2010 > “Chicago Sun-Times” Interview – 7/22

When Zac Efron hit Chicago last week to promote ”Charlie St. Cloud,” his upcoming film opening Friday at local theaters, the actor’s media handlers carefully planned a press tour they thought could avoid the popular star’s avid fans from mobbing him at every stop on the morning spin around town.

No such luck. At every media outlet, a loyal and loud coterie of Efron aficionados was spied screaming, “Zac! Zac! We love you!!!” And it wasn’t merely Efron’s ‘tween and teen groupies who followed him from place to place.

”I think I should start a ‘Cougars for Zac’ club,” said a South Suburban matron in the lobby of Fox Chicago News, who declined to give her name, ”or else my husband will have a heart attack!” she said with a laugh.

Efron took all the hoopla in stride. ”Look, it’s all so flattering. Plus everyone is so nice. I wish I had more time to talk to them all, but then I’d be here until next week!”

Well-hidden away from those fans, Efron turned serious as he discussed a key element in his new film — the title character’s relationship with his younger brother after that sibling has died.

Efron — who stars as Charlie St. Cloud — revealed that those on-screen chats and baseball pitching practices his character conducts daily with his dead little brother Sam may not necessarily be about Charlie seeing ghosts.

”One of the things I like about the movie was keeping all options viable,” Efron said. “At no point do we clearly point out the existence of ghosts or spirits — leaving open the possibility that all of this could be going on entirely in Charlie’s head.”

Efron admitted he’s ”still up in the air” about a lot of issues regarding life after death. ”I don’t have one clearly defined opinion one way or the other. … I do know one thing: The mind is a powerful place — I know that from where I’ve been in my own dreams,” Efron said with a laugh when pushed for some examples of dreams he could remember.

‘Oh, no!” Efron quipped. “We’re definitely not going there!”

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Source: Chicago Sun-Times