Baywatch actor sparked speculation online after he appeared in an Earth Day special with Bill Nye with his jaw appearing more swollen than normal. The apparent facial change caused many to believe that he had received plastic surgery, but in a new interview, Zac shut down the chatter once and for all. 

Speaking to Men's Health for its October 2022 issue, the actor pointed to an incident when he shattered his jaw after slipping in his house and hitting his chin on a granite fountain. He recalled waking up to find his chin bone hanging off his face at the time of his accident. 

The High School Musical alum has since been working with a specialist and does physical therapy to correct this. 

But after taking some time off from doing the exercises he explained, "The masseters [muscles] just grew. They just got really, really big." 

The actor admitted that he was unaware of the internet's rampant speculation as to whether he'd gone under the knife until his mother called to ask him about the rumors 

But Zac attributed his lack of social media knowledge to the fact that he generally avoids it altogether in order to protect his mental health.

"If I valued what other people thought of me to the extent that they may think I do," Zac said, "I definitely wouldn't be able to do this work."

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And Zac's physique isn't the only thing that changed over the last few years.

Elsewhere in the interview, Zac recalled falling into a "bad depression" after preparing for the 2017 movie Baywatch, which he starred in alongside Dwayne Johnson.

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"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."

Zac added, "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. 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, 2 to 3 percent body fat."