This Friday, 8th October, Zac Efron’s brand new heartbreaker The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud hits cinemas nationwide.

Based on Ben Sherwood’s acclaimed novel, Charlie St. Cloud is the story of a young man trapped in a self-imposed limbo.  In order to honour a heartfelt promise Charlie has sacrificed a promising future sailing the wide world in favour of a lonely small town life haunted by the ghosts of his past.

HeyUGuys were intrigued to know what had lured the all-singing, all-dancing, Efron to take on such a role (and indeed what had inspired Igby Goes Down writer/director Burr Steers to helm the project) and we took the opportunity to ask.

The mainstream teen themes of Charlie St. Cloud appear an unusual choice for the man who made Igby into such a cult figure but in more recent years Steers has co-written rom-com How to Lose a Guys in 10 Days and teamed up with Zac for box-office smash 17 Again.  In fact Zac used the might of his star power to request that Burr be attached to Charlie St. Cloud. Disney’s young prodigy has come a long way indeed from motivational speeches and jazz hands!

On the day of the press conference Mr Efron was sporting a fledgling beard, starch-smart chinos and shiny new, western style, boots.  He explained the facial hair away as an exercise in curiosity.  His answers, though considered, were careful and he seemed unaccountably young for his twenty-two years.  Glimmers of personality emerged when a ringing phone interrupted proceedings and when more intrusive questions were asked but aside from flashes of cheek or irritation he was as wholesome as Walt himself could wish.

You may listen to the audio below and read our review of The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud here. More importantly you can fall for Charlie yourselves when the film opens here on Friday.

Here’s the audio,

[audio:https://www.heyuguys.com/audio/charlie_st_cloud/Charlie_st.cloud_press_conf.mp3]