A tough role. Zac Efron found it “challenging” to portray the late serial killer Ted Bundy in his new Netflix movie, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile.
“Ted Bundy is a vile, vile human being. … I can’t express enough how much I loathe the man that this movie is about,” Efron, 31 told Us Weekly and other reporters at the flick’s NYC premiere on Thursday, May 2, the Tribeca Film Festival. “The fact is this really happened … the fact is that the whole world — literally all the media, everybody — was capable of believing that this guy was innocent. Talk about white privilege. … Every major topic in this movie is bent on showing you how evil this person is.”
The High School Musical alum added that he does not “quite understand” how he, a “likable actor,” ended up portraying Bundy in the biopic. “When you see the movie, if you don’t think either me or Ted Bundy is the biggest piece of s—t in the world and don’t want to be like him, then something is wrong,” Efron explained. “This was a very challenging and trepidatious role.”
Although the role was difficult for Efron, Lily Collins, who plays Bundy’s girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer Kendall, told Us that his attitude on set was “wonderful.” The Golden Globe nominee, 30, gushed, “I’m so proud of him and I think he did an amazing job. [He was] very, very collaborative.”
Shortly after the release of Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, a four-part docuseries that featured interviews with the sociopath, Netflix warned users not to glorify the convicted killer due to his appearance. The streaming service’s official Twitter account wrote in January: “I’ve seen a lot of talk about Ted Bundy’s alleged hotness and would like to gently remind everyone that there are literally THOUSANDS of hot men on the service — almost all of whom are not convicted serial murderers.”
After years of denial, Bundy eventually admitted to killing 30 women across the United States over the span of more than a decade. He was executed by electric chair in January 1989 at the age of 42.
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile was released on Netflix on Wednesday, May 3.
With reporting by Fortune Benatar
