Gregg DeGuire/Getty ImagesWelcome to the height of Zac Efron's brohood.
Deep down, we always knew we'd be here one day. That's because, while Zac Efron is a lot of things—actor, dancer, singer, beautiful hair-grower, professional smirker, beholder of beautiful, piercing eyes—he's really just a bro. But he's a lovable bro. A bro with a mission. A bro with a message. A bro we can get behind. He's the people's bro.
Zac Efron is a bro for America.
But it wasn't always that way. Once upon a time, in a tiny village known as San Luis Obispo, Calif., Zac Efron was just an adorable little theater nerd. He volunteered for local theater companies and appeared in performances like Little Shop of Horrors and Peter Pan. He had a bowl cut and hardly ever wore beanies.
So how did he come to be the bro that the world knows and loves today? The bro who stars in movies like today's release, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, that does things like Instagram pictures of himself and costar Adam Devine on private jets and "accidentally" get caught shirtless on Jimmy Kimmel? It was all a result of a serendipitous series of events; after all, it takes a village to make a boy a bro.
It all started with High School Musical. It's been a slow burn since then—coming to a head as of late, of course—but that project really cemented it all for Zac. He played the star of the basketball team in his breakout role, which truly is the ultimate bro move. There's no one more bro-y than a guy who wears sleeveless tees by choice, or who allows himself to be seen carrying a basketball through the hallways of a school. This was the birth of his bro-ness, where he learned to do things like winking and flashing his biceps.
Efron's true identity then lay dormant for years, hiding out while Zac entertained more nontraditional personas like The Guy Who Plays a Soldier in The Lucky One and The Guy Who's Somehow Still Dating Vanessa Hudgens. It began to surface with his casting in Neighbors. Spending an entire summer with Seth Rogen and Dave Franco will do that to you, but so will playing a member of a fraternity whose biggest life accomplishment involves hosting a weed-themed party. That movie may as well have been called Neighbros, amirite?
During this time, Efron befriended one Miles Teller. They starred in That Awkward Moment together, and commenced on a press tour that required them to wear matching plaid shirts and tie one on, if you will, in all sorts of cities around the country. Miles Teller is lowkey the biggest bro in Hollywood, what with his posting of shirtless selfies and his comparing himself to the girth of a highball glass and his drunken dancing at music festivals. A few press tours with Miles, and the next thing you know Zac Efron is a regular in the front row of Laker's games. (The ultimate bro power move.)
From there, the bro-ness just starts spilling out of Zac. The public could barely keep up! We were so flummoxed by all the bro qualities that we barely had time to be completely enamored with him.
(That is, of course, an exaggeration; We always have time to be enamored with Zac Efron.)
He founded his own skateboard company. He starred in the industry's first (we think) movie dedicated to Electronic Dance Music. He befriended the biggest DJ stars of the EDM world and started gallivanting around northern Europe with them. He got a DJ coach. He learned to DJ. He called his DJ coach "Sensei." He cried when he performed his DJ routine for the filming of said EDM-dedicated movie.
He embraced Instagram. He embraced Instagram really really hard.
For bros, Instagram is a safe space; a place where they can feel free to post all the bro-y sides of their complex personalities. A place where they can brag shamelessly about how much hard work they're putting in and use hashtags like #TeamNoSleep. A place where they can post pictures in front of their private jets. A place where they can use captions like "Rollin' with the homies." A place where they can post selfie after selfie after selfie after selfie and receive zero backlash. Because Instagram is a bro-judgment free zone.
Then Zac started spending a lot of time in Hawaii. It was mostly due to filming today's release, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, but it presumably allowed the actor to start meeting all sorts of like-minded bros, bros who encouraged him to explore this previously unleashed part of his personality. Bros who wore Vans to every occasion, no matter the dress code. Bros who blow dry their hair. Bros who own board shorts in every color. And more importantly, bros who throw up the Shaka sign.
Ah, the Shaka sign. Once we saw Zac begin to use this hand gesture, the universal symbol for "I drink beer," we knew there was no turning back. The Shaka becomes you, and you become the Shaka. Welcome, Zac.
Which brings us to the Zac Efron we know and love today. He lifts, bro. He lifts a lot. We can thank his role in Baywatch for that, we can thank Dwayne Johnson for that, but mostly it doesn't matter why. All that matters is that we have the beautiful gifts that are his pecs.
The Zac Efron of today also has frosted tips. The Zac Efron of today bleached his hair, in the ultimate bro christening ceremony. There have been comparisons to his brother in bro-ness, Justin Bieber, but those comments devalue the ways in which the public adores this current Zac persona.
We don't know how long we'll get to keep this bro, but we know that we're lucky to have him every day. We know all the hard work it took to get to this point of bro-ness. What a long, strange, fascinating, fabulous trip it's been.