Zac Efron is proving that once a wildcat, always a wildcat.
While being honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Efron, 36, gave thanks to High School Musical director Kenny Ortega and producer Bill Borden, who were in the audience.
“You guys were both instrumental in giving me my start in High School Musical,” Efron said on Monday, December 11. “For that, I’m just eternally grateful. I still think about it every day — I sing the songs in the shower.”
Efron, who starred alongside Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale in Disney Channel’s High School Musical trilogy, took it back to his Troy Bolton days when he yelled out the movie’s iconic phrase: “Go Wildcats!”
At the ceremony, Efron gushed that “it’s a dream come true” to have a star on Hollywood Boulevard.
“You have no idea how I’m feeling right now,” Efron confessed. “It’s so surreal. I’ve been acting and singing and dancing for as long as I can remember, since I was a little boy, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I’d be standing here today in front of such dear friends, colleagues throughout the years and lifelong fans who have been with me since day one. I love you guys so much.”
Aside from his High School Musical family, Efron also gave a special shoutout to his parents.
“Thank you so much, Mom. Thank you, Dad,” he said. “There’s been a lot of sacrifices that you guys have made for me over my life, and it couldn’t have been easy, but thanks for believing in me. You’re the reason I’m here today. So, it’s very, very special. To have you guys both here means everything in the world to me, thank you.”
Elsewhere in the speech, Efron paid tribute to the late Matthew Perry, whom he costarred with in the 2009 film 17 Again. (Perry died at the age of 54 in October after being found unresponsive in a hot tub. A cause of death has not been confirmed.)
“Collaborating with him and [director] Burr Steers — it was so much fun and it really did propel me and motivate me in so many ways,” Efron noted. “It really pushed me into the next chapter of my career, and for that, thank you so much, Matthew. Thinking about you a lot today.”
After the actor’s shocking death, a friend revealed that Perry wanted Efron to play a younger version of him in a possible biopic.
“To think he was thinking of me for that role, I mean I would be honored to do it, to be honest,” Efron said in November.
